MELBOURNE, Fla. (Football) – Florida Tech’s offense and defense squared off in the program’s first intrasquad scrimmage at Panther Field Saturday. After running a series of game-type situations, the defense walked away holding the edge over its counterpart.

“I thought [the first scrimmage] went well,” head coach Steve Englehart said. “We had officials today and they were calling penalties. It’s one thing to be in practice and a coach say that might have been a penalty or that was a penalty, but it’s another thing to actually have it called and have the ball backed up.

“It was a good first experience for the offense and defense. Overall, the officials were very positive and said we were pretty sound in what we were doing. We didn’t have a lot of sloppy play in regards to penalties. That’s always good because you don’t want a lot of delay of games, false starts and penalties in your first scrimmage and we really didn’t have any of that.”

The scrimmage began with the offense backed up to its two-yard line. The offense and defense then played a series of third downs from the offense’s 35-yard and 45-yard lines and the defense’s 45-yard and 35-yard lines.

It was then the defense’s turn to try to stop the offense from scoring on second down and only four yards to the end zone. Practice came to a close with the offense attempting to drive on the defense from the offense’s 25-yard line.

“The defense played outstanding and did not let the offense score on any of the drives,” Englehart said. “On the last one, the offense drove all the way down and got inside the five-yard line. The defense held them on four straight downs. The offense had some nice plays, but we were not consistent enough. We’re probably not consistent enough on defense either, but that consistency will come. We’ll continue to coach it and stress it every day.”

Following the workout, Englehart complimented three Panthers on the defensive side of the ball, but quickly gave credit to the entire group.

“Aneus Sangster again had a nice pick,” he said. “Andrew Adair is everywhere, he just makes every tackle. [Jake] Holsinger came up and made some nice hits from the safety position. I don’t think anyone just really stood out. The defense just played well as a unit and did what they were supposed to do.”

He concluded by giving his thoughts on the offense.

“If we can get the ball into Devonte Jones’ hands a little more, I think he’s going to be tough to bring down at the running back position,” Englehart said. “Trevor Sand had some nice runs as well. Our receivers need to do a better job of catching the ball. We had a lot of plays on offense that could have continued if those catches had been made. We’ll do some ball drills next week to help our receivers catch the ball more consistently.”

The Panthers will return to practice at Panther Field on Tuesday.