Rebels roll past Farragut
By John Brice | (sports@thedailytimes.com)
They have played on Saturday, Sunday, Fridays and now a pair of Thursdays.
The common denominator for Class 6A’s top-ranked Maryville Rebels? They always win — and by double figures. Maryville did so again Thursday night at Shields Stadium, paced by quarterback Nick Myers’ six touchdown passes in a record-setting 60-41 win against the visiting Farragut Admirals.
It marked the most combined points ever scored in a Rebels’ game, most touchdown passes by an individual in a single game and it also saw record-setting head coach George Quarles improve to an astounding 187-13 in his 200th career game.
“This is our last one on a different day,” Myers said of playing a night early. “Hopefully we’ve got one more on a Saturday. That’s what Coach was saying.”
The first Saturday in December is when the Class 6A state championship game will be played at Tennessee Tech, and the Rebels (8-0) certainly looked poised to challenge for a third-straight state crown on this night.
“I thought the kids prepared well and were ready to play,” said Quarles, who has collected nine state championships among those wins. “I thought we did a lot of good things offensively. We got behind them some in the secondary, and they were going to gear up to stop the run.”
Myers made the ground game virtually a moot point. The first-year starter at quarterback FROM 1B
finished the game 12-of-18 for 342 yards with the six scores. He also rushed nine times for 98 yards.
It was big plays that characterized the first half. The Rebels scored touchdowns covering 33, 51, 37, 28 and 99 yards through the air and by kickoff return.
Myers connected twice with Cody Carroll, the game’s first score covering 33 yards and the second connection between the two from 37 yards out. Myers had a sublimely executed 51-yard toss to a wide open D.T. Bailey and then polished off the Rebels’ 38-point first half with a 28-yarder to T.J. Kimble in the left corner of the end in front of the Don Story Athletic Center.
All those plays were sandwiched around Shawn Prevo’s electrifying bobble and zig-zagging kickoff return that answered a Farragut score, one of the rare times a Jonathan King kickoff didn’t sail deep into the end zone. Prevo also had a 14-yard scoring dash in the second half.
Myers later added additional scoring salvos to Bailey and Carroll from 24 and 68 yards, respectively.
“They bit up on the play-action really hard all game, and we ended up getting behind them a couple of times,” Myers said. “All I had to do was lay it out there. We’ve got receivers that can run and catch.
“They overlook them with Trenton (Shuler) and Prevo in the backfield, they overlook the receivers out there. Cody can fly, and we’ve got Chris Raymond and T.J. out there. But then again, it’s all about the offensive line.”
Myers riddled the Admirals with more than 220 first-half passing yards as Maryville (8-0) pushed its winning streak to 37 games.
Farragut (3-5) stayed within striking distance until late in the second frame, also largely via the big play. Jackson Fain had a 59-yard scoring burst in the early going and quarterback Bryan Phillips hit Thomas Barnett from 43 yards away as Farragut earned the dubious distinction of scoring more points than anyone else ever has in a loss to Maryville and became the first team other than Alcoa to score 40-or-more against the Rebels since Cleveland in it’s 1994 win.
Maryville visits William Blount next week and wraps up its regular season Oct. 26 at home against Lenoir City.
