Idaho’s offense shows it can play under pressure with late go-ahead drive at spring game

MOSCOW, Idaho – Talk about ending on a high note.

Idaho’s first-team offense scored on a last-minute, 75-yard drive to give the offense a 20-17 win against the Vandals’ defense in the Idaho spring game Friday night.

In that final 60 seconds, Gevani McCoy completed a half-dozen passes and the offense survived a holding penalty that forced it back to first-and-20 at its 26-yard line with 40 seconds remaining.

From there, McCoy completed back-to-back passes to Jordan Dwyer that brought the ball to the defense’s 24-yard line with 19 seconds left. A pass to sophomore Tommy Hauser put the offense on the 2-yard line with 11 seconds to go. After spiking the ball to set up a play, McCoy connected with Dwyer again in the corner of the end zone after Dwyer had beaten the coverage by safety Tommy McCormick.

The format for the contest pitted the first-team offense against its defensive counterpart, while the second-team offense and defense opposed each other.

Defense was spotted 17 points and had the opportunity to score three points on an interception or fumble recovery, and credit for a touchdown for any turnover it took into the end zone. Neither team could add points for the defense, although they combined to stop the offenses on downs on five drives and had the second-team offense in trouble on fourth-and-7 at the 13-yard line before the ball was reset to give the first teams the chance for the last-minute drive.

Scoring for the offense was the typical touchdowns, field goals and extra points. The teams played four 20-minute quarters with a running clock that stopped to spot the ball after plays for the final 2 minutes of the second and fourth quarters.

Although All-America receiver Hayden Hatten did not figure in the final drive, he was McCoy’s favorite target throughout the game and finished with nine receptions.

The No. 1 offense got on the scoreboard in the opening drive, a 10-play, 48-yard effort that concluded with Ricardo Chavez’s 44-yard field goal. The score at the end of the first quarter was 17-3.

The second-team offense accounted for the game’s first touchdown in the opening series of the second quarter. Quarterback Jack Layne, from his 47-yard line, opened the drive with an 18-yard run up the middle, Trent Elstad moved the ball from the 35-yard line to the 23 on a pair of carries. From there, Layne completed a pass to Trais Higgins just short of the end-zone corner. Elstad scored from 1 yard out, and Cameron Pope kicked the extra point.

Chavez ended the first-half scoring with another field goal, a 37-yarder, to cut the offense’s deficit to 17-13.

Idaho did not keep official statistics, probably because the defense was not allowed to tackle the first-team offenses’ runners, receivers and McCoy. Their gains and losses were approximations, although McCoy was tagged for a sack by Idaho coach Jason Eck, who served as the arbiter, for such things. McCoy had attempted to evade a rush by unloading an incomplete pass to Anthony Woods coming out of the backfield. Eck ruled Zach Krotzer got to the quarterback first.

The No. 1 team also had a drive end on fourth-and-2 from the 10-yard-line in the fourth quarter when McCoy had a pass tipped awry by redshirt defensive tackle Xavier Slayton.

Woods rushed 13 times, and he had a big gain in the fourth quarter on the defense’s 16-yard-line when he started right and bounced back left. He was credited for 6 yards before the play was ruled dead, but in a real game he might have taken it into the end zone.