McGhee Shines on Triangle Classic
4/10/2010 8:05:34 PM | Football
Offense, defense each make strides on beautiful afternoon in Great Falls
Freshman quarterback Denarius McGhee threw for two touchdowns and rushed for another in Montana State's 2010 Triangle Classic in Great Falls on Saturday.
McGhee was 13-for-16 passing for 151 yards, completing a four-yard pass to classmate Tanner Bleskin, a Great Falls CM Russell grad playing in his former high school home stadium, and connected with Kruiz Siewing from Saco on a seven-yard score. McGhee also scampered in from nine yards out for the day's final score.
"That's what he brings to the table," Bobcat coach Rob Ash said of McGhee's playmaking. "He's never out of a play. He makes things happen."
McGhee may have headlined Saturday's offensive performance, but he was far from the only star. Blesking (26 yards) and Kruiz Siewing (38 yards) each caught a scrimmage-high four passes, while Julius Lloyd caught three. Cody Kirk revived his battering ram act from last week's scrimmage, rushing 18 times for 103 yards. Everett Gilbert also added 75 all-purpose yards.
"I thought Cody ran well," Ash said of Kirk, his redshirt freshman running back who has emerged from the rubble of injuries at that position this spring. "I like his pad level and how hard he runs, but I really like his vision, too. He is doing a good job seeing the hole and making cuts. Everett made progress as a running back today, too. I liked how he made cuts into the interior of the line."
For the second straight week, the Bobcat offense got rolling early. Cody Kempt used completions of eight yards to Julius Lloyd and 17 yards to Steven Foster to move the offense to the 27-yard line, but James Andrews blocked a 44-yard field goal attempt by Jason Cunningham.
McGhee engineered a 75-yard drive on the next possession, capping it with a four-yard scoring pass to Bleskin. The offense was aided by a pass interference call, but Kirk rushed for 20 yards on the drive.
From that point on, the defense dug in. On the next three possessions, MSU's stop unit forced a punt, a fumble, and a three-and-out. Cody Davies produced a field goal drive to close the first half.
The second half storyline was much the same. Kruiz Siewing caught a seven-yard scoring pass from McGhee on the first drive, but the PAT was blocked. After that Cunningham missed a field goal, then the defense forced a three-and-out. McGhee marched the offense 75 yards and 55 yards on back-to-back possessions, the first ending with a 20-yard Cunningham field goal and capped the second himself with a nine-yard scoring run. The defense stopped the offense on the final three drives, but the offense earned a 49-39 win using the Modified Ash Scoring System.
Ash saw plenty to like from his defense. "The defensive line is going to be good," he said. "They were very active, running around and making plays. The secondary was pretty physical, there were good collisions on several of Cody Kirk's runs. The defense had some good moments."
The Triangle Classic proved a good jumping off point into the second half of spring drills, which resumes next Wednesday with a 3:30 pm practice. "Scoring touchdowns and making big plays wins games," he said. "I thought the offense did a good job of that today."
RUSHING
Cody Kirk 18-103-0, Everett Gilbert 7-24-0, Kruiz Siewing 1- -1-0, Jordan Rohrich 3-3-0, Denarius McGhee 6-6-1, Cody Kempt 3-6-0, Cody Davies 1- --0.
PASSING
Cody Kempt 12-6-0, 42, 0; Denarius McGhee 16-13-0, 151, 2; Cody Davies 4-2-0, 32, 0.
RECEIVING
Tanner Bleskin 4-26-1, Kruiz Siewing 4-38-1, Julius Lloyd 3-23-0, Everett Gilbert 4-51-0, Steven Foster 2-22-0, Donald Tudahl 1-18-0, Kyle Begger 1-11-0, Chase Young 1-27-0, Cody Kirk 1-12-0, Kevin Steiner 1-7-0.
SCORING PLAYS
Bleskin 4 yds from McGhee (Cunningham)
Cunningham 30 yd FG
Kruiz Siewing 7 yds from McGhee (Cunningham PAT blocked0
Cunningham 20 yd FG
McGhee 9 yd run (Cunningham)
