GREENSBORO, N.C. – Dominating from the opening kick on Saturday afternoon, the defense of the Guilford College football team overwhelmed, setting the tone early and often in the 23
rd annual Soup Bowl, forcing a quintet of turnovers, and holding Greensboro College off the scoreboard to keep the trophy firmly in Quaker hands for the eighth-consecutive year with a 14-0 victory at Pride Field.
Announced at halftime that Guilford was also the winner in the annual food drive associated with the football contest, the Quakers improve to 1-0 on the field, and 2-0 on the week. Guilford is now 16-8 all-time against their crosstown rivals with this standing as the third shutout in the rivalry clash opposite Greensboro, with the other two occurrences happening in 2016 and 2014. Also, the season-opener for the Pride, they fall to 0-1 on the year.
The Quakers committed to a ground attack in this matchup, with
Josh Campbell (Reidsville, N.C.),
Evan Sullivan (McBee, S.C.), and
Malik Woodard (Wilson, N.C.) all accumulating double-digit carries, helping accumulate 198 net rushing yards as a unit. Campbell led that group with 73 yards on the day on just ten carries, punching in a crucial late score. Woodard served as the primary back, drawing 20 totes for 72 yards, adding one catch for 17 yards for the guests' lone receiving score. He was the game-leader in total yardage with 89. Sullivan had 11 carries for 46 yards.
Jaelan Brown (Burlington, N.C.) was efficient under center for Guilford, finishing 10-of-15 passing for 86 yards and a touchdown, while not turning the ball over, something the opposition struggled with. He linked up with six separate receivers with
JuJu Rice (Raleigh, N.C.) finishing as the most common and productive of the bunch with three catches for 40 yards.
The story of the game was the defense for Guilford, as they flew around the field to stifle the Greensboro offense and hold the hosts to just 3.8 yards per play.
Eli Davis (Pikeville, N.C.) led this unit accumulating a career-high eight total tackles. Transfer, and former member of the Pride in 2021 and 2022,
Malik Hargrove (Warren County, N.C.) had six total tackles including five solo, with one tackle for a loss and one sack.
Avery Garner (Denton, N.C.) had 1.5 sacks among his 2.5 tackles for a loss while
Bo Thompson (Fairview, N.C.) and
Tristan Bailey (Statesville, N.C.) each came away with an interception and
Jaylan Richardson (Summerville, N.C.) picked off two Greensboro passes. Guilford's defense also forced a fumble that, at the time of writing, has not been assigned to a player.
De'yon Cannon got the start at QB for Greensboro, but three interceptions on the first four drives ended his afternoon early finishing 2-for-6 for 57 yards, albeit with three interceptions and three sacks taken in his limited action. Jayden Morrison saw a majority of the time under center but only went 5-of-15 for 65 yards, throwing a pick himself.
Christian Burgess accumulated 67 yards on the ground across 13 carries, but he was the only running back for the hosts to gain any traction as the Pride as a team only averaged 2.3 yards per rush.
Shamar Privette led all players in receiving yardage, hauling in three catches for 87 yards with a long of 43. He was one of just four players to haul in a reception for the Pride on the day, with Mandre Ogletree and Christian Burgess catching two each, and Matthew Kidd being on the receiving end of one.
Max Steele led all players with 11 total tackles, including ten solo efforts, adding a pass breakup. JaJuan Givens had nine tackles with one being for a loss. Deshawn Holman was the only Greensboro player to have a full sack on the day.
It took the Quakers just three plays to set the theme for the contest. Getting the home squad into a third-and-seven, Bailey faded off of his man, reading the throw, and undercutting the pass in the direction of Tareek Smith to make a leaping interception. A short return would result in Guilford setting up shop well into Pride territory. Overcoming a pair of false starts on the drive, the offense rode Woodard, who had three carries for 13 yards on the drive, the second of which was a tremendous tote on a third-and-one in which he appeared to be stuffed up, but spontaneously popped out of the pile and obtained the first down yardage to move the chains. His efforts were rewarded a few plays later as he was on the receiving end of a short swing pass to the right from Brown, tip-toed the sideline, and scored, untouched, as less than five minutes in, Guilford was in front, 7-0, following the PAT.
At that point, no one expected to have to wait over 53 minutes of gametime for more points to be scored, it instead looked like it was headed towards being like the last two editions of the rivalry clash. Another interception, this one the first of the collegiate career by graduate student defensive lineman,
Bo Thompson, as Greensboro looked to set up a screen play, set the visitors up even deeper in Pride territory, but they could not cash in. Instead, Greensboro countered with their top scoring chance of the game. A handful of good runs by Smith, plus a deep-ball connection to Privette resulted in the hosts getting their first, and what ended up as their only real chance within the red zone. The drive stalled due to consecutive sacks and an incompletion, but a penalty gave the drive new life. Two plays later, Smith got around the corner and dove for the pylon on the left side of the endzone, but the ball was popped loose and went out the side of the endzone for a touchback and a turnover.
The defenses settled in from there. Richardson claimed the Quakers fourth takeaway in as many drives by jumping a curl route right in front of the Guilford bench, but nothing came of it. When the Pride finally had the chance to punt, from deep in their own territory,
Jay Daniels (Waycross, Ga.) had an electric, 26-yard return setting the guests up in Greensboro's red zone, but a missed field goal was the drives' result.
The Pride did give themselves a chance to put points on the board right before the half as a couple of 20-plus yard rushes by Burgess got them into Guilford territory, albeit as the half expired. However, a late hit out of bounds granted them 15 yards, and an untimed play, but Thomas Chapman missed the kick from about 32 yards out.
In the second half, the Quakers really committed to the ground game, running 36 run plays against just three passes. Textbook ball-control football. And it was successful as they gave themselves chances to score. They punted on their first drive but then drove the ball down, stalled inside the five, eventually resulting in a field goal attempt that sailed wide. Then the following drive they again got inside the five-yard-line, but could not punch it in and turned it over on downs, as between the two drives they had six plays within five yards of paydirt, but could not capitalize.
All the while, the defense was shutting things down. They only permitted a single movement of the chains in the half as the home team hit a chunk play through the air to Privette to get out of the shadow of their own endzone. However, Greensboro never ran a play from Guilford's defensive territory in the second half of play.
Finally, after back-to-back carries of 12 and 25 yards by Campbell, and the two-minute warning occurred, the junior back got in behind the left guard,
Dom Bialer (West End, N.C.) and broke the plain from two yards out to grant the Quakers breathing room with 1:50 to play. A four-play turnover on downs and a runout of the clock ensued as Guilford finalized the 14-0 victory.
The Quakers football team comes home next to clash with Methodist under the Appenzeller Field lights on Saturday, Sept. 14
th. Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM.
#GoQuakes
