University of Connecticut Athletics
Orlovsky Keys Blue Win In Spring Game
4/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 17, 2004
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EAST HARTFORD, CT – Senior quarterback Dan Orlovsky (Shelton, CT) threw for 215 yards and a touchdown and junior wide receiver Brandon Young (Morganza, MD) caught an 82-yard touchdown strike to lead the Blue to a 26-13 victory over the White in the annual University of Connecticut football Blue-White Spring Game before an estimated crowd of 7,500 at Rentschler Field Saturday afternoon.
Orlovsky’s Blue squad featured the first-team offense, while the White team included members of the Husky first-team defense. Orlovsky, who has thrown for 61 career touchdowns (good for second among all active quarterbacks) in his first three seasons, led the Huskies to two first quarter scoring marches. The first, a six-play, 49-yard drive, was capped by a three-yard run by redshirt freshman running back Matt Lawrence (Bloomfield, CT). Lawrence carried the ball on five of the six plays of the drive, the other play being a 32-yard catch and run from Orlovsky to Young, who finished with 143 receiving yards on four catches. The second scoring drive was set up when walk-on Bernie Huzar forced White sophomore quarterback Matt Bonislawski (Natrona Heights, PA) to fumble and pounced on the loose ball to give the Blue the ball at the White 19. Sophomore tailback Cornell Brockington (Burlington, NJ) carried three straight times, the last a two-yard scoring run, to give the Blue a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The White team got on the board with 1:29 to play before intermission as senior tailback Chris Bellamy (New Britain, CT) rushed around to end to scamper 26 yards for a touchdown to cut the Blue lead to 14-7. Bellamy had a solid game for the White, carrying 14 times for 127 yards and two scores.
The Blue squad seized control of the contest by scoring touchdowns the first two times they touched the ball in the second half. They marched down the field with the second half kickoff, scoring when Lawrence raced in from 37 yards to finish a seven-play, 76-yard drive. Lawrence finished with 66 yards on 14 carries. After a White punt, Orlovsky hit Young with the 82-yard bomb to give the Blue an insurmountable 26-7 lead with 7:19 to play in the third quarter.
Bellamy closed out the scoring with a three-yard run for the White, with 2:17 to play, to make the final score, 26-13, Blue.
Defensive stars in the contest included junior White linebacker James Hargrave (Pleasantville, NJ), who had seven tackles, including one for loss, and senior strong safety John Fletcher (Miami, FL) and senior linebacker Alfred Fincher (Norwood, MA), who had six tackles apiece.
An additional bright spot in the contest was the punting of freshman Chris Pavasaris (Needham, MA), who handled the punting duties for both teams. He punted 12 times in the contest, for a 44.0 average.
Head coach Randy Edsall announced the three players who would serve as captains for the 2004 season. They are Orlovsky, Fincher and senior offensive tackle Ryan Krug (Pine Beach, NJ). UConn will enter the BIG EAST Conference this year and play a full league schedule and the Huskies will open the 2004 season at Rentschler Field against Murray State on September 4. Their first league game will be Friday, September 17 at Boston College.
Connecticut Head Coach Randy Edsall
Talk about the progress at quarterback this spring…
“Obviously we are solid at quarterback with Danny (Orlovsky). He had a good spring, they all know I am always going to want to do a little bit better than what might show up there but he’ll be fine come the fall. He’ll get out there and work with the receivers all summer long, so I am not worried about that. He’s (Orlovsky) got all the things that we need and I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else in college football.”
Talk about the running back situation…
“Probably on offense is where we are most solid is at running back. I think we have some good fullbacks. The tailback position is a position where I think we are in a pretty good situation with Cornell (Brockington), Matt (Lawrence) and Chris (Bellamy). However it comes out at the end of spring I just know this and that’s I can feel comfortable with any of those three guys in the game, at any point and time in the game.”
Who was the most improved player this spring…
“Probably on offense the guy who has made the most strides this spring is Matt Lawrence. I’d have to say that he has probably made the most improvement of anybody this spring.
Talk about the progress at quarterback this spring…
“Defensively its hard on a day like today because we have so many guys playing special teams, but up front I think we have a four-man rotation we can use at tackle. I think we are solid at linebacker that group has proven they can play. I think the guy on the defense who has made the most improvement is Danny Lansanah.”
Junior Wide Receiver Brandon Young
Do you feel like you can contribute more this season than last year?
“Definitely, last year I missed like the first three games with the hamstring and then coming back and making plays then. This is a summer to work hard so I can avoid injuires and play the entire season."
Sophomore Tailback Matt Lawrence
Talk about the progress of the offense this spring
“We did make progress from the start. Just to see it all come together and how we executed today was a good feeling. Just from how we were 13-14 practices ago, it’s a real impressive thing.”
Senior Quarterback Dan Orlovsky
Thoughts on today’s game
“It was a pretty clean game, not to many penalties, not to many turnovers sao that was a good thing. You go back and watch some film with your coaches and realize what you need to work on and you get to that.”
