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Laviano Lifts Team Scarlet Over Team White, Gains Edge In QB Battle

Laviano connected on 8-of-10 passing for 140 yards.

QB Laviano (5) celebrates a touchdown with WR Agudosi (13)

QB Laviano (5) celebrates a touchdown with WR Agudosi (13)

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Laviano out shined his counterparts helping team Scarlet defeat team White 35-21 at Rutgers’ Annual Spring football game under the lights last night at High Point Solutions Stadium.

Laviano connected on 8-of-10 passing for 140 yards against the second-and-third-team defense including a pair of touchdowns to redshirt junior wide receiver Carlton Agudosi. Laviano is in a battle for the starting spot with classmate Hayden Rettig, a redshirt sophomore transfer from LSU. Head coach Kyle Flood said the two have surpassed redshirt freshman Gio Rescigno, who completed only 2-of-10 for 35 yards with an interception for the White team.

“We have a two quarterback race right now with No. 5 (Laviano) and No. 11 (Rettig),” Flood said at halftime of the scrimmage. “I think they’re doing a really good job out there tonight. I think Chris is a little ahead right now, but that doesn’t surprise me because he’s had the advantage of playing in the games. Now they’re both going to have the opportunity to do what I think is one of the more important things that you do all year long, and that’s taking your team from the end of spring practice and make sure that when you come back in the fall, that first practice in the fall, you’re a better football team than you were in practice 15.”

Rettig finished his spring the way he started with inaccuracy, shaking off rust having not played in two years since high school and only playing on the scout team a year ago. The California native threw for 37 yards on 4-of-7 passing as he and Laviano alternated series for team Scarlet, often lining up in multiple formations.

Rettig drove the team down the field on his first possession, but handed the ball off to sophomore running back Josh Hicks for a 1-yard score.

Laviano’s first touchdown to Agudosi came in the game’s first few minutes, where the Long Island, N.Y. native threaded the needle through traffic in the back left corner of the end zone, concluding a nine-play opening drive. In the fourth quarter, Laviano threw a 56-yard long bomb against the wind in stride to the 6-foot-6 receiver where he caught it at the 10-yard line and walked in for the score.

Agudosi finished a strong spring with four catches for 91 yards, totaling 15 catches for 283 yards and two touchdowns in three intrasquad scrimmages, and seems like the consistency light bulb is finally on.

“He’s another guy who has had a good spring and he’s starting to make plays and catch the ball consistently,” Flood said of Agudosi. “That catch that he had in the first quarter was a heck of a catch with a lot of traffic around him. Some of those distraction plays that we do with the wide receivers, you can see it pay off. He’s a guy who’s worked every day in the spring, so I’m excited for him.”

In font of an announced crowd of 15,782, Laviano gained the edge over Rettig, but the competition is far from over as Flood said he won’t name a starting quarterback until sometime in the summer. Flood did talk about what is next on the plate for the signal callers without the guidance of the coaches and how they can improve the team.

“Part of it is building the bond that special football teams have and I think they’re doing that already,” Flood said. “Part of it will be the actual physical work of doing it and doing it without the coaches. We’re not allowed to have any involvement when there is a football, so they will have to be out there on their own and here on their own, and the older members of the program are going to have to take ownership of that and I think they will.”

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In an added highlight during the third quarter of the scrimmage, a punt-catching competition unfolded where the players had to catch as many punts as they can without putting them down. Each ball they caught, earned seven points for their respective teams. Receiver Janarion Grant caught one ball for team Scarlet, and cornerback Dre Boggs managed to grab three, giving team White 21 points.

 

Think you want to change your vote? Click on the link here to see if the spring game changed your mind on who you think will be the starting quarterback come Sept. 5 against Norfolk State.

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