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 [ Monday, April 24, 2006 ] Morelli leads in Blue victory
By Scott Cooper
Collegian Staff Writer
As was the case in the 2005 version of the Blue-White game, quickness and velocity set the tone in Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage. The rain poured down hard and fast. The Penn State receivers ran quick outs and crossing patterns. With his crisp, laser-guided throws, the play of new starting quarterback Anthony Morelli quickly showed the Nittany Lion faithful that the rising junior is capable of leading the Penn State offense. |
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A Blue team stacked with the first-team offense and defense registered a 17-0 victory over the White squad. Morelli completed 13 of his 16 passes for 191 yards. "I was just going out there and having fun," Morelli said. "We've been doing it all spring, so a couple people in the stands doesn't change anything." The estimated attendance of 18,000 was a far cry from what was originally expected, because a cold, steady rain kept many fans home. This was the fifth time in six years in which the Blue-White game has been played in rainy conditions. Joe Paterno would have preferred not to expose his players to the added risk of playing on a wet field. "I'd love to cancel it and just practice tomorrow, but you saw all those people out there," Paterno said before the game. The slow track might have made running a bit more difficult, but the throws were not affected. On the fourth play from scrimmage, Morelli fired a rocket to receiver Jordan Norwood. Perhaps it was a slick ball, or maybe the rising sophomore just wasn't expecting it to be thrown so hard, but Norwood bobbled the catch before pulling it in for a 36-yard gain. At this point, Norwood's day had only just begun. He finished the scrimmage with eight catches for 154 yards. Despite the strong passing game from the first-team offense, Blue was stopped on the goal line on its first two possessions. "One of the things you don't plan for is to go into short yardage situations in the spring game, because you just go let everyone have fun," quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno said after the game. | ||||
PHOTO: Michael Ghourdjian
Quarterback Anthony Morelli (14) calls a play during Saturday's Blue-White game. Morelli completed 13 passes for a total of 191 yards.
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White defenders Jerome Hayes, Anthony Scirrotto, Jed Hill, Joe Cianciolo and Tyrell Sales had fun thwarting Blue's futile attempts to score. With a 3-0 lead and 57 seconds to play in the first half, Morelli and the first-team offense were sent in to run the hurry-up offense starting from their own 20. After moving the ball down the field with two completions to Norwood and two to Kevin Cousins, Morelli threw a dart to Derrick Williams with about 12 seconds remaining. Williams hauled it in but was stopped a yard shy of the end zone. "To get tackled on the 1-yard line is every receiver's worst dream," Williams said. This time, however, Blue was able to punch it in as BranDon Snow tumbled past the goal line on the ensuing play, giving Blue a 10-0 lead at the half. In the second half, Williams saw two plays at quarterback. On the first play, the rising sophomore took the snap from shotgun, fired and hit Norwood on the right side for six yards. "Jay told me right before the game [that I would play quarterback], and my eyes lit up," Williams said. On the following play, Williams dropped back several steps before launching a deep pass to Deon Butler, who was streaking down the left sideline. The ball landed incomplete, and Williams' time at quarterback came to an end. "I put it where he could have gotten it; he's got to make a play," Williams said with a smile, adding that he hasn't worked as a quarterback in practice. Even with Williams' foray into the signal-caller role, it was Morelli's play at quarterback that gave the fans what they wanted to see. After Saturday's game, two separate defensive starters likened Morelli's arm to a cannon. "He's unbelievable -- he's got a cannon for an arm," linebacker Dan Connor said. "He's almost impossible to intercept because he throws it so hard. You know it's going to come 100 miles an hour."
R E L A T E D S T O R I E S
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