Oregon State's Defense Dominates in First Fall Scrimmage

Several Beavers did not play due to injuries or a decision by the coaches, including starters Yvenson Bernard and Sammie Stroughter.

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CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Oregon State defense is good and deep.

That comes as no surprise to observers who’ve seen the Beavers practice for the last eight days.

Saturday’s first fall scrimmage was no different with the defense dominating early on a beautiful day at Reser Stadium.

The offense eventually got the jitters out generating five scores during the 114-play drill, but not before many of the first unit players had hit the sidelines.

“Our goal was to get the ones some play, at least twenty, and then get the twos more than that,” said head coach Mike Riley. “We’ve got a 105 guys right now, so its more than in spring practice, so it’s a lot of guys first football in a long time, and a lot of practicing. So this is a chance for them to play a lot. I think it went pretty well.”

The quarterback battle between sophomores Sean Canfield and Lyle Moevao continued with Canfield playing mostly with the first unit completing nine out of 14 passes for 80 yards and the day’s first touchdown to Brandon Powers.

Meanwhile, Moevao completed seven passes on 19 attempts and no touchdowns, mostly with the second unit. Both quarterbacks threw an interception in the early going.

“I’ll say this, I will hopefully never do this ever again, go in to fall camp like this,” said Riley. “I don’t think it has hurt our team. I think it was the right thing to do with these two guys because it was ill-defined. I’m going to try to get this thing done soon.”

Shortly after Canfield’s touchdown drive, senior Ryan Gunderson led his unit on a nine-play drive, going six-for-six for 58 yards and hooked up with freshman Darrell Catchings on a five-yard touchdown.

Safeties Daniel Drayton and Bryan Payton made interceptions off of the Beavers’ quarterbacking duo of Canfield and Moevao stalling the offense’s passing game in the early going.

David Pa’aluhi III grabbed the other interception off of freshman Justin Engstrom late in the scrimmage.

In one flurry of big plays for the defense, junior-transfer Keith Robertson stuffed Tony Carrasco for a loss followed one play later by freshman linebacker Keith Pankey reading and stopping pass into the flats for Carrasco for a five-yard loss. Cornerback Brandon Hughes also had a big day with several pass deflections.

Several Beavers did not play due to injuries or a decision by the coaches, including starters Yvenson Bernard (RB), Sammie Stroughter (WR), Derrick Doggett (LB) and Gerard Lee (DT).

Practice resumes Monday at 2 p.m. with the second scrimmage scheduled for 2 p.m. Sat., August 18.

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Scoring Summary

Brandon Powers 21-yard reception from Sean Canfield

Darrell Catchings 5-yard reception from Ryan Gunderson

Patrick Fuller 1-yard run

Darrell Catchings 20-yard reception from Brennan Sim

Tony Carrasco 1-yard run

Statistics

Rushing (No-Yds-TD)

Patrick Fuller, 8-22-1; Ryan McCants, 7-22-0; Andy Stewart, 7-21-0, Tony Carrasco, 9-15-1; Ahmed Mokhtar, 6-11-0; James Rodgers, 1-6-0; Matt Sieverson, 3-3-0; Curtis Coker, 1-0-0.

Passing (Att-Comp-Int-Yds-TD)

Brennan Sim, 17-13-0-113-1; Justin Engstrom, 15-7-1-94-0; Sean Canfield, 14-9-1-80-1; Lyle Moevao, 19-7-1-79-0; Ryan Gunderson, 6-6-0-58-1.

Receiving (No-Yds-TD)

Darrell Catchings, 7-98-2; Aaron Nichols, 6-120-0; Joe Halahuni, 5-29-0; Brandon Powers, 2-35-1; Ryan McCants, 2-25-0; Taylor Kavanaugh, 2-21-0; Damola Adeniji, 2-15-0; Shane Morales, 2-7-0; Matt Sieverson, 2-4-0; Patrick Fuller, 2-2-0; Tony Carrasco, 2-(-6)-0; Sam Oltman, 1-30-0; Chris Johnson, 1-14-0; Andy Stewart, 1-11-0; Gabe Miller, 1-10-0; James Rodgers, 1-10-0; Brady Camp, 1-7-0; Howard Croom, 1-2-0; Ahmed Mokhtar, 1-0-0.

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