BATON ROUGE — Matt Mauck connected with Guy Harper on a 63-yard touchdown pass with just over two minutes remaining in the contest as the Purple squad rallied for a 13-10 win over the White here Saturday before 28,658 in the annual LSU Spring Game in Tiger Stadium.
Mauck led all quarterbacks by completing 20 of 45 passes for 241 yards and one touchdown. Mauck threw five interceptions, but two came after tipped balls by receivers. Joseph Addai, a member of the White team, led all rushers with 65 yards on 11 carries, while the Purple team’s Elice Parker had 55 yards rushing on seven attempts.
Quarterback Marcus Randall completed 2 of 7 passes for 11 yards before leaving the game in the second quarter with an injured right knee. Randall will undergo an MRI late Saturday or Sunday to determine the extent of the injury.
“The thing that I looked for today, which I was a little disappointed with in in the first half but got better as the scrimmage went along, is the players playing with intensity, toughness and effort,” LSU coach Nick Saban said. “I was pleased with the performance of some of the running backs and I thought there was a lot of good hitting and the tackling was fairly good on defense.
“The biggest thing for this football team right now is that the challenges that we’re going to have next football season, the mountain that we have to climb is going to be much higher and much more treacherous that we’ve ever faced before. It’s going to be much more difficult.”
The White team jumped out to a 3-0 lead late in the first quarter when John Corbello nailed a 46-yard field goal. The Purple team tied the score a few minutes later when Chuy Guiterrez connected on a 43-yard field goal, tying the score at 3-3 with 8:20 to play in the first half.
It appeared that teams would go into halftime tied at 3-3, however Corey Webster picked off a Mauck pass with 49 seconds left before intermission and raced untouched 72-yards for a touchdown, giving the White squad a 10-3 lead at the break.
“The outside receiver ran a little hitch route and they were trying to throw the ball to inside receiver,” Webster said. “I just watched the quarterback throw it and I broke on the ball and took it all the way.”
Neither team scored in third quarter, but the Purple team did threaten one time as they got all the way inside the White team’s 20-yard line before Mauck was intercepted by Donovan Grayson at the 17-yard line.
After holding the White team to three-and-out on its next possession, the Purple squad marched down the field on a 10-play, 60-yard drive that ended with a 27-yard field goal by Corbello to pull within 10-6 with 8:24 left.
The White team was once again forced to punt on its next possession, setting up what proved to be the winning points for the Purple squad.
Starting at its own 34-yard line, Ryan Gilbert rushed for two yards on the first play of the Purple drive and then Mauck hit Harper for an 11-yard gain on the second play of the drive. After an incomplete pass and a rush for no gain, Mauck found a wide open Harper streaking up the right sideline for a 63-yard touchdown. Guiterrez added the extra point for a 13-10 lead for the Purple team with 2:39 to play.
The White squad did not cross midfield during the final two minutes of the contest.
Harper led all receivers with 84 yards on three receptions, while Shyrone Carey added 46 yards on three catches. Jerel Myers led the White team with two receptions for 28 yards.
Norman LeJeune led the White squad with eight tackles, three deflected passes and one interception, while Dorsett Buckels added eight stops, including a tackle for a 4-yard loss, and one interception. Demetrius Hookfin and Damien James each had six tackles for the Purple team.