Recommend This StoryHeartbreaker: Fluke play propels Scots past Hornets
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By Jeremy Stafford -- jstafford@nvdaily.com
WINCHESTER -- Once again Shenandoah linebacker John Redmond had a fine performance against Maryville; once again it was in a losing effort.
A year ago, in his first start for the Hornets, Redmond tied fellow linebacker Corey Giffing with a team-high 12 tackles, two for a loss, in a three-point defeat. On Saturday, Redmond had 11 tackles, four for a loss of 13 yards, 1.5 sacks and an interception in the Hornets' 22-19 loss to the Scots.
The shortcoming is just the latest in a string of Shenandoah losses decided by eight points or fewer. It's also the latest loss decided by a single, preventable play.
With Shenandoah leading Maryville 19-14, the Scots facing a fourth-and-3 on the SU 7-yard line with under a minute left in the game, Maryville quarterback Tim Conner heaved a desperate pass to wideout Ryan Roach.
An SU lineman tipped the pass, though, and the ball fluttered high into the air. Redmond rushed toward the ball, but admitted he could only hope that another Hornet might make a play -- catch the ball, bat it down, anything to end the game.
But no one made a play, and the ball fell into the arms of Roach on the SU three, the four-yard gain reviving the Scots' drive. Conner hit wideout Wesley Idlette in the end zone two plays later for the game-winning score.
Redmond had a single word, a single feeling to describe the troubling loss: "Empty."
"But that's football," Redmond continued. "Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn't. In the two years I've been here, it seems like everything goes away from us instead of goes for us. You can't do anything about it. You just gotta keep coming out and playing hard.
"But it is hard -- it's hard to swallow, definitely."
For once this season, there wasn't a glaring weakness in the Hornets' performance. Redmond and the defense held the Scots, who until their trip to Winchester averaged 405 yards per game, to only 305 yards; and quarterback Vern Lunsford and the SU offense racked up 312 yards of their own. Even the special teams, who have given up big plays in past losses, had only a single, outstanding blemish: A blocked extra point following the Hornets' game-opening touchdown drive.
Place kicker Cory Gay kicked two field goals in the loss, and punter Nic Hoover, deciding not to fall on a bad snap inside the SU 20 on a fourth-and-11 in the fourth quarter, instead lined a punt down to the Maryville 22.
Even with Shenandoah tailback Keone Kyle averaging only 3.2 yards per carry, dinking a one-yard run here, dunking a three-yard run there, Lunsford ran the option to near perfection, rushing for 56 yards and a touchdown. Lunsford also threw for 153 yards on nine completions.
Yes, everything seemed to be falling into place for the Hornets, who were primed to earn their first conference win of the season.
"I thought Keone did a good job running the ball, Anthony [Cordero, too]," Shenandoah coach Paul Barnes said. "Boy, it just gets frustrating. We should have come away with touchdowns instead of field goals, but we had enough points on that board to win, too.
"We gave ourselves the opportunity to win."
But there was that troublesome fluke of a play at the end of the fourth quarter, which made it all so meaningless. And it wasn't even the first time the Scots succeeded in what essentially came down to a must-score situation. Shenandoah led Maryville 13-0 with 1:54 remaining in the first half, but Conner led a nine-play, 72-yard touchdown drive to bring the Scots within 13-7 going into the half.
"That was huge going into the half," Conner said. "We've been a second-half team for most of the season, and if we can go in [at halftime] within striking distance, we can come back and win the game."
Conner and the Scots certainly came back, clearly focusing on getting the ball into Idlette's hands on that final dive of the game. Idlette ended the night with 147 receiving yards, Conner with 204 passing yards. Conner completed five passes to Idlette in the Scots' game-winning drive.
With the loss, the Hornets fall to 1-4 on the season, 0-2 in the USA South, and with the conference title slipping out of reach, it seems the Hornets will need a bit of help if they want to end the season atop the conference standings.
"We just gotta all get better as a team," Lunsford said. "We've got little things we can work on -- we do that, we finish up on a positive note, you never know, things could fall into place somehow and we slip into playoffs."
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