Greensboro Regains Soup Bowl With 14-13 Win at Guilford
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Senior Antwan Thorpe caught six passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns in Greensboro College's 14-13 victory at Guilford College Saturday night in the 16th Annual Gate City Soup Bowl. The victory marked the first for Greensboro rookie head coach Bill Young and snapped the Pride's 11-game losing skid that dated to 2010.
Thorpe, the Pride's game Most Valuable Player, caught his second score off a 27-yard pass from Ryan Throndset with 5:49 left in regulation. Mark Bush's point-after pushed Greensboro ahead for the first time.
Guilford drove to the Greensboro 37-yard line on its ensuing possession, but stalled at the Pride 40. Greensboro failed to run out the clock and Guilford regained possession near midfield with 2.9 seconds left. After a delay of game penalty on the Quakers, backup quarterback Chance Green's Hail-Mary pass was knocked down at the Greensboro five-yard line as time expired.
Greensboro freshman Eddie West carried 21 times for a game-high 107 yards and Throndset threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns. The Pride's offense rolled up 380 total offensive yards and held nearly a five-minute edge in time of possession.
After a shaky first quarter that saw the teams combined for two missed field goals and three turnovers, Guilford took a 7-0 lead on a 36-yard touchdown pass from Matt Pawlowski to Kevin Tiller II with 3:32 left before halftime.
Throndset found Thorpe over the middle for a 72-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass late in the third quarter, which tied the score at 7-7. Guilford's JerMario Gooch returned the ensuing kickoff 59 yards, setting up a 10-yard scoring pass from Pawlowski to Nick Mearite with 4:09 left in the quarter. The point-after attempt failed, which left the Quakers' lead at 13-7.
Pawlowski completed 13-of-25 passes for 145 yards and two scores in his college debut. Tiller finished with four catches for 55 yards and Mike Williams led the ground gainers with 45 yards on eight carries. Sophomore linebacker Robert Smith collected Guilford's game MVP honor after making a game-high 10 tackles and recording one of three Quakers' interceptions.
While the actual Soup Bowl Trophy returns to Greensboro College for the eighth time in the 16-game series, Guilford held on to the Soup Bowl Cup Award, which goes to the school that raises the most items in a food drive associated with the game. Guilford collected 5,249 foodstuffs, compared to 3,874 for Greensboro. The food benefits the Greensboro Urban Ministry of Greensboro.
