CLARKSVILLE—Friday certainly offered an autumnal feel, as Austin Peay State University football team suited up on a chilly night for its second spring scrimmage.
After Mickey Macius put together the top quarterback performance in the first scrimmage, it was Timarious Mitchell who was the top signal-caller this week. The junior hit on 9 of his 11 attempts for 76 yards, and scored the game's first touchdown on the game's second drive, capping a 10-play, 60-yard journey down the field with his one-yard plunge.
Another quarterback scored the game's second touchdown, with Darrien Boone scoring on a three-yard scramble at the end of a nine-play, 65-yard drive. Although the ground game accounted for two of Austin Peay's three scores, the Governors found fewer running lanes in the second scrimmage, rushing 47 times for 200 yards (4.3 yards per carry)—a full yard shy of the average from last week's scrimmage.
Kendall Morris (five carries, 59 yards), Julian Franklin (10 carries, 47 yards) and Mitchell (nine carries, 44 yards) paced the ground game, with 49 of Morris' yards coming on one carry that led to field goal.
"I thought in general it was a much more physical scrimmage," said head coach Will Healy. "Offensively, I'm proud we didn't turn it over and were able to go through a lot of game-like situations."
The final touchdown was brought to the fans who braved the chill by Mitchell, who led a short drive that culminated in an eight-yard strike to Rashaan Coleman that just barely broke the plane of the goal line. Coleman was a favored target in the passing game, catching seven passes for 49 yards.
Logan Birchfield also got in on the action, hitting field goals from 33, 41 and 42 yards.
Defensively, the Governors were unable to force any takeaways but can point to holding the offense to 115 fewer total yards as signs of progress from a week ago. Gunnar Scholato led the defense with eight total tackles, while Shaun Whittinghill, Jule Pace and Steven Pappadakes each managed to get in the backfield for a stop behind the line.
"We played with a ton of energy defensively," Healy said. "We got big stops on third-and-short and fourth-and-short. We played with a lot of emotion and ran to the ball well."
The Govs will be on the practice field again next week, with the Spring Game looming 4 p.m., April 23 as part of the APSU athletic department's second Spring Fling.
