BREVARD, N.C. – On a busy Saturday on the campus of Brevard College with Homecoming festivities in full swing, the Brevard College football team (3-3, 3-1 USAS) used a balanced offensive attack and smothering defense to take a dominant victory over Maryville College (1-5, 1-3 USAS), 31-0, on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Ives-Lemel Family Field.
Sophomore quarterback Taylor Jackson III earned the first start of his Tornado career, impressing with 241 total yards (204 passing, 37 rushing), throwing four touchdown passes while going 14-for-24. Three different wide receivers – Luis Alvarez, Brandon Norris, and Zackary Orr – hauled in the last three TD's of Jackson's afternoon, while senior defensive lineman Jerome Bass took a shuffle pass three yards for his first career offensive score. Norris finished with a game-high 77 receiving yards – including a game-long 59-yard touchdown catch – while Orr had 70 yards with a 40-yard touchdown pitch-and-catch. Alvarez scored his first career TD on a 14-yard connection.
Sophomore running back Devonte Murray led the Tornado backfield, as the Murphy, North Carolina native rushed eight times for 69 yards – including a 35-yard scamper and 8.6 yards-per-carry. Deshonte Kirkland added 34 yards rushing while also breaking off a 27-yard burst.
Bass, who caught a touchdown pass and logged the lone kickoff return for the Tornados (17 yards), helped lead a dominant defensive performance for BC. The Red Springs, North Carolina product logged six tackles, wrangled down Maryville signal callers 1 ½ times, and broke up a pass while also logging a pair of QB hurries. Senior linebacker Steffon Canady logged a game-high three sacks while also forcing two fumbles and recovering one. The 2019 Scotty Whitelaw Bowl Most Valuable Player led all Tornados with three QB pressures.
Tyler Harrison and Lindin Gault led the Tornados with eight tackles apiece, with Gault setting his new career-high with eight stops and half a sack. Jailin Smith, a freshman defensive back from Roxboro, North Carolina, logged the first start of his collegiate career, tallying six tackles. Junior linebacker Toby Naylor added five tackles and a sack to BC's dominant effort.
Senior placekicker Stamati Damalos hit all three of his extra-point attempts, while splitting the uprights with a 38-yard field goal.
Overall, the Tornados outgained Maryville 362-143, while doubling the Scots in passing yards 204-102 and dominating the rushing attack 158-41. BC's defense forced a total of four turnovers, while its offense kept a clean sheet, not turning the ball over a single time.
Brevard won the toss and deferred to the second half, giving Maryville the ball to start play. The Scots went three-and-out before booting the ball to the Tornado offense. BC was able to get inside the Maryville 25-yard-line, but a Damalos field goal attempt missed to the left.
After another Tornado defensive stop, Murray's 35-yard rush set up Jackson's shuffle pass to Bass, giving the Tornados a 7-0 advantage early.
Maryville was forced to punt for the third-straight possession before an eight-play, 37-yard Brevard drive was capped by Damalos' 38-yard field goal that gave Brevard a 10-0 lead.
One of the longer Scot drives of the afternoon – a 10-play, 42-yard stretch – was halted on fourth down when Canady sacked Nelson Smith, forcing a fumble. On Maryville's next possession, Dante Anderson jumped a route and picked off Trevor Thomas, as BC's defense forced its second-consecutive turnover.
Both sides traded punts on their ensuing possessions before Jackson found Orr, who dashed through the Maryville defense for a 40-yard touchdown connection to extend BC's margin, 17-0, that it would take into the locker rooms.
Brevard came out in the second half firing, as a 17-yard Bass kickoff return set up the Tornados near midfield. Jackson and Norris, who then sprinted down the near sideline to the house. Norris' score gave BC a 24-0 advantage.
BC put together a seven-play, 60-yard drive that ended with Jackson's fourth touchdown pass of the afternoon – a 14-yard connection with Alvarez in the back of the end zone – that handed BC a 31-0 lead that it wouldn't relinquish.
Brevard's fourth quarter was highlighted by Cole Tomlin, who scooped a fumble on a mishandled punt snap, marking the first career fumble recovery for the freshman from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
The Tornados will now turn their attention to next Saturday, October 16, where Brevard will hit the road for a 4 p.m. kickoff against LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia.
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-BC-
