Greensboro College Pride Football Drops Hard Fought Game to Huntingdon 48-40

GREENSBORO, NC — The Greensboro College football fell in a hard fought game to Huntingdon College on Saturday afternoon by a score of 48-40.

Huntingdon won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, to give The Pride the ball to start the game. On the opening drive of the game, it only took Greensboro two plays to find the end zone. Junior quarterback Ryan Throndset found Justin Dukes on the far sideline, and broke away for a 75 yard touchdown strike to give The Pride an early 6-0 lead.

The Hawks responded right back with a long play of their own when The Hawks quarterback found an open receiver in the flat for a 51 yard strike. Huntingdon added another score before the end of the quarter to making the score 14-6.

In the second quarter, The Hawks scored on their first two possessions to make the score 28-6, but Greensboro would not give up. The Pride came back following touchdown drive with an 11 play 65 yard touchdown drive. Throndset hit running back Warren Scott Jr on a 11 yard screen play out of the backfield to get within 28-12 going into the half.

After the break, Huntingdon came out firing on all cylinders, using a three play 66 yard drive extending the lead to 34-12. Once again, The Pride’s offense responded back big , with a long 12 play 71 yard drive capped off by a Scott five yard touchdown run, bringing the score to 34-26 following the extra point.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Greensboro special teams gave The Pride a big boost in the game. On a fourth down punt attempt, Kyle Smith got to the Hawks punter and blocked the punt, which was picked up by Joseph Lewis and returned 50 yards for a Pride touchdown. With the touchdown return, The Pride got within one possession at 34-26 .

From that point on, it was a shootout between the two teams for the rest of the game. Huntingdon struck just three minutes later with a touchdown to make the score 41-26.

Yet again the heart of Greensboro came back out putting together yet another impressive drive in the game. The Pride caped off yet another 11 play drive, Throndset found his third different target of game connecting with Johntavis Brown for a 17 yard touchdown completion and a failed extra point made the score 41-32.

Huntingdon found the end zone one last time to take the score to 48-32 with just under three minutes remaining in the game. Greensboro continued fighting it out. The Pride found the end zone in six plays using just 1:32 pulling the score back within one possession. On the scoring play, Throndset threw his fourth touchdown of the day when he hit Dexter Russell in the back left corner of the end zone on a 14 yard strike. Throndset converted on the two point conversion to Dukes to make the score 48-40.

The Pride attempted an on-side kick that Huntingdon recovered, followed by two knell downs to close out the game at 48-40.

The Greensboro defense played strong, led by Ethan Smith with 11 tackles in the game, while recovering one fumble. Desmond Beasley, Kyle Smith, and Julian Cinotticontributed nine tackles a piece. Cinotti led the way with two tackles for losses for three yards. Ethan Smith and Micah McMaster also contributed a tackle for loss. Sam Parker also had a fumble recovery for Greensboro.

On offense for The Pride, Scott carried for 76 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries. Russell had a game high seven receptions for 57 yards and one touchdown. In the game, quarterback Ryan Throndset completed 65 percent of his passes for 353 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions.

Following the game, Coach Young had this to say, “I am really proud of the way our guys fought in the game, we have to work on some minor errors. Our guys have come a long way in the past few weeks, but we still have a long way to go.”

With the loss, The Pride will fall to 1-5 on the season and 0-3 in USA South play. Greensboro will hit the road again next Saturday, when they travel to Rocky Mount , NC to take on The Battling Bishops of NC Wesleyan. Game time is set for 1:00 pm. Check out www.greensborocollegesports.com for all the latest on Greensboro College athletics and for coverage links of the game.