ROME, Ga. — In the school’s first ever football game, Berry College on Saturday fell 37-0 to the Scots of Maryville College.
A capacity crowd filled Rome’s historic Barron Stadium and remained raucous even as the Scots marched down the field on their six scoring drives. Fans showed their support for the home-team Vikings throughout the game, even as the game slipped out of reach.
The Scots amassed a total of 516 yards while the Vikings totaled 221 yards. Throughout the evening, Berry moved the ball well down the field, but failed to put points on the board.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” Berry Head Coach Tony Kunczewski said following the game. “You have growing pains early on. And, we purposefully didn’t want to go for the quick fix and try to go for bringing in a bunch of transfers.
“We want to develop guys in four years,” Kunczewski added. “And, I can tell you they’re going to learn from this experience as they’re going to learn from next week. You’d like to think about year three and four — guys that have been playing for two and three years together will be seasoned vets.”
Berry takes on the JV squad of LaGrange College next Sunday in Rome, then heads to Macon on Sept. 21 to take on Mercer University.
“We’re just going to keep on playing hard,” Kunczewski added. “We’re going to take it one game at a time. I just love the effort. Because often times when you look up at the scoreboard — you can start to relax and say, ‘we have no shot at this.’ But, the thing that I was most encouraged about with our guys is there was no quit.”