Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 11, 1993 TAG: 9309110233
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
In the second half, the Spartans' offensive line put that experience to good use.
Salem's offensive front opened the way for two rushing touchdowns. That propelled Salem (1-0) to a 19-0 victory over Blacksburg in a non-district high school football game.
The loss left the Indians 0-2 for the first time since 1982.
"We've got a totally new offensive line, only two guys have experience," said Salem running back Jomo Nelson. "It took us a while to get in gear. Once we got it together, though, we ran pretty good."
Nelson was the chief beneficiary of the development of the Spartans' line. He carried the ball 20 times for 93 yards. And early in the fourth quarter, Nelson carried six consecutive times for 11, 3, 7, 3, 2 and 4 yards. The last of those runs was a touchdown. The conversion kick gave the Spartans a 13-0 lead.
"I thought we just had to settle down," said Willis White, Salem's coach. "We've got a senior offensive line, but they don't have a lot of game experience. . . . We thought that if we could keep the game close, we would get the running game going."
That's exactly what happened. Later in the fourth period, Mike Murphy put the game out of reach with a 23-yard touchdown run around left end.
"They really outplayed us in the line," said David Crist, Blacksburg's coach. "I'm not sure why. I'm going to have to look at the film to see. We've some evaluations we have to make."
Before the touchdowns,the Spartans had used defense and kicking to open a six-point halftime lead.
The defense came primarily in the form of interceptions. Salem picked off passes by Greg Shockley on the Indians' first, second and fourth possessions.
"We watched a lot of film all week," Salem defensive back Mike Prater said. "We saw they run a lot of the same pass patterns we do. So we went against [those patterns] in practice. And as the week went on we got better at it."
Prater had two interceptions and Nelson the other. And both of Praters' pickoffs put the Spartans in a position where they could call on kicker Lee Updike.
Updike was helped by a brisk breeze on a 42-yard field goal that appeared to be going wide midway through the first quarter. He then punched through a 25-yarder with 24 seconds left in the half to put Salem up 6-0.
"We worked on field-goal kicking all week," Updike said. "They've got confidence in me inside the 40-yard range. If we can't put it in, they look to me."
The kicking game - this time punter Josh Rhodes - also helped keep the Indians bottled up. Twice in the first half Rhodes' punts were downed inside the 10-yard line.
With bad field position, Blacksburg never got beyond its 45 in the half.
The Indians crossed midfield early in the third period. But at that point the Salem defense stiffened and the Indians turned over the ball on downs at the Salem 48.
Then, after the Spartans' offense started scoring touchdowns,its defense made big plays to preserve the shutout.
With the score 13-0 and seven minutes left, Blacksburg neared midfield. Nathan Routt sacked Shockley and Blacksburg eventually surrendered the ball on downs.
With less than two minutes left and the score 19-0, the Indians finally got inside the Salem 25 - helped by three pass-interference calls. But the Spartans' pass defense atoned for its mistakes when Colin Hudson stripped Blacksburg receiver Jay Safford of the ball and returned the fumble to the Indians' 41.
See microfilm for statistics.
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