Sunday, September 05, 2010
QB switch works in North Cross win over Blue Ridge School
Thomas Weaver connects with former QB Fuller Clark for a pair of touchdowns. | North Cross 35, Blue Ridge School 14
ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times
North Cross' Brandon Trent gains yards as Brandon Cochran (7) holds off Blue Ridge defender Robin Moore. Trent had five catches for 22 yards.
ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times
Fuller Clark (center) of North Cross catches a pass over Blue Ridge's Lance Grey (left) and Darryl Smith.
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Fuller Clark lost his job this week as the starting quarterback at North Cross. Saturday, he was pretty happy about it.
Clark wore the ear-to-ear look of a winner as the senior caught two touchdown passes from new North Cross QB Thomas Weaver, including the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter as the Raiders took a 34-14 Virginia Independent Conference victory over Blue Ridge School.
First-year Raiders coach Stephen Alexander made the change following last week's 54-0 season-opening loss at Greensboro (N.C.) Smith. He gave the nod to Weaver, who spent the first week of practice at Salem before transferring to the Roanoke County private school.
Clark said his move to wide receiver stung a bit, but the payoff came Saturday.
"I did come into the year wanting to play quarterback," Clark said. "If it works out well like it did today, I don't have a problem with it. If I get two touchdowns a game, that's cool."
Clark breezed by Blue Ridge cornerback Darryl Smith on the game's biggest play, hauling in a 28-yard strike from Weaver on a fourth-and-9 call that gave North Cross a 19-14 lead with 8:32 left in the game.
Weaver's throw pulled Clark toward the post, but it got there before late-arriving safety Lance Grey could respond.
"It didn't go where I wanted it to, but Fuller made a hell of a catch," Weaver said. Weaver, who would not have played quarterback had he stayed in Salem, also connected with Clark on a 27-yard TD pass for a 13-0 lead in the third quarter.
"I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I stayed at Salem for about a week," Weaver said. "The opportunity came. I took it. I came over here."
Weaver overcame two first-half interceptions to finish 16-of-24 passing for 165 yards. "It's still a learning process for him," Alexander said.
"He struggled with a few things. I preached to him about good body language. You've got to make everyone around you believe. I think that second half showed he can be a leader on this team."
North Cross (1-1, 1-0) also produced on the ground. Senior halfback Antoine Martin picked up 188 yards on 28 carries. Martin scored on a 2-yard run on the Raiders' first possession and added the clincher on a 4-yard run for a 27-14 lead with 6:30 left.
Myles Poindexter added the final TD on a 3-yard run. The running game was fueled by the work of another Salem transfer -- junior tackle Chris Shelton who missed last week's game with back spasms. Lined up much of the day against 6-foot-7, 265-pound Isaiah Battle -- who has committed to Clemson -- Shelton dominated.
Battle was barely noticeable all day other than an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that resulted in a snail-like walk to the sidelines in the final seconds.
"He had an unimpressive performance for all the hype coming into this season," Blue Ridge coach Del Smith said. "It was a bad effort on his part. We were disappointed in his play from top to bottom, just disappointed in the team's play altogether."
Shelton, who is repeating his junior year, used his leverage against Battle, one of many players on the Charlottesville-area school's 24-man roster who appeared gassed in their season opener.
"You can't get in game shape until you play a game," Smith said. "I don't care how many sprints you run or how many scout teams you go against. Having a game under their belt was definitely a leg up for them.
"We will probably have an additional 10 guys join our roster once school starts. It's the nature of a boarding school. We have to ask guys to come back to school 2 1/2 weeks early for football camp."
Martin took advantage of the running room, breaking numerous tackles for extra yardage. "Antoine's a very good back," Alexander said. "He's going to turn some heads this year." Saturday began a rare six-game stretch of home games.
Alexander said he's not sure who will start at quarterback each week, but other first-year coaches have worse problems.
"That's definitely a look we'll work with, but there's going to be some variations too," Alexander said. "We're going to have lots of fun this year."
Blue Ridge 0 0 7 7--14
North Cross 6 0 7 21--34
NC -- Martin 2 run (kick failed)
NC -- Clark 27 pass from Weaver (Lacy kick)
BR -- Moore 51 pass from Roberts (Harris kick)
BR -- Anderson 15 pass from Roberts (Harris kick)
NC -- Clark 28 pass from Weaver (kick failed)
NC -- Martin 4 run (Weaver run)
NC -- Poindexter 3 run (Lacy kick)
BR NC
First downs 6 18
Yards rushing 28-106 38-210
Passes C-A-I 7-13-0 16-24-2
Yards passing 97 165
Penalties-yards 6-32 2-25
Fumbles-lost 3-2 1-1
Punts-average 6-35.2 3-39.3
Individual statistics
RUSHING -- Blue Ridge, Francisco 5-56, Roberts 16-43, Williams 3-5, Moore 4-2. North Cross, Martin 28-188, Poindexter 8-21, Weaver 2-1.
PASSING -- Blue Ridge, Roberts 7-13-0-87. North Cross, Weaver 16-24-2-165.
RECEIVING -- Blue Ridge, Moore 4-65, Anderson 2-19, Smith 1-3. North Cross, Trent 5-22, Murray 4-28, Clark 3-80, Martin 3-3, Shaff 1-32.
