Football - November 1, 2009

Scots fall before Pride, 26-12

Kelly Franklin, Daily Times Correspondent
With weather and field conditions favoring the ground game, Greensboro College took advantage of superior line play for a 26-12 victory over Maryville College Saturday afternoon on Honaker Field.

The Pride's massive offensive line, averaging 290 pounds from tackle to tackle, and their speedy defensive front controlled the line of scrimmage, especially in dominating the first and fourth quarters.

The Fighting Scots (3-5, 2-3 USA South) gained only 32 yards on the ground, versus 145 netted for their visitors, and the Tim Conner-to-Wesley Idlette passing combo, while effective in spurts, could not overcome the lack of a consistent Maryville rushing attack.

"Our game plan was to keep the clock rolling and get first downs on the ground," said burly 360-pound Pride center Matt Douglas.

Mixing in a variety of misdirection plays and short-yardage passing with a straight-ahead power game, Greensboro (4-4, 2-3) scored on its first possession, with Antwan Thorpe literally walking in from 3 yards out on a flanker reverse, which finished off a nine-play, 81-yard drive after Maryville's first three-and-out opened the contest.

After a fumble ended another long drive, the Pride's Jerry Bates jumped the route of a quick slant pass from M Conner and raced untouched 55 yards to give Greensboro the 14-point cushion with which it would finish the contest.

Following the pick, MC head coach Tony Ierulli huddled all his troops, exhorting them to keep their focus, and for a brief while it looked as if the seven-year veteran had cast a magic spell.

The Scots responded to their skipper with a safety by trapping the Pride punter in the end zone after a bad snap. A touchdown on a Conner to Idlette 54-yard bomb and Andrew Noboa's 41-yard field goal after a Greensboro fumble forced and recovered by Joel Byers, and the Scots were briefly within two points and the lead.

The Pride reclaimed momentum quickly on a 29-yard TD pass from Seth Adams to Antwan Thorpe to take a 20-12 halftime lead after the extra point attempt was blocked.

Neither offense scored the remainder of the contest, with the only points being insurance provided the Pride when Mykel Searcy scooped up a Conner fumble coming on one of six sacks for the Pride defense and rumbled to the end zone from eight yards out.

The two teams exchanged futile possessions for most of the third quarter, and then the Pride put together a most impressive drive, garnering no points but serving as the exclamation point of their punishing performance.

Greensboro took over 9 minutes off the fourth quarter clock on a methodical 17-play drive covering 60 yards, with Matt Martin (22 carries, 119 yards) grinding out most of the real estate with old-school power plays. The drive finally stalled, but the Scots were left with too little time to mount any comeback threat.

"They just wedged us with those big 300-pounders," said Ierulli. "They just outplayed us on both sides of the ball. We had chances to shut them down and couldn't."

When the Pride offense wasn't pushing around the MC front seven, their defense was doing much the same.

Conner was harassed throughout the game, and MC's leading rusher, Rommel Hightower, managed only 46 yards on 11 carries.

"We have no excuses," said Conner, who finished 15-of-25 (two picks) for 191 yards. "(Greensboro) just wanted it more than we did. We came out flat, and they took it to us."

Maryville travels to Virginia to face perennial USA South powerhouse Christopher Newport next Saturday (1 p.m. start) before returning home Nov. 14 for the season finale.

Archives