April 22, 2005
LAS VEGAS - Tailback Erick Jackson ran nine times for 45 yards, including a short but spiffy touchdown rush, to lead his Scarlet team to a 14-12 win over the Gray squad at the first true spring game staged by UNLV football in nearly 15 years.
With a crowd of nearly 2,000 fans enjoying the perfect April weather at Sam Boyd Stadium on Friday night, new head coach Mike Sanford saw defensive coordinator Vic Shealy's Scarlet team pull ahead 14-0 in the second quarter of a low-scoring affair. Before Jackson's jaunt, Donell Wheaton's short touchdown reception from Jarrod Jackson was the evening's first score.
Team Gray, coached by offensive coordinator Noah Brindise, got back into it behind the passing of veteran quarterback Shane Steichen, who completed 15 of 22 attempts for 192 yards, and the foot of honors candidate place-kicker Sergio Aguayo, who was true on both of his field-goal attempts to make the score 14-6 at the end of the third period.
Later, with under a minute to play, Steichen led his team down field and found Casey Flair in the end zone for a pretty 19-yard touchdown to pull to within two. However, the two-point conversion attempt sailed incomplete to end it.
Team Scarlet registered six quarterback sacks, including two by linebacker Matt Pattison, who also led all tacklers with seven total takedowns.
With the event signaling the official close of practice, Sanford said his first UNLV spring game was satisfying for various reasons.
"I think it was a great environment here tonight," he said. "I was happy with the crowd and the enthusiasm showed by both the fans and players. It was close at the end, which always makes it more fun. However, there were too many penalties and too many turnovers and we have to work on eliminating both of those. Overall, I'd say we definitely got out of it what we wanted."
The team kicks off the season by traveling to Mountain West Conference rival New Mexico on September 3 with the home opener set for one week later vs. Idaho. Season tickets are now available by calling (702) 895-UNLV.
UNLV FOOTBALL
2005 SPRING GAME STATISTICS
April 22, 2005
SCORINGTime Gray Scarlet Play2nd Qtr. 11:16 0 7 Donell Wheaton, 4-yd. TD catch from Jarrod Jackson (Hubi Schulze Zumkley point after)2nd Qtr. 3:32 0 14 Erick Jackson, 3-yd. TD rush (Schulze Zumkley point after)2nd Qtr. 1:21 3 14 Sergio Aguayo, 39-yd. field goal3rd Qtr. 2:55 6 14 Sergio Aguayo, 30-yd. field goal4th Qtr. :50 12 14 Casey Flair, 19-yd. TD catch from Shane Steichen (2-pt. conversion failed)SCARLETRUSHING ATT YARDS TDErick Jackson 9 45 1Jarrod Jackson 10 22 0Blake Sartini 3 -24 0TOTAL 22 43 1
PASSING A-C-I YARDS TDJarrod Jackson 12-4-1 61 1Blake Sartini 3-1-1 36 0TOTAL 15-5-2 97 1
RECEIVING NO YARDS TDDonell Wheaton 2 18 1Erick Jackson 1 30 0Jacob Hales 1 25 0Jay Staggs 1 18 0TOTAL 5 91 1
FIELD GOALS ATT MADENone
TACKLE LDRS TT TFL-YDSMatt Pattison 7 2-11Kevin Suter 6 0John Guice 5 1-1Dan Catalano 5 0Joe Miklos 5 0Isaiah Tafua 4 2-13Cameron Wilson 3 1-5
SACKS-YARDSMatt Pattison 2-11Cameron Wilson 1-5Jacob Hales 1-5Mario Hill 1-5Isaiah Tafua 1-2
INTERCEPTIONSNone
PASS BRKUPSIsaac Watts 1E.J. Whitley 1Solomon Smart 1
GRAY TEAMRUSHING ATT YARDS TDDavid Peoples 7 14 0JaJa Riley 1 14 0Terry Furlow 1 7 0Shane Steichen 17 6 0Chad Henley 6 6 0Howie Fuimaono 1 -1 0TOTAL 33 46 0
PASSING A-C-I YARDS TDShane Steichen 22-15-0 192 1TOTAL 22-15-0 192 1
RECEIVING NO YARDS TDCasey Flair 4 58 1David Peoples 3 14 0Terry Furlow 2 53 0Greg Estandia 2 28 0Ernest Gordon 2 20 0Shelvion Williams 1 10 0JaJa Riley 1 9 0TOTAL 15 192 1
FIELD GOALS ATT MADESergio Aguayo 39, 30 39,30
TACKLE LDERS TT TFL-YDSBobby Kelly 4 1-5Ernest Gordon 4 0Beau Bell 3 2-10Will Tagoai 2 0Narcus Wesley 2 0Leon Moore 2 1-2
SACKS-YARDSBeau Bell 1-9Bobby Kelly 1-5
INTERCEPTIONSNarcus Wesley 1-34Chanti Bloomer 1-4
PASS BRKUPSLeon Moore 2Leo Reed 1Jeff Brown 1
