varsity.roanoke.com

When the North Cross football team walked out onto the field for its final regular season game, the Raiders were looking to clinch the No. 2 seed for the VIS Division III playoffs.

By the time North Cross left the field, it looked like a team ready to defend its 2008 championship.

The Raiders coldly dispatched Roanoke Catholic 40-0 on Friday with an efficient offense and a suffocating defense.

Need evidence of that efficiency?

The Raiders didn't have to punt once in the game.

"I thought we executed great," said quarterback Fuller Clark, who was 7 of 10 with two touchdowns and no interceptions. "We came in, wanted to throw the ball more, wanted to spread the defense out and I think we were able to do that pretty well."

The Raiders (8-2) were pretty balanced on offense and Tyler Caveness led the way on the ground with 99 rushing yards and a touchdown while North Cross compiled 272 rushing yards as a team.

"It was an average day, not a whole lot of carries," Caveness said.

"We knew if we came out here and played our game that it'd be like this and we controlled the game."

Antoine Martin rushed for 47 yards and two touchdowns against the Celtics (6-4), one for 21 yards and one for 5.

Brandon Trent and Bryan Miller were on the receiving end of Clark's two touchdown passes.

George Revercomb came in late in the game to replace Clark at QB and completed his only pass, a 23-yard touchdown to Tushey Jones.

The defense only allowed three first downs, one of which came on a personal foul penalty.

Those penalties -- seven total -- were probably the only negatives anybody would have pointed out for North Cross and both Caveness and head coach Lee Johnson did just that when evaluating the team's performance.

"Too many penalties," Johnson said. "Other than that I thought we did everything we wanted to do."

For Roanoke Catholic coach Bob Price, the difference in experience between his squad and the Raiders was a huge factor.

"North Cross is a very talented football team," he said. "They've got a lot of experience, a lot of seniors. ... We only started a couple seniors who've ever had experience and as the game went on that maturity for them showed and our lack of maturity showed somewhat.

"The boys played hard but we made a lot of mistakes."

So now it's on to the postseason for the Raiders and Johnson admits this team may have an advantage over last year's.

"They're really two totally different teams," he said. "I feel as good about them as we did going in [last year]. The biggest thing we have is ... some guys on this team that did it last year so it's not as new to them.

"If we do everything right, we feel pretty good about our chances."

If the offense plays as efficiently as it did on Friday, Clark is convinced that this team could repeat.

"Our running game is great. ... If we're able to throw the ball, I don't see how any defense can stop us," he said.

For the Celtics, Price says that more experience is going to really help his team next year.

"We're excited about the future," he said.

Roanoke Catholic 0 0 0 0--0

North Cross 14 13 7 6--40

NC -- Trent 7 pass from Clark (Lacy kick)

NC -- Martin 5 run (Lacy kick)

NC -- Miller 25 pass from Clark (Lacy kick)

NC -- Martin 21 run (kick failed)

NC -- Caveness 25 run (Lacy kick)

NC -- Jones 23 pass from Revercomb (pass failed)

RO NC

First downs 3 14

Yards rushing 15-(-23) 41-272

Passes C-A-I 3-8-0 8-11-0

Yards passing 25 126

Penalties-yards 2-10 7-50

Fumbles-lost 2-1 0-0

Punts-average 5-35 0-0

Individual statistics

RUSHING -- Roanoke Catholic, Moats 1-6, Ollie 5-3, TEAM 1-(-2), Williams 6-(1-13), Akers 2-(-17). North Cross, Caveness 17-99, Revercomb 2-54, Martin 3-47, Migkins 4-37, Clark 6-23, Lemon 1-11, Poindexter 3-4, Mylott 3-(-1), TEAM 2-(-2).

PASSING -- Roanoke Catholic, Williams 3-7-0-25, Akers 0-1-0-0. North Cross, Clark, 7-10-0-103, Revercomb 1-1-0-23.

RECEIVING -- Roanoke Catholic, Akers 2-9, Ollie 1-16. North Cross, Miller 4-67, Trent 3-36, Jones 1-23.