Deacons hold first preseason scrimmage

8/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football

Aug. 16, 2007

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Kevin Marion scored two touchdowns to highlight a three-touchdown offensive performance in Wake Forest's first preseason scrimmage of the year Thursday afternoon at Groves Stadium.

Marion caught a 59-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Riley Skinner and later added a five-yard touchdown run. The offense tallied a third touchdown as quarterback Brett Hodges tossed a 12-yard scoring pass to Delon Lowe.

The defense recorded a safety when Alphonso Smith, Matt Robinson and Zach Stukes combined to tackle an offensive player in the end zone.

"We showed some intensity but we were up and down," said head coach Jim Grobe. "There were some individual efforts that were really, really good. As a team, we weren't very good today."

The Deacons scrimmaged for one hour and 52 minutes in the high heat and ran nearly 90 offensive plays. Wake Forest also spent considerable time on special teams, particularly the punting and kickoff coverage teams.

Returning quarterback Riley Skinner picked up where he left off last season, completing six of seven passes for 93 yards including the scoring strike to Marion. Junior Ryan McManus hit on seven of 11 attempts for 58 yards while Hodges was successful on five of six attempts for 76 yards. Redshirt freshman Zach MacDowall completed six of 12 attempts while true freshman Skylar Jones connected on seven of 10 for 39 yards.

Micah Andrews, Wake Forest's running back who tore an ACL three games into the 2006 season, led all rushers with eight carries in the scrimmage. He gained 23 yards including a long run of eight yards.

"I was encouraged by the fact that I didn't see any caution (out of Micah)," said Grobe. "A couple of times I thought he did a good job of getting up the field. I didn't see a guy walking on egg shells and that was good."

"We did a lot of special teams work today," said Grobe. "We really wanted this to be a scrimmage where we could tackle the backs and see Micah get hit and have some of the guys who didn't go through spring get a shot at going full speed. We've got a group of guys who got a good workout today, whether you were an old guy or a new guy."

The Deacons will practice Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. and at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, WFU will hold a single practice at 2:15 before heading to Groves Stadium for Fan Fest at 6 o'clock.

Rushing Stats Player-Atts-Yds Rich Belton 2-18 Kevin Harris 4-32 Micah Andrews 8-23 De'Angelo Bryant 7-18 Josh Adams 2-1 Kevin Marion 1-5 Zach MacDowall 4-(5) Riley Skinner 2-17 Jose Domenech 1-2 Brandon Pendergrass 4-5 Lucas Caparelli 2-(1) Delon Lowe 1-(2)

Passing Stats Player-Cmp-Att-Yds Riley Skinner 6-7-93 Ryan McManus 7-11-58 Zach MacDowall 6-12-28 Brett Hodges 5-6-76 Skylar Jones 7-10-39

Receiving Player-Rcpt-Yds Marshall Williams 4-42 Kenneth Moore 3-20 Kevin Marion 3-70 Demir Boldin 2-14 Andrew Wright 3-26 Brandon Pendergrass 2-5 Matt Hartford 2-11 Delon Lowe 1-12 Devon Brown 1-4