ATHENS, Tenn. – The Class 6A second-ranked Maryville football team has made a living over the years defeating teams by capitalizing on their mistakes and misfortunes.
Friday night, McMinn County gave the Rebels enough of both to last for a long while.
The Rebels scored off a fumble recovery and kickoff return, overshadowing a subpar offensive performance, to blank the Cherokees 41-0 at McMinn.
“Clearly, our defense won the game for us,” Maryville coach George Quarles said. “Our offense didn’t gain a ton of yards, but the defense hung in, kept us in the game, turned the ball over and allowed our offense to get started.”
The McMinn defense did enough to keep Maryville off balance for a while, but the Cherokees offense did them no favors early, going three-and-out on their first three possessions and throwing an interception on the fourth.
McMinn finished with 213 yards rushing and worked the ball past midfield three times – twice failing to convert fourth downs inside the Maryville 20.
The inability for the offense to stay on the field plagued the defense, which held Maryville without a first down in the first quarter but trailed 13-0 after a 64-yard touchdown by Shawn Prevo on a screen pass.
“The fact we couldn’t get a first down hurt us early,” McMinn coach Bo Cagle said. “The defense was on the field for a long time, and after a while it wore on us.”
Maryville junior tailback Jacob West scored on a 3-yard run and started the second half with an 87-yard kickoff return to invoke the mercy rule. Sandwiched in between was a touchdown pass from Austin Canfield to Stian Romberg and a 17-yard fumble recovery by Brandon Johns.
Cagle was pleased by the Cherokees’ ability to take the ball downfield in the second half. They had a 10-minute drive and thought they scored on a 10-yard run by Drew Masingale on fourth-and 4, but they were called for a block. On the next play, Masingale was stopped 4 yards shy of a first down.
“We’ve been in this boat before,” Cagle said. “We have to find out who is with us and who was going to fight until the end. For us to be successful, we’re going to have to sustain drives and keep our defense on the sideline so they can be rested.”