Centeio's TD pass lifts Cherry past White, 17-14
Freshman quarterback Todd Centeio’s 18-yard fourth-quarter touchdown pass to wide receiver Marshall Ellick provided the decisive points in lifting the Cherry team to a 17-14 win over the White squad Saturday at Chodoff Field in Temple’s annual spring football game.
Redshirt junior quarterback Frank Nutile helped account for both touchdowns for the White team, which adopted the TempleTUFF name. Nutile hit redshirt freshman wide receiver Freddie Johnson in stride on a 37-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter and then pushed White out to a 14-10 lead in the fourth quarter on a 16-yard touchdown run.
Junior running back Jager Gardner, who rattled off consecutive runs of 13 and 23 yards in the first quarter, scored on a 5-yard run in the third quarter for Cherry, which also went by GDQ (Greatness Doesn’t Quit.) Gardner finished with 67 yards on nine carries.
First-year head coach Geoff Collins said the team held its champions dinner Friday night in which it handed out Temple’s 2016 American Athletic Conference championship rings and the nine individual awards from the spring, and junior safety Delvon Randall was announced as the latest player to be awarded a single digit. The Pittsburgh native, who wore No. 23 in the previous two seasons, will inherit No. 2 from former linebacker Avery Williams.
“The cool thing about that is, about four or five days ago I had all the single-digit guys in my office,” Collins said, “and I said, ‘You guys vote.’ There were a lot of guys who were deserving, but Delvon just edged some guys out.”
Randall, who tallied four tackles Saturday and had 65 tackles, three interceptions and two forced fumbles last season at strong safety, was humbled by the single-digit honor.
“(Williams) came yesterday to our dinner and passed the torch to me, basically,” Randall said, “so that means a lot. The single digit means you’re tough, so I look at myself like one of the tough guys on the team.”
Collins said another single-digit player, defensive end Jacob Martin, earned the team’s spirit award despite not practicing this spring while recovering from a broken foot. And redshirt junior Chris Myarick found out he had been awarded a scholarship after coming to the program as a preferred walk-on out of nearby Cheltenham High School.
“I was just in pure shock, smiles from ear to ear,” said Myarick, who drew praise from tight ends coach Ed Foley after last Tuesday’s spring practice. “Once I saw my parents out there (at halftime), it just felt like a dream. All the hard work coming through … I just couldn’t believe it.”
As for the quarterback who will be throwing to Myarick and the other pass catchers when Temple opens up its season at Notre Dame? That’s the million-dollar question that remains unanswered as spring ball comes to a close.
Logan Marchi, the 6-foot, 192-pound redshirt sophomore out of Connecticut’s St. Paul Catholic, completed just 4 of 10 passes for 92 yards and was intercepted twice, with one side-armed throw landing in the arms of graduate transfer cornerback Mike Jones near the end of the first half.
Marchi appeared in five games in 2016 as Phillip Walker’s backup after Nutile was Temple’s No. 2 quarterback in 2015. He said the quarterbacks have not been given any indication of a forthcoming post-spring depth chart and haven’t gotten any indication as to who could have the edge heading toward preseason camp.
“They haven’t told us anything,” said Marchi, who mentioned his mechanics as something he needs to improve. “We go into meetings before practice and it’s, ‘you’re running with these guys, you’re running with these guys,’ and we’re going to go out and compete. It changes up each practice.”
Anthony Russo, the redshirt freshman from nearby Archbishop Wood High School, completed 7 of 11 passes for 77 yards for the Cherry team. And Centeio, for a midyear freshman who graduated early from Florida’s William T. Dwyer High School, looked fairly poised and comfortable Saturday while playing in less-than-ideal rainy conditions. The 6-foot, 205-pound signal caller completed 9 of his 13 throws for a team-best 110 yards, including the game-winning toss to Ellick, who had a game-high 105 yards receiving on five catches.
Centeio was not made available to reporters after the game due to a team policy on freshman media availability.
So who would start if Temple was playing Notre Dame next Saturday, Collins was asked.
“That’s a great question,” Collins said. “I knew I was going to get that. We’re just worried about every single day. They were out there competing. I even think little Toddy Centeio did a good job out there. Russo was putting some nice balls. The neat thing about standing back there behind the huddle is you can hear the interaction with the guys. Logan’s barking to get the team moving when we went 2-minute drill. I think we played about five 2-minute drills within the game and we either didn’t get it or we moved the ball down. Then you had Frankie Juice (Nutile) with the big run.”
When it came to the running game, Collins praised Gardner, saying “he looked like a Playstation 4 character out there, juking and hurdling people. He was phenomenal.”
Listen to postgame interviews here with Collins, Ryquell Armstead, Myarick, Randall, Marchi, Nutile and Gardner.
Extra points
Redshirt freshman running back Tyliek Raynor had a 49-yard run and finished with 61 yards on four carries. ... Walk-on defensive lineman Zach Mesday had two sacks, and redshirt freshmen Dan Archibong and Quincy Roche had sacks as well. Mesday recorded a game-high six tackles, and sophomore linebacker Shaun Bradley had five.