Two late interceptions by quarterback Mike Donato led to the white team defeating the blue team 14-6 in the Panthers’ annual Spring Game at O’Brien Stadium Saturday.

But Donato’s interceptions were not an indication of the solid spring he ended up having.

“Mike is our No. 1 coming out of the spring,” said head coach Bob Spoo. “He accepted a challenge like a man. He commanded the respect of the players.”

Heading into the spring, the Panthers had five quarterbacks that would compete for the starting job.

Last year’s backup Kyle Kniss and red-shirt freshman transfer Bodie Reeder led the blue team to the victory.

Junior Cole Stinson joined Donato on the white team.

With the quarterback position being one of the most hotly-contested jobs this spring, Spoo chose to keep his quarterbacks live and not protect them with an orange jersey that would make them off-limits.

“It’s the only way to truly assess what a guy has,” Spoo said.

Donato and Stinson scrambled when they had to and were able to stay on their feet against a Panthers defense that was one of the best in the school’s history at takeaways last season.

“It’s good to be going up against them in the spring,” Donato said. “It makes all of us better.”

To start the second half, the blue team drove 75 yards in 6 minutes, 56 seconds for their only score of the game.

Running back Ademola Adeniji carried the bulk of the load in that drive, as well as all game.

Just about every time he touched the ball, the Panthers picked up five yards or more.

Adeniji was academically ineligible a year ago and Eastern is hoping that he can remain eligible to help strengthen an already-solid backfield.

“It’s too bad he was ineligible last year and it’ll be too bad if he’s ineligible next year but he’s putting his work in,” Spoo said. “He’s a tough guy who relishes the competition and the hitting part of the game.”

Spoo also pointed out that Travorus Bess had a good spring as well and the running game should be an asset for Eastern in the fall.

While the offense has made strides in the spring, Spoo still knows that the defense is where games will be won and lost, including a defensive line that lost Kory Lothe and Travis Wanzeck to graduation.

Spoo said that defensive end Michael Torres and defensive tackle Tim Kelly both stepped up their games this spring. Transfer Ryan Bennett also impressed Spoo on the defensive line, with Spoo describing Bennett as a “diamond in the rough.”

“(Defensive line) is a position where we thought we’d be weak because of Kory Lothe and Wanzeck graduating,” he said. “All of a sudden it’s become a big plus for us.”

The main thing the Panthers are happy about is they came away from the game with no new injuries, Spoo said.

After the practice, the Panthers introduced several high school recruits and then Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who graduated from Eastern in 2002, delivered a speech at the behest of Spoo.

The speech focused on sticking with their plan and continuing to improve over the summer while also never waiting for things to happen.

“His speech was definitely true,” linebacker Clint Sellers said. “You can never stop working.”

“He’s an icon for our program,” Spoo said. “It was meaningful to me and it should be for those guys. You can’t wait for it to happen.”