The Charlotte 49ers football team played its third annual Green-White Spring Game Saturday evening -- the first game held under the lights installed at Richardson Stadium earlier this year.
"The lights were pretty cool," said 49ers head coach Brad Lambert about the lights, which were turned as part of a halftime ceremony. "That was a good time to do it as well because I didn’t want guys to slow down from the half. It was pretty cool for them. It’s about as close you can get to a game for the guys and then we were under the lights."
Charlotte, which played its first two seasons as an FCS Independent, will join the FBS in 2015 as a member of Conference USA.
In the game, the Green team raced to a 19-3 victory, capped by an 89-yard interception return by rising senior Ardy Holmes on the final play of the game.
"I told the team before we started, this is about as close as we can get to simulating a game," said Lambert. "We divided into teams which was interesting. We got to pick teams and I thought that came out well. A couple ups and downs out there. Overall it was a good scrimmage, we ran the ball nice and the defense made a couple good plays. They were having fun out there competing and that’s really what we want to see."
Green took a 7-0 lead on its first possession. Red-shirt freshman QB Brooks Barden hit Austin Duke on fourth and four for an 8-yard strike and connected with Duke again for 28 yards to push the ball to the White five. Damarrell Alexander rushed in from six yards for the TD.
In a scoring drive in the second quarter, White RB Garrison Duncan rushed for 28 yards on seven plays and QB Matt Johnson hit Workpeh Kofa for a 19-yard gain to ultimately set up a 28-yard field goal from Blake Brewer.
Green answered with a 28-yard field goal by Stephen Muscarello to end the half and give Green a 10-3 edge at the break.
After a scoreless third quarter, Green tacked on another field goal -- this one from 53 yards by Muscarello with 4:38 to play -- to take a 13-6 lead.
On the ensuing possession, White pushed the ball to the Green 40, but Holmes picked off a Matt Johnson bomb on the final play and returned it 89 yard to clinch the victory for Green.
"It was a really a learning point for the defense in the spring. Coach (Mattt) Wallerstedt likes to play man a lot and that’s what we like. He can make us work hard," said Holmes, afterwards, giving a nod to the next first waiting in the wings: the first FBS-level game. "We are going to go into Conference USA, confident, with our heads held high."
"We started in November with that mentality knowing that we would have to step it up a little bit," echoed Johnson. "If everyone (else) is playing at 100%, we need to be at 200%. There is a different mentality in the locker room. Those guys have been there, they got recruited out of high school and went to Conference USA. We’ve got a lot of guys that came from small schools and a small start. It’s a lot of room to grow and I think we’ve answered the bell and we’re not stopping."
"It’s definitely exciting," said rising senior Cortezz Nixon. "I remember when we first got here, it was just so long to get to our first game. But now we are in Conference USA and we are ready for it."
As for Saturday, the first game under the lights, the first Spring Game leading into FBS play -- just a couple more firsts in the growth of the 49ers football program.
"Our fans never disappoint me," Lambert said of the Spring Game atmosphere and the attendance of 11,469. "It was pretty cool for a 6:00 kick, I’m here at 8:00 and people are already setting up and at noon it’s on full board with the tailgate. You get to see what it’s going to look like in the fall and I thought it was a good environment."