varsity.roanoke.com

BLACKSBURG - David Crist, the veteran Blacksburg High School football coach, was careful with his words when he recounted his team's preseason workouts. He did not want to be misunderstood.

"Now I'm not saying I'm for spring football, but this would have been a good year to have it," he said. "We had so many players in new positions. We thought it would work, but you never know until you play." They do now. With a new backfield performing admirably and an offensive line operating with surprising efficiency for a season opener, the Bruins drilled Giles 21-7 in front of a standing-room-only audience at Bill Brown Stadium.

Josh Sales, a 6-foot, 200-pound tailback playing that position for the first time for the Blacksburg offense, scored twice and rushed for 108 yards. Daniel Smith, in his first start at quarterback, played splendidly as the Bruins began strong.

Giles moved the ball relatively well, rushing for 206 yards, but could manage only one C.J. Hamilton touchdown the last play of the third quarter.

"Moving the football is fine, but you can't win the game if you don't score," Giles coach Steve Ragsdale said.

Blacksburg led 14-0 after dominating the first half.

"Some teams with that kind of lead may tone it down some in the second half, but we didn't do that," Sales said. "We knew that Giles wouldn't give up, that they'd play hard all four quarters."

Giles was handicapped because its best offensive player, Ricky Cook, has been hampered by an injury and was limited to mostly defensive duties against the Bruins. Two drives inside the Bruins 20 in the first half came up empty.

"That would have helped, but we couldn't stop Blacksburg all night," Ragsdale said. "They moved the ball at will whenever they wanted to. I'm very disappointed with that."

Blacksburg rolled up 251 yards, 178 of that on the ground. Sales, a receiver last year, accounted for 20 carries and and a pass reception for 17 yards.

"I didn't play in the backfield last year at all," he said. "We had three real good running backs, but they all graduated. I asked to be moved to running back because I had played there before, but never on varsity."

Sales scored the Bruins' second TD on a 49-yard tackle-breaking run to the left side. Linebacker Grant Widrig had one last shot at him, but Sales pulled out of his lunging arm tackle and broke away.

"I run track, so I do have a little speed," said Sales, who added a 3-yard third quarter score.

Will Matthews converted all three Bruins scores with kicks.

"Our line was just awesome tonight," Sales said.

Those sentiments were echoed by Crist, who also liked what he saw out of his quarterback Smith.

"He showed so much poise and made a lot of very good decisions," Crist said.

Smith went 7-for-12 for 78 yards, hitting his first five throws of the second half.

"They were plugging up our holes up front in the second half, but the passing game was open," Smith said.

Giles 0 0 7 0 - 7

Blacksburg 7 7 7 0 - 21

B - Turley 2 run (Matthews kick)

B - Sales 49 rum (Matthews kick)

B - Sales 3 run (Matthews kick)

G - Hamilton 6 run (Tanner kick)

Giles B'Burg

First downs 9 14

Yards rushing 206 178

Passes C-A-I 1-7-1 7-12-0

Yards passing 11 73

Penalties-yards 4-30 2-15

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0

Punts-average 1-33 2-34

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Giles, Robertson 9-55, Hamilton 11-39, Tanner 6-17, Hevener 5-51, Earley 2-36, Witt 1-1, Cook 1-7. Blacksburg, Sales 20-108, Turley 7-48, Woods 4-11, Bennett 1-5, Smith 2-1, Jennings 1-4, Gregory 1-1.

PASSING - Giles, Hamilton 0-3-0-0, Cook 0-2-1-0, Tanner 1-2-0-11. Blacksburg, Smith 7-12-0-73.

RECEIVING - Giles, Earley 1-11. Blacksburg, Matthews 2-19, Sales 1-17, DiSalvo 3-27, Plemmons 1-10.