ELON, N.C. – Three different quarterbacks tossed touchdown passes to three different receivers and the defense caused a couple big turnovers during Elon's second football scrimmage of preseason camp on Tuesday night. The Phoenix will hold its next scrimmage during Saturday's Elon Football Season Kickoff event that begins at 2:30 p.m. inside Rhodes Stadium.

"I would say throughout camp our defense has been ahead of our offense, but it was good to see our offense peck away," said Elon head coach Rich Skrosky. "We played with a little more consistency and had some sustained drives. Being a head coach, when the defense makes a big play you're excited about that and when the offense makes a big play you're excited about that. Over the course of camp you install some more things. So the difference maybe between this scrimmage and the last is that we did have some more shots-down-the-field plays, and we took them. It was purposely done. I wanted to test our secondary a little bit. They go through 13 or so practices and everything is short or intermediate and they get a little comfortable. Maybe they lose a little discipline. The biggest thing in the secondary that we need to improve on is that we can't lose our focus. If you lose your focus as a defensive tackle, a two yard gain becomes an eight yard gain. If you lose your focus as a cornerback, it's a 60 yard gain. We tested the secondary a little more." 

After a pair of three-and-out series, Conor Hughes guided the third-team offense 17-play drive that finished with a 21-yard field goal from Skyler de Groot. Hughes completed four of his seven passes for 31 yards and ran it three times for another 10 yards during the drive that began at the offense's own 27-yard line.

On the final drive of the first period of the scrimmage, which also began at the 27, Daniel Thompson guided the offense to a quick score. Facing a third-and-three after three completions and a penalty, Thompson went deep to John Luke Arrington who drug two defenders into the end zone for a 61-yard touchdown reception.

Thompson also guided the maroon and gold on the first possession of the second period. This time, the drives began at the offense's 43-yard line. After moving across midfield, the offense went for it on fourth-and-seven at the defense's 41-yard line. Thompson looked deep, but his pass was intercepted by Chris Blair who would have returned the pick for a 64-yard touchdown, but the officials blew the play dead prior to him reaching the goal line.

Drives began at the offense's 36-yard line in the third period. On the second drive, Connor Christiansen led the team on a 10-play drive for a score. Facing first-and-20 from its own 40, Malcolm Summers ran it for seven yards before Christiansen hit Demetrius Oliver for an 18-yard connection to the defense's 35-yard line. On third-and-three from the 12-yard line, Christiansen dropped back and found Summers in the flat for a 12-yard touchdown.

During the same period, Hughes connected with Josh Ramseur on the first play of the drive for a 64-yard pitch-and-catch for a score.

Of Hughes, Skrosky added, "He's better fundamentally than he was in the spring, so that tells you that he worked hard on his fundamentals all summer. He's really starting to grasp the offense and he's really doing well in the meeting room. I think he's taking that to the field. I'll say this about Conor, he loves football. He still needs to be really consistent."

The final period focused on late-game and overtime situations. With the offense trailing by three in overtime, Christiansen tossed a pass to Zach Duprey who was barely kept out of the end zone. Two plays later, a fumbled snap was recovered by defensive lineman Chris Jones to snuff out the scoring attempt.

When speaking about the upcoming scrimmage, Skrosky stated, "The goal is to get the ones, over the course of the three scrimmages, about 140 snaps of live football." That equals about two football games. They got 35 last time, about 45 tonight and will get about 55 on Saturday. When we finish that, we'll have a really good feel of what the travel list will be, who's going to be on scout team and we'll start talking about the potential red-shirts on guys after that scrimmage. 

Upcoming 2015 Elon Phoenix Preseason Practice Schedule
Wed., Aug. 19 at 2:15 p.m.
Thurs., Aug. 20 at 8 a.m.
Thurs., Aug. 20 at 7:15 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 22 at 3 p.m. (Rhodes Stadium)
Sun., Aug. 23 at 2:15 p.m.
Mon., Aug. 24 at 8:15 a.m.
Mon., Aug. 24 at 7:45 p.m.
* Thurs., Aug. 27 at 4:05 p.m. (Rhodes Stadium)
*After classes have started