Football - November 1, 2009

Maryville 'playing for pride now'

Dave Link, Knoxville News Sentinel
MARYVILLE - It's come down to playing for pride for the Maryville College football team.

The Scots' hopes for a winning season vanished with a 26-12 loss to Greensboro College in a USA South Athletic Conference game on a cloudy Saturday afternoon.

Maryville College (3-5, 2-3 USA South) has two games left.

"I want to see what our guys are made of these last two weeks," Scots coach Tony Ierulli said. "That's all we can do."

Greensboro (4-4, 2-3) took care of any outside chance the Scots had of getting a share of the conference title.

"We're just playing for pride now," Scots junior quarterback Tim Conner said. "We don't have any shot at winning the conference championship, which was our goal.

"If we win the next two weeks, we finish .500, which is an unsuccessful season for us, but we've got to build momentum for going into next season so we've got to close out the next two games and not give up."

Conner, who suffered a slight shoulder separation Oct. 17 against Averett and played only a couple of series in last week's loss to North Carolina Wesleyan, took a beating against Greensboro.

On the second play of the game, Conner took a hard hit while throwing an incomplete pass - the start of a long day under heavy pressure by Greensboro.

Conner could barely lift his right throwing arm when the game ended.

"I have so much adrenalin I try not to pay attention to it (the pain)," Conner said. "I don't make excuses and say I should have played better because I was in pain."

Greensboro sacked Conner six times for minus-40 yards. Senior defensive end Brian Richardson had three sacks and four tackles for loss.

"That was our game plan, to get pressure on 'em," Richardson said. "We just came together as a team and said, 'Let's go get after 'em.' "

Greensboro got two touchdowns by its defense - one on an interception return and another on a fumble return.

The Pride scored on its opening drive, moving 81 yards on nine plays. Flanker Antwan Thorpe scored on a 3-yard reverse. With 14:12 left in the half, Jerry Bates intercepted a Conner pass and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead. Ierulli called his team together for a rally.

"I sensed we were getting down on the sideline," Ierulli said. "The guys played hard. We responded and got back in the ballgame."

The Scots got a safety when Greensboro punter Donnie Leopold was pressured and threw the ball out of his end zone. Conner threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to Wesley Idlette, and Andrew Noboa's 41-yard field goal cut the deficit to 14-12 with 3:32 to play in the half.

Any momentum was gone when Thorpe caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from Seth Adams with 1:10 left in the half for a 20-12 lead.

Mykel Searcy's 8-yard return for touchdown off a Conner sack and fumble with 7:02 left in the third made it 26-12.

"They just outplayed us on both sides of the ball," Ierulli said. "They just overwhelmed our offensive line. That's been a concern all season."

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