Gallery+Story: Miners Air it Out in 2018 Spring Game

UTEP quarterbacks combined to attempt 63 passes and throw for 380 yards as Orange topped Blue, 20-13, in the Miners’ first spring game under coach Dana Dimel on Friday in the Sun Bowl.

Kai Locksley led five UTEP signal-callers by completing 11-of-17 passes for 119 yards, and Walter Dawn was the top receiver with five catches for 75 yards.

Mark Torrez, Alex Fernandes and Calvin Brownholtz all threw for TD’s, and Ryan Metz scored on a 15-yard run.

“The guys have got a lot to work on, obviously, but I thought we had a really good scrimmage,” Dimel said. “When I say a lot to work on, it doesn’t stop here. It just keeps progressing. But overall I was very, very pleased with the scrimmage and very pleased with what they did. I love the attitude and the effort was fantastic. The things they’ve got to work on now, are getting in the weight room and finishing up the academics very hard these next couple of weeks going into finals.”

Orange struck gold first when Torrez completed 6-of-7 passes for 44 yards on his initial drive, capped by an 11-yard TD pass to Kavika Johnson.

The score remained 7-0 until the third quarter, when Metz knotted the score on his 15-yard scoring scamper. But Orange responded by scoring the next 13 points on a one-yard TD run by Treyvon Hughes, and a 22-yard scoring pass from Fernandes to David Lucero. Blue recorded the game’s final points on a four-yard pass from Brownholtz to Tre’Shon Wolf.

The final numbers for the quarterbacks, outside of Locksley, were almost identical yardage-wise: Brownholtz 8-for-14 for 67 yards, Metz 4-for-9 for 66 yards, Fernandes 5-for-11 for 66 yards, and Torrez 8-for-12 for 62 yards.

Warren Redix contributed 56 yards on seven catches, Lucero snared five balls for 55 yards, and Eddie Sinegal had two receptions for 48 yards. Hughes led the Miners in rushing attempts (seven) and yards (24).

There were no interceptions in the game, but the defense did come up with six sacks and nine pass break-ups. Dylan Parsee was the leading tackler with eight stops.

“I wanted to see good tackling and I saw really good tackling tonight,” Dimel said. “That’s what I was really, really pleased about. The defense didn’t miss many tackles at all. They had restrictions on them about tackling high. Normally when you have those types of restrictions, you’re going to see some missed tackles. But I didn’t see that today. And I saw all five quarterbacks get a chance to do some good things and all of them showed some nice things today. So that’s encouraging for the future to build some depth. Obviously we split the reps up so everybody could play in the game tonight and that was cool too, for the parents and the fans to get to see everybody play.”

The 2018 season opener is four and a half months away, and from now through April 30 fans can purchase season tickets at a reduced price. Six games for the cost of five, starting at just $55, are available by calling (915) 747-6150.

Photo gallery by Andres ‘Ace’ Acosta – Chief Photographer, El Paso Herald-Post