Blue prevails 20-14 in overtime, Trainer optimistic for '09 season

04/29/09 - The University of Rhode Island football team ended its spring practices with a highly competitive Blue vs. White game on Saturday, April 25. The Blue squad outlasted its White counterpart 20-14 in an overtime thriller. Junior Chris Paul-Etienne, a Rutgers University transfer, lined up under center for the Blue team and compiled 162 yards through the air. He completed 17 passes in 29 chances while rushing for an additional 90 yards on 14 carries. The Miami native contributed two scores on the day, one through the air and one on foot. His longest came on a 45-yard run in the fourth quarter, giving his team a 14-7 advantage at the time.

Down by one touchdown, the White team marched down field for an eight-play, 65-yard drive.

Redshirt freshman Marc Lucarini brought his team to the goal line with a 34-yard pass to senior wide out Tolbert Evans, and with less than a minute remaining, sophomore tailback Ryan Lawrence blasted through the middle for a two-yard score.

Lawrence finished out the day with a game-high 141 rushing yards while also leading his own team in receiving, catching four passes for 32 yards.

After failing to answer back at the end of the fourth, it took just two plays for the Blue team to find the end zone after starting out on the White team's 25-yard line in overtime.

Paul-Etienne completed an 18-yard pass to sophomore Brandon Johnson-Farrell and followed that up with a seven-yard toss to senior Shawn Leonard for the score.

Sophomore Louis Feinstein, who kicked for both teams on the day, saw his extra point attempt blocked, making the score 20-14.

Lawrence made things interesting again during the White team's possession after he rushed 13-yards to the six-yard line, but the Blue team's defense, led by sophomore linebacker Chris Mancuso, stopped the White offense in its tracks.

Mancuso led the Blue team with eight tackles and one sack while junior Victor Adesanya registered a game-high nine tackles and two sacks.

Both teams were held scoreless through the first half until Lawrence found the end zone with his first of two touchdowns.

"I thought both sides played extremely well," head coach Joe Trainer said. "I thought it was kind of neat that it went into overtime, because the one thing you try to emulate in practice is game situations, and we got to experience most of them."

After the departure of successful quarterback Derrick Cassidy, Trainer is still optimistic with Paul-Etienne taking snaps for Rhody. Cassidy had one of the best seasons as quarterback in URI history in 2008. He is tied with Chris Hixson ('93-'96) for third place with 15 touchdowns last year and holds sole possession of third in completions (261), completion percentage (59.3) and yards (2,759).

Paul-Etienne spent much of his time at Rutgers playing behind former starter Mike Teel, but Trainer figures he will receive the majority of the snaps in 2009 as the Rhody signal-caller.

"He is certainly an athletic quarterback," Trainer said. "The thing I like about Chris is he sees the field on the run. I don't think he's the kind of guy that looks for the run first, but he has some escapability and has a good feel for when to take off and still look for the throw."

In the ground attack, Trainer expects to utilize a variety of backs.

Joe Casey, a 2008 preseason All-American, did not see action during the Blue and White game. He will return as a redshirt senior after being lost to injury in the opening game of the '08 season against Monmouth University.

Casey will share time with Lawrence, redshirt junior Anthony Ferrer and Blue team starter freshman Matt Kolojejchick.

"If you look at any championship program, you have to have three stable guys in the backfield," Trainer said, noting all three will see time on the field.

With some solid offensive newcomers and a defense that will return nine starters and 17 letter winners, Trainer says he is optimistic for the 2009 season.

"We've made some major improvements this spring," Trainer said. "We're obviously not where we need to be, but I definitely feel that programmatically, we're light years ahead of where we were.