Maryville downs Benton 48-6
By DAVID MERRILL Sports reporter
Maryville’s John Zimmerman jumps and grabs a touchdown pass from Trey Oglesby during the Spoofhounds’ 48-6 win over Benton on Friday. Zimmerman finished with two touchdown receptions.
The Maryville Football team (6-0) was honoring its 22 seniors on Friday night in a 48-6 win over Benton (2-4) . The seniors did plenty to make sure the Spoofhounds got the win. Senior quarterback Trey Oglesby completed 10 of his 12 pass attempts for 148 yards and four touchdowns. He threw two to senior John Zimmerman and one each to seniors Jackson Golightly and Spencer Morrison.
Senior Elijah Green also rushed for two touchdowns on the night.
Maryville (5-0) head coach Matt Webb thought his team played really well.
“We won the football game,” he said. “That’s what our goal is every night. We did a good job of focusing on ourselves and sustained some drives. To really finish some drives is something we’ve needed to work on just because we’ve had some explosive plays. There’s times during the year where you need to have the fortitude to finish those drives.”
Oglesby and Zimmerman hooked up for the first score of the game with 8:34 left in the first quarter. Oglesby found Zimmerman for a 20-yard touchdown reception and Oglesby added the two-point conversion to go up 8-0.
Maryville got the ball back and less than two minutes later, Oglesby found Zimmerman again, this time from 11 yards out. Jacob Reuter made the extra point and the Spoofhounds took a 15-0 lead with 6:51 left in the quarter.
Senior Elijah Green made his offensive contribution with a 17-yard touchdown run just before the end of the first quarter and the Spoofhounds took a 21-0 lead into the second quarter after a missed extra point.
The rest of the first half featured a 26-yard touchdown pass from Oglesby to Morrison as well as 17 and three-yard runs from Green to give Maryville a 35-0 lead at the break.
Maryville’s next score came at the 6:36 mark in the third quarter when Oglesby found Golightly from 20 yards out. The extra point was good and Maryville went up 41-0.
Webb said he liked what he saw out of his 6-foot-5 wide receiver.
“He went up and caught the ball,” Webb said. “He’s a tall drink of water and it’s hard to compete against that. He went up and played the ball at the high point. He showed some physicality too and ran over a guy.”
While Webb gave Golightly plenty of credit, Golightly was quick to credit his quarterback and coaches.
“We schemed really well and the coaches did a nice job of that,” Golightly said. “Trey played great. He’s a great quarterback.”
Reece Bickford put the final touches on the game with a 45-yard touchdown rush at the 7:16 mark of the third quarter.
Benton quarterback Cooper Burton was responsible for Maryville’s only blemish as he took it 78 yards for a touchdown with 6:15 remaining the game.
Cooper, who rushed 14 times for 119 yards, was without his leading wide receiver and brother Devon Burton, who was injured in the team’s previous game.
Webb gave a lot of credit to the Benton quarterback.
“We tried to keep him bottled up,” Webb said. “He’s a heck of an athlete and a heck of a competitor. He stood in there and took a lot of hits. He’s just got a smile on his face. You really respect the way he plays.”
Maryville senior Bobby Bruckner also had a solid night rushing the football. He didn’t find the end zone, but he did come away with 111 yards on 10 carries.
Green finished the night with 68 yards on seven carries while Oglesby had 41 yards on six carries.
Morrison tallied 26 yards on his one touchdown catch and Golightly had two catches for 49 yards.
Zimmerman said the team played well as a whole unit.
“We were very explosive,” he said. “We knew we had an advantage with our wide receivers and we just hit them over the top.
Eli Dowis had a sack defensively and Matt Twaddle led the Hounds with 6.5 total tackles.
Benton head coach Matt Tabor said he liked what he saw out of his team under the circumstances, but also said there are things to work on.
“Schematically, Maryville is good on defense,” he said. “They are not going to let us run inside zone and then all of a sudden allow the quarterback to carry the ball to the perimeter. They are funneling everything inside. They took away Cooper Burton. Last week, I thought we were soft. I wanted us to come in and play a quality opponent and play them hard. I thought we did that tonight.”
Maryville takes on Smithville at home on Sept. 30 with a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Home winning streak
The Maryville win marked the Spoofhounds’ 50th straight home win. That is something that Webb is proud of for many reasons.
“This is a special place,” he said. “It’s the Hound Pound. You look at the gameday environment, the student section, the community involvement. When you have the youth football kids walking out with the team, the line just kept coming. Those are future Hounds. It was a special night, not just for the seniors, but for those youth kids that are going to be here playing one night.”
By DAVID MERRILL Sports reporter
Maryville’s Jackson Golightly gets past a Benton defender and looks for more space after hauling in a pass from Trey Oglesby on Friday. Golightly finished with two touchdown receptions on the night.
By DAVID MERRILL Sports reporter
Marvyville’s Reece Bickford breaks through a hole up the middle and runs for a 45-yard touchdown during the Spoofhounds’ 48-6 win over Benton on Friday.
