Thursday, November 05, 2009
Grinding it out in Giles
With a district title and playoff berths on the line, the Spartans battle Radford on Friday with running on their minds.
Ray Cox covers recreational, high school and college sports in the New River Valley. If you have information you’d like featured,
e-mail ray.cox@roanoke.com or call 381-1672
Ray Cox
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| Ray Cox
ray.cox@roanoke.com, 381-1672
PEARISBURG -- The soft portion of the high school football audience has had it pretty easy this season.
Really, they've had it good the last several years.
For one thing, going into the last regular season game of the campaign Friday, frost has been visited on no nearby playing fields. Nor have there been harsh gales and deep mud. Sure, it's rained a couple of times, but nothing to get too excited about.
As certainly as a kick must start every contest, though, the night rapidly approaches that will boot the softies right in the seat of the pants.
Cold, sleet, snow, relentless rain, quicksand between the 20 yard lines. This is November in the commonwealth of Virginia, perfect for the football postseason.
When that icy night arrives, it will be helpful to be able to run the football. To that end, the team with the most stout-hearted (not to mention stout) offensive line and strong, agile, sure-handed running backs is apt to carry the day.
Big line, good backs, devotion to the doctrine of ball protection: Sounds a lot like Giles.
The Spartans never change. They run the single-wing offense shine or rain. That means lots of power football, also four state championships and tons of other big victories.
They'll need one Friday against archrival Radford, the Three Rivers District title again on the line to be won or shared.
A VHSL Group A Division 2 Region C playoff berth also could be at stake. Giles (6-3, 3-1) may already be in the region; Radford (6-3, 4-0) maybe not so much. In either case, both teams are best advised to consider it a must-win. As if Bobcats-Spartans has ever been anything but.
"We've got a great opportunity Friday night, boys," hollered Giles coach Jeff Williams to open this week's first practice.
With four running backs the caliber of those the Spartans can run out there, it's no wonder they feel like they have a chance every night. It's been a long tradition of quality backs and this year's quartet has lived up to that.
Among alternating tailbacks Travis Robertson and Andrew Epling, fullback Justin Gautier, and wingback Matt Bane, Giles has rushed for 2,577 yards in nine games. Those four have averaged between 5.5 (Gautier) and 6.9 (Robertson) yards per rush and scored a combined 21 touchdowns.
"We have a good group here and all of them are good ball carriers," Williams said. "Like everybody, they have areas they can improve in, like blocking. But they can all carry that football."
Robertson and Epling have alternated series to series in both practices and games. Their numbers are interchangeable.
Robertson has 583 yards, Epling 571. They both average more than 6 yards per carry. Williams decided before the season that he was going to alternate those two. It's been no problem for either of them.
"I like it," Robertson said. "When one gets tired, the other can jump in there."
The fatigue factor isn't insignificant since both start on defense -- Epling at safety and Robertson at halfback. All four of the running backs also are defensive first-stringers.
Bane, who plays Spartan back, the free safety position, is occasionally spelled by Brad Kessinger there. Gautier plays outside linebacker and stays on the field most of the time.
Speaking of Gautier, he leads the team in carries (128), yards (709) and touchdowns (eight). Staying busy suits him just fine.
"I did the same thing last year, so I'm used to it," he said.
Robertson and Bane also have reprised roles from last year's team. Epling has not. Mostly, he returned kicks then, coming in on offense in mop-up roles.
Epling and Robertson do most of the passing for Giles, which is not much. Between them, they've completed 13 passes all year (in 45 attempts), but five of the completions went for touchdowns, three from Epling and two from Robertson.
"The great thing about us is we both can throw," Robertson said. "I think he's a little better at that than I am."
Bane, whose two catches have averaged 42 yards with one score, likes the way the passing attack has worked this year.
"We're a lot better than we were last year," he said. "We can pass better than people think."
We may never know. As long as bruiser linemen Greg Ray and Justin Farmer and associates are clearing the way up front and Gautier and blocking back Dustin McCoy are leading the backs into the holes, the Spartans won't be doing much throwing.
Come to think of it, sounds like a formula for success when the weather turns, which could be any night now.
