Scots Dodge Weather Delays, Race Past Centre 34-23
MARYVILLE – Is stormed the right word to describe Maryville's comeback victory against Centre here Saturday?
The Scots waited through three separate lightning delays totaling a combined 2 hours, and then spotted their Kentucky rivals a nine-point cushion before rallying for a 34-23 football victory.
Bryson Rollins accounted for all five Maryville touchdowns – three passing and two rushing – to lead the Scots past Centre for the first time since 2008. And Maryville stands 2-0 for the first time since 2015.
"It was an emotional win for me and for a couple of our players," said MC head coach Ben Fox, who came to the Scots after spending three years as offensive coordinator for the Colonels under their head coach, Andy Frye. "But it was a good team win. Both sides of the line of scrimmage were really good."
Maryville trailed 9-7 when the third lightning delay struck, halting play for an hour with 4:04 remaining in the second quarter. When action resumed, Centre completed an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive with a TD pass that made it 16-7 Colonels with just 46 seconds left before halftime.
Rollins and Co. needed only 42 of those seconds.
Maryville's sophomore QB led a four-play drive – the big chucks being a 31-yard kickoff return by Tyler Moon and a 51-yard completion to Nick Dagel – before Rollins handled the scoring himself on a 3-yard run.
Just Like 'Make-It-Take-It'
Then because of the earlier delays, there was literally 60 seconds of halftime before Centre was kicking off to Maryville and the Scots scored quickly once again, taking just 39 seconds this time. Moon returned the kickoff 27 yards to the MC 36 before Rollins found Danner Hill for 56 yards on a deep crosser. Rollins then hit Dagel for an 8-yard strike and Maryville had its first lead at 21-16.
On Centre's ensuing possession, Kial Cottingham intercepted a pass and returned it 36 yards to the Centre 17. Five plays later, Rollins was in from the 1 on fourth-and-goal and the lead was 27-16.
Maryville had scored 20 points in 5:10 on the game clock and, without the halftime break, about 10 minutes of actual time. At least it seemed that fast.
"It was a quirk in that we had no halftime, so we got the ball right back," Fox said. "We had some momentum, and we took advantage of a make-it-take-it situation to turn the game in our favor. That was a big turning point and we kind of got it going."
Maryville's first and last touchdowns were Rollins passes to tight end Amare Redd. The Johnson City sophomore climbed the ladder to haul in both, first a 26-yarder in the second quarter and then a 20-yard strike on the first play of the fourth.
Those were Redd's only catches of the day.
Dagel led the receiving corps with seven receptions for 132 yards and a touchdown. Moon caught three for 36, finishing with 133 all purpose yards. He averaged 24.3 yards on four kickoff returns. Mac McCovery IV was the Maryville rushing leader with 10 carries for 45 yards against a stout Centre defensive front. All but one of his yards came in the fourth quarter.
Bost, Cottingham Tops in Tackles
On defense, Tyler Bost led all tacklers with nine, including three behind the line of scrimmage. Cottingham in addition to his interception posted eight stops, as did Devon White. Sacks went to White, Bervin and a shared one between Bost and Bervin.
"Nick Dagel played great," Fox said. "Bryson played well, and I was happy for Amare Redd. And defensively across the board, our DBs really stepped up. It's hard to lose a game when you keep everything in front of you. They thought they were going to be able to push us around up front and they couldn't.
"They ran for 31 rushing yards on 26 attempts, that's 1.2 a carry. They threw it 50 times to get to 300 yards. We threw it 24."
Rollins finished 16-of-24 for 309 yards and three TDs passing to go with his two rushing scores. The sophomore is up to 3,067 passing yards for his brief career, which already stands eighth on the all-time Maryville chart. Saturday, he passed Joey Wood (1996-99) at 2,788 and Nelson Smith (2018-21) at 2,789. His 29 career touchdowns tie for third with Nick Myers (2013-16), and his 211 completions are ninth after eclipsing Brandon Derrick (1994-97) at 204.
Maryville is on the road for the next two weeks. The Scots play at Shenandoah next Saturday as part of the USA South/ODAC Challenge. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. On Sept. 23, Maryville visits Brevard for a 5 p.m. kick.