Shenandoah Pounds GC Pride
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Shenandoah University won its final regular season game for the first time in six years with a 44-16 USA South win at Greensboro College Saturday afternoon.
Shenandoah (4-6, 4-3 USA South) also finishes over .500 in league play for the first time since winning the 2004 USA South championship.
The 44 points scored is the third most in school history and the most since a 54-point performance against Chowan in 2003.
Greensboro (2-8, 1-7) actually led the game 3-0 as it drove 39 yards in nine plays on the opening possession of the game and converted a 41-yard Chad Adams field goal.
SU fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving the ball back to the Pride on the Hornets 29, but the Shenandoah defense stepped up with a goalline stand to keep the contest a one-score affair.
The Hornets stuffed GC quarterback Kall Daniel on 4th and goal from the 1, and used the momentum shift to score 30 unanswered points.
Senior Blake Campbell, who fumbled that kickoff, got the comeback started by picking off Daniel on the Shenandoah 40. His 27-yard return put SU into Greensboro territory for the first time all day.
It took just three plays for the Hornets to take the lead for good, as senior Keone Kyle took it around left end for a 9-yard TD run with 78 seconds to play in the first.
Kyle, who had 99 of his 170 rushing yards in the first half, scored touchdowns of 3, 2 and 2 yards at the 9:12, 8:14 and 5:15 marks of the second to turn the contest into a rout.
He finished the day with five touchdowns, all on the ground, to set a new school record. The previous mark was three, originally set by Dennis Robart '02 in 2000 and last tied by BJ Smoot '10 in 2008.
Kyle's final two TD's of the second quarter sandwiched a Corey Giffing safety at the 6:40 mark. Giffing, who had six tackles on the afternoon, sacked Daniel in the endzone for the team's first safety since the 2007 season.
The sack was one of three Shenandoah had in the first half.
The second half was largely a matter of playing out the final 30 minutes of the contest, as SU liberally substituted in the final 15 minutes.
Starting offensive linemen Jamal Venable and Jonathan Doering, playing in their final games, finished the contest playing on defense. Venable actually had a tackle on Greensboro's last possession.
All 60 players on the travel squad played in the game, including seven who saw their first action of the season.
The Hornets finished with 394 yards in total offense with 229 of that coming on the ground.
Shenandoah opens its 2011 season at home against first-year program Stevenson University.
