PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers football closed out spring practice with its annual Scarlet-White game on Saturday afternoon at HighPoint.com Stadium. With the roster divided between offense and defense, the scripted scrimmage featured four quarters of action with a special scoring system.
The play of the game came at the end, as 11-year-old Tommy Marcketta from Children's Specialized Hospital tossed a 96-yard touchdown pass – the longest passing play in school history – to 19-year-old Lamount Banks from Newark Beth-Israel Medical Center to close out the scrimmage.
Former Scarlet Knight standouts Michael Burton, Kenny Britt and Steve Longa served as honorary coaches of the Scarlet team, while Tim Wright, Ka'Lial Glaud and Leonte Carroo served as honoree coaches of the White squad. After the game, players signed autographs and met with fans in attendance.
Prior to the scrimmage,
Rutgers Athletics hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Gary and Barbara Rodkin Academic Success Center in Athlete's Glen. Gary Rodkin, Rutgers University President Robert L. Barchi, Chancellor Christopher J. Molloy, Director of Athletics
Pat Hobbs, Faculty Athletics Representative Tom Stephens and rising junior women's soccer player Dana Goldstein all made remarks regarding the significance and impact of the state-of-the-art facility.
Senior
Charles Snorweah ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries, including a 75-yard scoring run to highlight the offensive output from the Scarlet team. Junior
Raheem Blackshear added 67 yards on the ground, while redshirt freshman quarterback
Johnny Langan ran in a touchdown in his RU debut.
Sophomore quarterback
Artur Sitkowski tossed for 216 yards and found junior wide receiver
Bo Melton for a 10-yard touchdown score. Melton added 40 yards receiving, junior wide receiver
Mohamed Jabbie led the unit with 65 receiving yards, while Blackshear (42) and sophomore wide receiver
Eddie Lewis (52) both went over 40 yards in the scrimmage.
Four players recorded six tackles for the defense, with junior linebacker
Olakunle Fatukasi registering six stops and a tackle for loss. The White team produced seven tackles for loss and four sacks, as
Brendan Bordner,
CJ Onyechi,
Tyshon Fogg and
Tijaun Mason all got in on the quarterback.
Player Quotes
Sophomore quarterback Artur Sitkowski
On coming into this spring: I'm definitely more comfortable with the system and more comfortable offensively. I'm definitely more comfortable just being out there; I got a lot of reps. Definitely very comfortable out there, trying to be as cool as I possibly can, and just trying to look for guys downfield.
On taking what was there: Today our game plan was to take what the defense gave us and that's what I ultimately did. I felt that I am trying to learn from a distance. I'm just trying to play good football and put my team in the best situation to score points and be productive. That's my job, to read the offense down the field, play smart football and hopefully play the correct position the right way. That's my goal this spring, I want to become a better quarterback and play the game the right way, the way its supposed to be played; the way you see it played at a high level on Saturday and Sunday.
Junior wide receiver Bo Melton
On what he sees moving forward with a young group of receivers: I see a lot of improvement going forward. We actually did very well this spring with numbers, being one of the wide receivers play a lot. Seeing our team go out there and play and execute its looking very well. Well get bigger in the summer and try to do better than that in training camp leading into the season. There are a lot of good things that are going to happen on the receiving end.
Junior running back Raheem Blackshear
On how it felt playing in front of fans since the end of the season: It felt good getting the fans excited and see that they still support us and being excited for this season.
On developing on-field chemistry: I feel like the chemistry is working really well, we're all back together this season, so with that we're just getting stronger and stronger.
Junior wide receiver Mohamed Jabbie
On his recovery: Mentally, I just made sure that I just stay positive every day coming in here and doing my rehab, making sure I took care of my body every day.
On his chemistry with Sitkowski: Just working in the off season every day. Art is a great leader so we always made sure we got routes in every day and we just continue to get better and better. The chemistry is going to build on our own the more that we work on this. It just comes with time, so we're just going to keep working so we can be the best that we can be.
On if this year is a now or never situation for him: I haven't thought of it like that yet, but I just make sure that I'm going hard every day and doing everything that the coaches ask me to do. I'm just trying to make everyone proud.
Senior offensive lineman Zach Venesky
On team improvement: One step at a time is how we've been looking at it going forward and we're getting better each day, either one percent or a huge jump.
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