Saturday, November 15, 2008
Raiders win state crown
varsity.roanoke.com
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POWHATAN -- Imagine riding across the state to watch your football team play for a championship and have the bus break down.
Dozens of North Cross fans didn't arrive until the third quarter Friday night but they didn't miss a thing.
"We had heard that the bus was stuck," said Glenn Williams, the Raiders' senior quarterback. "I guess we had to wait until the fans got there before we could give them a show."
The Raiders held previously unbeaten Blessed Sacrament to 30 yards in the second half and rallied for a 21-6 victory in the Virginia Independent Schools Division III title game.
It was the first state football championship since 1993 for North Cross, which lost its season opener to Blessed Sacrament, 17-7, and never lost again.
"I always envisioned what it would feel like to win a state championship," said Lee Johnson, the Raiders' second-year coach. "This feels even better."
Blessed Sacrament (12-1) went into halftime with a 6-0 lead and Johnson admitted he was happy the game was that close.
The Knights' score came on a 1-yard touchdown run by fullback Ryan Bendele, but North Cross junior Devin Cain blocked the extra point.
Cain's parents were on the boosters' bus that turned the wrong way on Virginia 24 out of Appomattox and headed toward Smith Mountain Lake. When the driver tried to turn around in a residential area, its wheels got stuck in a driveway.
"I thought our crowd was loud in the first half," Johnson said, "but you could really tell the difference after the bus got there."
The Raiders (11-1) took the lead with 5:10 remaining in the third quarter, when wide receiver Sidney Brown did a stop-and-go route and hauled in a 32-yard touchdown pass from Williams.
Blessed Sacrament had been so dominant in the second quarter that North Cross was limited to eight offensive plays. Junior tailback Tyler Caveness, who had rushed for more than 1,900 yards going into the game, had 10 carries for 33 yards in the first half.
Caveness did not have a single carry in the third quarter, not because the coaches were disenchanted.
"We knew coming into the game that they would be keying on Tyler," Johnson said. "What we tried to do was lull them to sleep, You're not going to contain Tyler Caveness for four quarters."
Sure enough, Caveness got the ball on the first play of the fourth quarter. It gained 2 yards. He got the ball again on the second play, cut off tackle and raced 69 yards for a score.
"Once I got to the sidelines, it was almost like a 100-yard dash," said Caveness, who, like Cain, transferred to North Cross from Cave Spring after the 2007 season.
Blessed Sacrament never crossed midfield in the second half but North Cross had one last tense moment, when it was forced to punt from the Knights' 35-yard line with 1:52 left.
Blessed Sacrament had gotten close to North Cross punter Fuller Clark on an earlier attempt, but the ball never got to Clark. The Raiders snapped it to Brown, the blocking back, whose short pass was turned into a 35-yard score by Quint Coles with 1:44 remaining.
"Our defensive coordinator, John Hinkle, has a lot of experience and he told me coming in, 'Don't play not to lose it; play to win it,' " Johnson said. "We tried to run it in the first game with Blessed Sacrament and it didn't work. We didn't run it again the rest of the year."
All that was left following the final touchdown were the post-game celebrations, as the players were joined at midfield by the "bus people" and other fans who had driven separately.
"I can remember the first day of preseason practice and how the last thing we chanted was 'state champs,' " said Williams, who has been with the program for four years. "We made it to the state championship game in basketball [before losing] last year, but this is the pinnacle."
North Cross 0 0 7 14 -- 21
Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot 0 6 0 0 -- 6
BS -- Bendele 1 run (kick blocked)
NC -- Brown 32 pass from Williams (Lacey kick)
NC -- Caveness 69 run (Lacey kick)
NC -- Coles 35 pass from Williams (Lacey kick)
NC BS
First downs 10 8
Yards rushing 120 54
Passes C-A-I 6-9-0 9-29-1
Yards passing 97 56
Penalties-yards 4-30 4-26
Fumbles-lost 2-2 2-26
Punts-average 5-30.0 5-36.2
Individual statistics
RUSHING -- North Cross, Caveness 18-122, Ring 8-32, Brown 2-(minus 3), Team 2-(minus 2), Williams 3-(minus 30). Blessed Sacrament, Watts 6-28, Howard 8-16, Wingfield 8-15, Bendele 2-5, Moore 2-4, Trainum 1-1, Team 2-(minus 15)
PASSING -- North Cross, Williams 5-8-0-62, Brown 1-1-0-35. Blessed Sacrament, Wingfield 9-29-1-56.
RECEIVING -- North Cross, Brown 3-32, Coles 1-35, Clark 1-19, Caveness 1-11. Blessed Sacrament, Trainum 4-16, Watts 2-8, Paul 1-14, Howard 1-11, Leboff 1-7.
