Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993 TAG: 9309180101
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: S-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BRIAN DeVIDO STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
He became a vocal leader in the huddle.
The offensive line was starting to open holes for him. It had to. Roanoke Catholic's starting quarterback, senior Mike Kolnok, had been knocked out of the game in the second quarter. The second-string quarterback, junior Tony Joyce, knew only the offense's most basic plays - mainly handoffs to Moyer.
"Power-play left and power-play right," Roanoke Catholic head coach John Cooke said. "We ran those two plays repeatedly."
Moyer, a freshman, liked the holes he was seeing and started praising his linemen in the huddle after each play.
"I kept telling them they were blocking good," Moyer said. "I'd say, `Great blocking. Keep it up.' If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have gained all those yards."
On 19 carries, the 5-foot-9, 160-pound back gained 188 yards and scored three touchdowns. The run that broke open the game for the Celtics, though, came early in the third quarter with Moyer's team trailing 16-13.
"Kenston Forest had just thrown an incomplete pass on fourth down," said Paul Moyer, P.J.'s father and an assistant coach at Roanoke Catholic. "We got the ball on our 1-yard line. Our backs were against the wall."
The Celtics gave the ball to P.J. Moyer and he made a 9-yard gain. Another run produced seven yards. Then, what Cooke and Paul Moyer had been hoping for happened.
"I've been telling him since day one to cut [against] the grain," Cooke said. "I've been telling him to follow his blocking until he sees some daylight."
Moyer followed his blockers and saw a crack. Then he was gone.
The result was an 83-yard touchdown run. The Celtics took a 19-16 lead and went on to win 26-16.
Maybe this signaled a new beginning for Catholic. After Moyer and the Celtics were halted 38-14 at Brunswick Academy the next week, the freshman tailback came up with another big game as Catholic opened the Virginia Independent Conference season with a 35-8 victory over Hargrave Military. Moyer scored three touchdowns and rushed for 152 yards to lead the victory.
Moyer's speed is not surprising to Cooke or Paul Moyer. P.J. Moyer won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter runs in the 13- and 14-year-old age group at this year's Commonwealth Games of Virginia. He set Games records in the 100 and 200.
"He's the fastest kid on the team," Cooke said.
At first, Moyer didn't even want to play football at Roanoke Catholic. He wanted to play football for a public school. He lives in the school zone that would have placed him at William Fleming, but Moyer said he would rather have gone to Salem High School. His older brother, Keith, starred on Salem's football team and graduated last year; he attends Virginia Tech on a partial academic scholarship.
"The academics are what's most important," Paul Moyer said of the decision to send P.J. to Roanoke Catholic. "They're better here [at Roanoke Catholic]. P.J. wasn't too satisfied with going here his first couple of weeks, but now he's happy."
P.J. Moyer said he liked the idea of trying to help turn around an unsuccessful program - one that had lost 20 consecutive games when he arrived in 1992.
"It was a challenge," he said. "I wanted to see if I could help get it back together."
Moyer's first game as a varsity football player is one he'll always remember, but for the wrong reasons. In last year's opener, Roanoke Catholic led Hargrave Military 14-12 with 26 seconds left. Hargrave had the ball on the Celtics' 30-yard line and faced a fourth-and-seven situation. Moyer, then 5-8, was playing cornerback, where he had never played.
"A timeout was called and I went out on the field," Cooke said. "I said, `Guys, we're getting ready to break a 20-game losing streak.' They didn't say anything. They had this glazed look in their eyes, like what I was saying wasn't getting through to them. That's what happens when you lose that many games in a row."
On the next play, a 6-6 Hargrave tight end outleaped Moyer to catch a desperation pass and scored. Hargrave won 19-14.
"We were starting an eighth-grader," Cooke said, shaking his head. "I mean, nobody was going to outrun him. He just got outrebounded."
It got worse for Moyer. After playing three games and gaining 230 yards, he pulled a groin muscle in a game against North Cross.
Moyer would have played in the season finale against Randolph-Macon Academy, but he was academically ineligible. At Roanoke Catholic, students take seven classes and must pass all of them to be eligible to play a sport. The quarter ended a few days before the game, and Moyer had failed a class.
"I know what academics can do for kids," said Paul Moyer, who has coached athletes such as the Los Angeles Lakers rookie George Lynch and Patrick Henry quarterback Shannon Taylor for the Inner City Athletic Association. "I've seen so many kids that had the talent but not the grades, so they ended up going nowhere."
So P.J. Moyer is back at Roanoke Catholic this year, working on his grades and his game. It appears the Celtics are back, too. They were on a 26-game losing streak last year until they beat Massanutten Military 49-6 in the next-to-last game of the year. The victory was even noted by USA Today newspaper. The Celtics beat Randolph-Macon 16-6 in their finale, and they have won four of their past five games.
"I'm trying to save him [Moyer] for just offense," Cooke said. "If we really need him, we might put him in on defense, but right now we really need him for offense."
Moyer's goals for this season are simple.
"I want to get all A's and B's," he said. "I want to lead the Virginia Independent Conference in rushing, and Timesland, too. I want to get 130 yards a game."
In three games, Moyer is averaging 132 yards. What if that isn't good enough to lead Timesland?
Moyer paused for a moment.
"I'll just go for more," he said, laughing.
by CNB