Cougar fans witnessed a preview of what the 2014 football season has in store Saturday afternoon as WSU competed in its annual spring football game. The Crimson team dominated early on in the game on its way to a 23-19 victory over the Gray team in front of more than 6,000 fans at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane.  

After settling for a 40-yard field goal by Erik Powell on their first drive of the day, redshirt senior quarterback Connor Halliday and the Crimson offense moved into Gray territory and threw a two yard touchdown pass to redshirt junior wide receiver Drew Loftus in the back corner of the end zone. The touchdown put the Crimson team up 10-0 after Powell made the extra point.

Covering Loftus on the play was freshman cornerback Sebastian LaRue. LaRue made the switch from wide receiver to cornerback a couple weeks ago and ran with the Gray defense Saturday.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Tyler Bruggman got the start for the Gray team. In his first drive on offense, he threw a pass that was tipped and intercepted by redshirt senior cornerback Tracy Clark. Bruggman continued to struggle in the first half, throwing two more interceptions.

“Tyler I thought was pressed most of the day,” Head Coach Mike Leach said.

Bruggman completed 12 of 28 passes for 154 yards and redshirt freshman quarterback Luke Falk went 20-31 for 213 yards and one touchdown pass.

Falk stepped in at quarterback for the Gray team in the second quarter. Falk helped the Gray team get on the scoreboard for the first time by connecting with redshirt senior receiver Rickey Galvin for a touchdown.

“I thought he (Falk) started out slow and tentative,” Leach said. “I thought he started slow, but I thought he recovered. Early on he worried about some things that he couldn’t control but he did settle in and I thought did some good things.”

Falk went 20-for-31 with one touchdown and zero interceptions.

The Crimson team took a 23-7 at the halfway mark. Halliday finished the first half completing 25 of 41 for 326 yards, three touchdown passes and two interceptions. He threw two touchdowns to Loftus, a 22-yard score late in the first half in addition to the one to begin the game. He also threw a 37-yard touchdown to redshirt senior receiver Vince Mayle. Halliday and the rest of the Crimson offense did not compete in the second half of the spring game.

In the second half, Bruggman and Falk both established a rhythm with freshman wide receiver Calvin Green. He finished the day catching eight balls for a game-high 101 yards.

The Gray team did all of the scoring in the second half after WSU redshirt freshman running back Gerard Wicks scored on a 4-yard touchdown run. Wicks also ran in a 1-yard touchdown to end the game.

WSU sophomore cornerback Daquawn Brown led the Gray defense with two interceptions and WSU redshirt freshman linebacker Peyton Pelluer led the Crimson defense with eight tackles. 

“I thought for the most part we had pretty good effort,” Leach said. “I thought it was competitive, at times inconsistent because when you mix a squad and people are playing besides people they’re not use to playing against then it’s not as congruent as you might like. But I thought we had pretty good effort, the guys that played well just came out here, did whatever they do in practice and just duplicated it.”

The Cougars will wrap up spring practice on Tuesday at Martin Stadium.