College football -- Spring in their step

ELLENSBURG -- The whole point of spring football games is to not pay too much attention to them.

To the points, that is.

What counts is whether experienced players perform to expectations, whether newcomers show promise and whether anyone gets hurt.

So barring a catastrophic injury -- the knee injury to University of Washington quarterback Mark Brunell in the Huskies' 1991 spring game comes to mind -- or unless the team executes a collective face plant, there are typically smiles all around no matter what the scoreboard says.

Which, in Saturday's case at Tomlinson Stadium, was White 43, Crimson 19.

"Yeah," said Central Washington quarterback Mike Reilly, minutes after leading the victory and, more importantly, sporting no visible ice packs or bandages. "It was a little frustrating at first because we'd lost so many receivers -- (Johnny) Spevak and the other guys. But once we got it rolling, some of our newer guys did pretty well and we had a pretty good day."

And, by most accounts, a pretty good spring in which the paramount goals were to absorb new coach Blaine Bennett's system without losing key personnel to health problems.

It's true that Spevak watched from the press box with his broken right hand in a cast, but last year's top receiver said he'll convert to a soft cast soon and expects no repercussions when the Wildcats convene regular workouts on Aug. 7.

And others, including tight end Jared Bronson (ankle) and starting wideout Chris Rohrbach (hand), were held out, too, as was standout defensive tackle Mitch Reffett. Bennett said Reffett has mononucleosis, but expects the senior from Moses Lake to be ready for the coming season.

While Reilly seemed unaffected by the absence of his typical targets, hitting 15 of 23 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns -- and completing 10 straight in one stretch -- the running back duel appears to remain unsettled.

Micah Lape, a 6-foot-1, 206-pound sophomore, got most of the first-team carries (12 for 28 yards) along with Anthony Stewart, a 5-8, 180-pound redshirt freshman (13 for 70), with 230-pound redshirt sophomore Justin Leonard (nine for 33) also in the mix.

Asked if multiple backs might be regularly deployed to take advantage of
contrasting styles, Bennett said, "I'm a pretty big one-back guy, so it would have to be a special situation for that to happen."

Among those standing out for new assistant head coach-defensive coordinator Joe Lorig were senior cornerback Brandon Kennedy, junior linebacker Buddy Wood and senior linebacker Justin Gran with six tackles each.

Plus, former West Valley lineman Taylor Tanasse had five stops and another ex-Ram, linebacker Zeke Fife, recorded one of four sacks on the day. Granger's Mario Mengarelli had two tackles from his safety position as did West Valley linebacker Matt Bunday.

East Valley's Matt Snell, a redshirt junior receiver, had a 12-yard catch. Most prolific among the receivers were Austin Burton, with five catches for 54 yards, and converted quarterback Nick Kosloski and Justin Helwege had four each for 43 and 31 yards, respectively. All are redshirt freshmen.

"We had some guys have good days today, and they needed to," said receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield. "Because we've got some pretty good recruits coming in, and by the time they get here some of these kids might be on the bubble as far as making the squad."

WHITE 42, CRIMSON 19

Formula -- offense (white): 6 points for touchdown, 1 point for first down, 1 point for touchdown conversion, 3 points for field goal; defense (crimson): 3 points for three-and-out, 4 points for takeaway, 6 points for touchdown, 4 points for fourth-down stop.

Touchdowns

James Murphy 11 pass from Mike Reilly (Garrett Rolsma kick)

Anthony Stewart 2 run (Rolsma kick)

Justin Helwege 9 pass from Reilly (Rolsma kick)

Individual statistics

Rushing: Stewart 13-70, Cody Kramer 3-36, Justin Leonard 9-33, Micah Lape 12-28, Kyle Miller 1-6, Nick Williams 1-(minus 5), Reilly 1-(minus 23).

Passing: Reilly 15-23-0-163; Williams 4-9-0-39; Miller 7-8-0-55.

Receiving: Austin Burton 5-54, Nick Kosloski 4-43, Helwege 4-31, Jamal Weems 3-29, Murphy 2-42, Tyson Gravitt-Rickerson 2-18, David Talley 2-16, Matt Snell 1-12, Stewart 1-6, Jesse Galligan 1-5, Reggie Wilson 1-1.

Field goals: Rolsma 32, 36, (missed 32); Sean Davis 33, 39, 44; Feliciano Ramirez 42, 47 (missed 37).

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