MARYVILLE, Mo. — Maryville head coach Matt Webb and senior quarterback Connor Drake, who scored what appeared to be the game-tying touchdown with 33 seconds left on Friday night, made it very clear after the 14-13 loss to St. Pius X that a missed extra point by freshman Noah Bellamy wasn’t the reason the Spoofhounds lost.
“I have so much confidence in Noah,” Drake said. “He is a freshman stepping up and kicking in varsity games. It takes guts.”
On the extra-point try, the Warriors immediately burst through the line for the Hounds on the attempt.
“Certainly not Noah’s fault,” Webb said. “Boy, there were a lot of guys right there in his lap, so we didn’t protect very good on PAT.”
After the kick came up short, the Spoofhounds (1-3; 1-1 MEC) couldn’t execute an on-sides kick attempt and St. Pius X standout quarterback Jack Mosh was able to take a knee and deliver the Warriors a pivotal MEC victory in a game which decided the conference champion last year.
“You can’t wait until the end, there are so many opportunities where that game should have not been where it was at in the fourth,” Webb said. “That is on us, we have to learn.”
Drake echoed his coach’s sentiment.
“We just have to learn from it and get better for Cameron,” Drake said.
Maryville’s clutch drive late was jump-started by chaos on the Warrior punt team which led to a shanked punt and Maryville getting the ball on the Warrior 31-yard line.
Drake went to work with a 9-yard scramble on third-and-8 picking up the initial first down. He connected with sophomore Delton Davis for a 12-yard gain on another chain-mover.
“The mindset is we just have to be us, we know how to execute and we did pretty well on that last drive,” Drake said. “Everyone did their jobs. Receivers ran good routes and they opened up. I was able to scramble because the routes were good and they pulled the defense away.”
On third-and-goal, Drake used his legs again for a 9-yard touchdown run.
“That was a great drive there and he gave us a chance,” Webb said.
Webb said that the possibility of going for the 2-point conversion was discussed, but at home, they opted to play for overtime.
“We had a talk, and we talked about going for two or going for one,” Webb said. “(Drake) may have made a play going for two and everybody is happy and go-lucky here, but it didn’t happen so.”
While the end had its share of big offensive plays, much of the middle of the game was about missed opportunities because of penalties.
“I thought we played hard,” Webb said. “The kids’ effort on defense was very good. We do not play very disciplined football. We continue to not get off the field on third down. We make penalties. We are undisciplined. We don’t do the things that coaches ask us to do.
“When you have more penalties than they do, that team usually loses. Very undisciplined on both sides of the ball.”
After each team started the game with a three-and-out, Maryville scored on its second drive of the night with a 70-yard drive capped by an 8-yard touchdown by junior Caden Stoecklein.
St. Pius X (4-0, 2-0 MEC) answered on the ensuing drive with a 47-yard pass from Mosh to sophomore Jayshawn Ross jump-started the Warrior offense.
Ross holds offers from Kansas and Kansas State as just a sophomore, and the 6-foot-3 target was a problem for the Hounds both as a receiver and pass rusher.
“When you’ve got a quarterback who is a senior who took them to the state championship and won an MEC (title) last year, and he is a Missouri baseball commit — he is pretty good,” Webb said. “When you are throwing to a receiver who is a sophomore who has an offer from Kansas State, those guys are pretty good.”
Mosh capped the drive with a 14-yard touchdown on third-and-three to senior All-State running back Robbie Sharp.
The defenses controlled the middle of the game, but the Hounds were dealt a big blow when senior captain Drew Spire injured his ankle in the second quarter. In addition to being the leader of the Maryville defense from this middle linebacker spot, Spire is the team’s fullback and his absence certainly could have factored into the decision not to attempt the 2-point conversion at the end of the game.
“He does a really, really good job of coaching me up and making sure that I know what I’m doing too, in case something like that happens,” Macen Shurvington, who took over for Spire at linebacker, said. “I just listen to him and (assistant coach Jacob) Vollstedt and do what they tell me.”
St. Pius X got its offense back with another deep pass from Mosh to Ross with just under seven minutes to play. Facing a third-and-eight, the Hounds double-covered Ross, but Mosh lofted one up and his 6-foot-3 receiver made the play for a 38-yard gain.
On the next play, Mosh rushed for a 10-yard score.
The Spoofhounds will look to clean up their mistakes next week when they are back at the Hound Pound to host Cameron.
“We really just have to dig deep and find our ‘why,’” Drake said. “Like why do you play the game? We have to find our ‘why’ and I think we will be good.”
