FAU’s annual FanFest was held Saturday afternoon at the Tom Oxley Athletic Fields and the defense continued to showcase itself, defeating the offense 28-25.

The defense forced four interceptions and returned two for touchdowns. One by Tony Rodriguez, who stepped in front of a Graham Wilbert pass, and another by Damian Parms, who intercepted David Kooi.

“Defense wins championships, offense just fills seats,” nose tackle Jarvis Givens said. “That’s what we practice. Getting turnovers, preaching big hits and confusing the quarterbacks. It’s what we’ve come to expect.”

Neither Kooi nor Wilbert, who are both vying for the starting quarterback job, stood out. Both made mistakes by staring down receivers or not having the timing of the plays down correctly. Kooi finished 6-14 with 81 yards, a touchdown and an interception, while Wilbert ended up completing 10 of his 16 passes for 88 yards and two touchdowns.

“Every now and then the timing will be offset and it causes the play to go bad,” Kooi said. “We just have to work on it harder, run it more and we’ll be fine.”

“We definitely have some things to work on on offense,” coach Howard Schnellenberger said in regards to the lack of execution on offense.

After Brian Sirmans intercepted a Graham Wilbert pass on the opening drive of the game, Wilbert led the offense down the field on the following drive. He ended up connecting with Xavier Stinson for a 5 yard touchdown pass to take a 7-3 lead.

After a 37-yard field goal by Marcelo Bonani, the game went to halftime with the offense leading 17-13.

Wilbert, Kooi and redshirt freshman quarterback Stephen Curtis all saw action under center.

In the second half the defense dominated, holding the offense to just eight points: a touchdown and two-point conversion which ended the game. The defense outscored the offense 15-8 in the second half and intercepted Graham Wilbert twice more.

“We definitely put some drives together but we also didn’t do very well in the red zone” Wilbert said. “It always feels good to score and everything but I’ll be thinking about the interceptions I threw all night.”

Freshman quarterback Nick Bracewell also saw some time in the second half, going 2-5 with 10 yards.

As the Owls go into the season with a brand new 3-4 defense, many questions have surrounded the group. Still, they have played up to par thus far in the two team scrimmages.

After forcing eight turnovers in the team’s first scrimmage two weeks ago, the defense forced another four interceptions and reached the quarterback on several occasions, forcing them to roll out of the pocket and get rid of the football.

With the season opener against the University of Florida only two weeks away, the Owls defense is filled with hope, while the offense will have to go back to the drawing board as they try to figure out how to solve their mistakes.

GAME NOTES

-Senior running back Alfred Morris had 10 carries for 29 yards and was held in check by the defense.

-Wide receiver Marcus Cunningham had two catches, both for touchdowns.

-Sophmore running back Travis Jones was down for a few moments, but got up on both feet and was carted off the field.