Spoofhounds bounce back, trounce Dragons
SAM GALL/THE FORUM
Maryville senior Tyler Siemer, left, celebrates a touchdown against Cameron on Friday night in the Hound Pound.
MARYVILLE, Mo. – It has been an unfamiliar start to the season for the Maryville football team, as the Spoofhounds went into their Week 5 matchup against Cameron at 1-3.
The Hounds struggled offensively a week ago, but they were rolling on all cylinders Friday night as they trounced the visiting Cameron Dragons 52-0.
“I was pleased with the way we practiced this week,” Maryville coach Matt Webb said. “Anytime you lose a heartbreaker 14-13 like last week, sometimes it is hard to not let a loss like that affect the next week’s preparation and game. Our kids did a great job learning from that and we executed really well tonight.”
Maryville (2-3; 2-1 MEC) executed all night long as the Hounds were able to score a touchdown on their first seven drives. Senior running back Tyler Siemer started the night off with two rushing scores of his own, the first was a 14-yard run punctuated by Siemer trucking the opposing defender into the end zone as he busted his way across the goal line. On Maryville’s second drive after forcing Cameron to punt, Siemer sprinted his way for 30 yards to put the Spoofhounds up 14-0 early on with 6:19 left in the first quarter
“Well, first of all, I’d like to give a shout out to the offensive line, they blocked great tonight,” Siemer said. “I just try to run physical and get as many yards as I can, I keep my feet driving and I fight for everything I can get.”
The Hounds kept their foot on the gas on their third drive. Senior quarterback Connor Drake dropped back to pass on third-and-goal from the nine and he could not find anyone open. The athletic quarterback scrambled out of the pocket to his left and found junior Caden Stoecklein and the Hounds were quickly up 21-0 with a 1:00 left in the first quarter.
A Cameron punt gave Maryville the football back quickly as the second quarter had just begun. Starting right where they left off, the duo of Drake and Stoecklein connected once again. Drake took the snap in shotgun formation and faked as if he were going to keep the ball on a designed run, faking out the defense he dropped back to pass and found Stoecklein for a 50-yard touchdown pass.
On the ensuing possession, junior defensive back Drew Burns picked off the Cameron quarterback to set up the offense in prime field position to score on their fifth consecutive drive. With the offensive line paving the way for Siemer, he found the end zone for the third time, this time a 14-yard score. Utilizing the run game, the Hounds advantage was 34-0 with 10:28 still on the clock in the second quarter.
“We prepared all week, we knew what they were going to do against our fronts,” senior offensive lineman Blake Casteel said. “We knew we just had to do our jobs and execute, we needed to block our man and not make the mental mistakes we have been making.”
Junior running back Adrian McGee became the third Spoofhound to score a rushing touchdown as he ran in an 8-yard score. McGee’s touchdown was all set up by the play before as he busted off a 53-yard run. McGee turned the corner and sprinted past the Dragons secondary down to the 8-yard-line, showing off his speed and burst.
Maryville’s following and seventh drive of the night involved more of McGee. McGee got the handoff, and he was not going to be pushed out of bounds this time around. On the third play of the drive, the junior found the end zone for the second time thanks to a 60-yard sprint and score.
“I come into the game and my mindset is to execute,” McGee said. “I really have to give it to my offensive line; without my line I wouldn’t have been able to run the ball that far. The biggest thing tonight was to just execute, and I feel like individually and as a team, we did that.”
Maryville took a 49-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. Shutting out the Dragons, it was clear and evident that Maryville’s defense played with a chip on their shoulder versus a familiar MEC opponent.
“We wanted to stop the run game, we wanted to take one phase away,” Webb said. “Every week is the same, we have got to stop the run. We had good leverage, and what I mean is that we did not let them outside. Our safeties did a good job of setting the edge and our corners were coming up, I thought we tackled better tonight.”
Maryville will look to keep the momentum going as they will travel to St. Joseph next week to face off against another MEC rival, the Benton Cardinals.
