Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 10, 1993 TAG: 9310100151
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FERRUM LENGTH: Medium
The Shipbuilders discovered a second-half ray of sunshine and walloped the Ferrum Panthers 42-22 - the worst defeat for Ferrum in the 25-game history of the series.
"There is this myth about Ferrum," Newport News coach Paul Hoffman said. "People view them as this big, dark cloud. Today, I wanted them [Ferrum] to think about our kids."
It was hard for the Panthers (2-3) to ignore the Builders (3-2-1), particularly quarterback Darren Graham, who completed 15 of 18 passes for 172 yards.
"We worked hard all week on the passing game," said Graham, a Christiansburg native. "And I've said it before: We use the pass to set up the run and the run to set up the pass."
The Ferrum defense, which had given up just five touchdowns in four games, played without starting linebackers Jim Kitts and Chris Denhoff, the team's leading tacklers. Kitts has a knee injury; Denhoff missed practice last week because of a family illness.
The teams exchanged touchdowns twice and went to the locker room at halftime tied 14-14. And Hoffman, in his fourth year with the Builders, had some inspirational words for his players.
"We talked about there being two halves of football," he said. "I told them there just needed to be two plays in the game that would make a difference. And [the players] looked at us and said `What adjustments do we need to make?' "
Newport News came out fired up and forced a fumble on the Panthers' opening play of the third quarter. Graham led the Builders 67 yards and scored on a 1-yard keeper.
Ferrum simply couldn't get going on offense. The Panthers gained nine yards on their next three plays and came up a half-yard short on fourth-and-two.
"I take all the blame for the offense," said Ferrum coach Hank Norton, in his 34th and final season with the Panthers. "I felt like we had to score every time we had the ball. I knew they had a heck of a team and expected them to come out and score 30 points. We were the target game for them."
More dark skies loomed for Ferrum after Newport News took a 28-14 lead on a 3-yard run by Ron Coston, who finished with three touchdowns.
On the Panthers' first possession of the fourth quarter, running back Eric Bates had a spectacular 35-yard touchdown run called back by a clipping penalty.
"That was definitely a momentum-killer," Bates said. "We wanted to build off that touchdown. After it was called back, we sort of got down on ourselves."
The Panthers went three downs and out on their following possession but thought they had gotten a break when the Builders fumbled David Waddell's punt on their own 18-yard line.
Ferrum recovered, but an inadvertent whistle sent the Panthers back to their own 34. Quarterback Millard Vining's run attempt was short by inches.
The Panthers scored their final touchdown with four minutes, 10 seconds to play in the game.
Senior receiver James Williams engineered a trick play to set up the score. Williams took a Vining handoff and passed to running back Ray Brawley for a 72-yard gain. Backup quarterback John Poindexter capped the drive by running untouched from 9 yards out for the touchdown.
Poindexter replaced Vining midway through the final quarter after the starter injured his shoulder. Norton said the injury was not serious. \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB