Running the Ridge

Rebels deliver complete game in rout of Wildcats

By Tate Russell
Assistant Editor
Blount Press Row

Maryville quarterback Nick Myers punches through the Oak Ridge defense on Thursday. Photos by Brandon Shinn

Oak Ridge – In a match up of two teams ranked top 10 in the state, Maryville tallied 481 yards of offense as it cruised to a 38-23 win over Oak Ridge on Thursday.

Nick Meyers led the Rebels offensive attack throwing for 188 yards and three touchdowns while completing 78 percent of his passes as the unbeaten Rebels (5-0) made their second television appearance this season. Meyers added another 55 yards on the ground.

Shawn Prevo led all rushers with 151 yards, picking up 93 of them on one burst ending in a touchdown.

“When we watched them on film, nobody moved the ball on them,” Maryville coach George Quarles said. “We saw film of Powell and Halls and they couldn’t do much on the ground. We had heard a lot about their defense and new it was strength of their team and we were a little surprised we moved the ball as well as we did.”

John Garrett gets his second pick in as many games.

Prevo’s score was set up when cornerback John Garrett dropped deep into coverage and awaited a Rian Hall pass whose flight pattern resembled a wounded duck plummeting from the sky. Garrett pulled it in before stepping out of bounds at the 2-yard line.

On second down, Prevo took the ball around the left corner and quickly sprinted through the secondary. With one man to beat, Prevo firmly planted his palm onto the facemask of a Wildcat defender and shoved him aside before galloping to the end zone.

The score came four minutes after the Rebels’ first. With two minutes remaining in the first quarter, Myers hit his big tight end, Logan Winders, on seam route in the end zone for a 20-yard score.

“It was another great performance by Nick Myers,” Quarles said. “He didn’t miss many throws. That was a heck of a throw to Logan Winders. They were manned up with underneath coverage and he throws it where we’re going to catch it or no one is.”

It wasn’t the kind of throw seen often at the high school level.

“They were in a man look playing cover three and the backer went with him and kept his back turned,” Myers said, “so I threw it at his back a Logan made a great play on the ball to get the score.”

Just as it set up their second score, the Rebel defense helped the offense out on its way to score No. 3.  With the Wildcats backed up and facing fourth-and-25, Dylan Shinsky stormed into the backfield and blocked the punt. Maryville recovered at the 35-yard line.

T.J. Kimble collects a first down for the Rebels.

Two Myers passes would be all the Rebels needed to extend the lead. The senior signal caller hit T.J. Kimble along the left sideline for 22 yards then Chris Raymond in the right corner of the end zone to score.

On the ensuing Oak Ridge drive, Shinsky broke into backfield to stop a Matt Moore sweep for a 3-yard loss. On the next play Will Murrin sacked Hall, backing up the Wildcats up another 3 yards and forcing a quick three-and-out.

The Maryville offense got the ball with 2:59 left in the half and drove down to the 7, where the drive stalled forcing Miguel McNelly a 24-yard field to enter intermission leading, 24-0.

The Rebels’ defense held Oak Ridge to 44 yards of offense in the first half. Hall attempted 23 passes for the Wildcats for the night, the Maryville secondary giving up only 90 yards, 42 of which came in the fourth quarter against what were predominately Rebels reserves.

“When the game was still in question, we didn’t give up many big plays,” Quarles said. “We kept the ball in front of us and we had some key interceptions. That’s what we’ve prided ourselves in defensively, and tonight I think we did that.”

Trenton Shuler opened the second half scoring on an 8-yard run through the middle of the Wildcat defense to give Maryville its biggest lead at 31-0.

Shawn Prevo rushed for 151 yards and a touchdown.

Hall did get the Wildcats on the board when he pulled in a pass from backup quarterback Elliot Norman for a 39-yard touchdown.

With 1.4 seconds left in the third quarter, Myers faked the run and found Shuler coming out of the backfield and up the middle, where the senior halfback side stepped Wildcat safety Tevin Springs and raced to the end zone to complete the Rebels’ scoring and moving the margin to 38-7.

“Trenton came out of the backfield on play action and I found him,” Myers said. “He made a great play on that one breaking one or two tackles to get to the end zone.”

With their heels on the goal line after a fumble recovery, the Rebels gave up a safety late and Moore scored two touchdowns on rushes of 11 and 25 yards in the fourth quarter to create the final margin.