WINCHESTER, Va. - For the second straight week, Shenandoah
University lost its USA South Conference football game in the
waning moments as Maryville topped SU 22-19 before 1054 Sprint
Field at Shentel Stadium fans Saturday afternoon.
The win keeps the Scots (3-2, 2-0 USA South) perfect in five
meetings against Shenandoah (1-4, 0-2).
Trailing 19-14, Maryville converted a 4th and 3 from
the SU 7 that the Hornets got a hand on and two plays later got the
game-winning score on a TD pass Tim Conner to Wesley Idlette.
Shenandoah did not have an answer for Idlette all day - he had
11 catches for 147 yards and converted numerous crucial third or
fourth down plays.
Until the final drive, it appeared as if the Hornets would snap
the four-game losing streak to Maryville -SU jumped out to a 13-0
lead on a pair of first half scores and then led 19-14 when
freshman Cory
Gay hit the second of his two fourth quarter field goals with
2:51 remaining.
Gay, who won the placekicking job in a three-way battle this
week in practice, provided the hosts with its first two field goals
of the season with a 27-yarder at the 14:51 mark and then the
29-yarder 12 minutes later.
Unfortunately for the home crowd, the Scots returned the ensuing
kick to their own 45 and took nine plays to advance the ball into
the red zone.
From there, two incomplete passes and the third Maryville
timeout surrounded a Rommel Hightower rush to the Shenandoah 7.
Conner hit Ryan Roach on the fourth down play, and Roach made a
juggling catch of the batted ball by the SU defender to keep the
drive alive.
Following a spike, Conner hit Idlette in the back right corner
of the endzone for the winning score.
Shenandoah slightly outgained MC, 312-305, while the visitors
had 17 first downs to the Hornets 16.
SU held the ball for 33:54.
The Hornets travel to Methodist next week for a 1:00 kick.
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