PEMBROKE — The Gold team walked out of Grace P. Johnson Stadium Thursday night with a 13-10 win over the Black team in The University of North Carolina at Pembroke’s Black & Gold Spring Game Thursday night.

But, more importantly, for UNCP head coach Shane Richardson a game with a close score that featured some highlight plays from every position on the field was a successful night toward accomplishing the broader goal, a strong completion of spring practice and better preparing the Braves for the upcoming season this fall.

“We got better as a team (in spring practice), we were able to install quite a bit and guys got better at fundamentals,” Richardson said. “I think tonight was such a great reflection of guys wanting to compete and end it off the right way, and I loved how both teams were very into it and wanting to win the game, and it was a close score, so you couldn’t ask for more.”

The game culminated the 15 practices that make up spring football, as the Braves staged the exhibition in front of their fans. The game mostly took on the format of a regular game, with a few exceptions including a running clock; stats were not officially kept.

Offensively, the Braves played a no-huddle style, moderately faster than in the past.

“(Offensive coordinator Billy) Lindquist has put a big emphasis on that this spring, we want to push the pace a little bit,” said quarterback Josh Jones, a rising senior. “We see that it’s going to give us a competitive advantage. We could have done better with that tonight, but I really like that improvement to our offense, for sure.”

Jones, who played quarterback for the Gold team, and Colin Johnson, on the Black team, each played well in the scrimmage; each had a long touchdown pass: Johnson found Jai’Veon Smalls for 50 yards on Black’s first offensive play from scrimmage, and Jones connected with Trey Dixon on a 61-yard pass late in the first half.

“They gave us a look that we like against that play, Trey did a good job off the line, he stacked his (defensive back), and he just did the rest,” Jones said. “I just put it out there and he went and got it.”

“I really liked both those quarterbacks tonight,” Richardson said. “They both had good production, and some of Colin’s reps, he’s hard to tackle, he gets outside the pocket and his legs are really a weapon.”

Smalls and Dixon’s big plays were part of a strong night by the Braves receiving corps on both the Black and Gold sides.

“Trey Dixon made a big-time play on a deep ball, Rodney Smith made some big catches, Diaz (Alexander) and Josh Miller stepped up on the inside, and the offensive line played great,” Jones said. “Shout out to (assistant coaches Jeff Fantuzzi and Jason Gerber), they did a good job calling the game.”

Freshman JaQuan Kelly looked strong in his first appearance in the Braves backfield, especially early in the game.

“We had four running backs that touched the ball from tailback tonight,” Richardson said. “And I thought all of them had decent little runs you could look back at and say, wow, there’s a nice little combination there of guys that we have in the backfield that are going to compete for some time this fall.”

Defensively, both the Black and Gold teams got to the quarterbacks for several sacks throughout the game, including a few from Masanka Kanku on the Black team.

“I was just working my speed rush up the field, giving whatever the tackle gave me,” said Kanku, a rising redshirt-junior.

“Not every single person is working with each other that is normally used to working with each other, so we had to fragment that (on the offensive line),” Richardson said. “But that does offer for individual performances to shine a little bit on the D-line, so I think that’s what we saw a little bit with that, maybe some mismatches at times.”

Each team’s defense allowed just one touchdown; the Black defense stopped Gold in the red zone to force a field goal twice and the Gold defense forced a Black field goal once.

“We played good as a team,” Kanku said. “The defense stepped up, the offense was driving the ball, but the defense had the ‘bend, don’t break’ kind of mentality. They got to the goal line and we shut them down.”

Those three field-goal attempts were all successful by Alex Alvarado, a rising redshirt-senior, who kicked for both teams in the scrimmage. His three field goals were from 23, 42 and 43 yards.

“We put a big challenge on him, he was kicking for both sides, and obviously for him he needs to be able to be very productive in and of himself, and he was,” Richardson said. “It was good to see, and he really stepped up to the plate, and I was proud to see our production because it can really help our team out.”

With the spring game complete, the Braves’ next team activities outside of conditioning will be the start of fall practice in August; UNCP opens its season at Fayetteville State on Sept. 3.

“They’re going to have to find a great way to stay up with their conditioning, they’re going to have to push themselves and work harder than they have, because these summer months are really going to matter for our season this fall.”