Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 23, 1993 TAG: 9310230195
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NARROWS LENGTH: Medium
Narrows High School proved that adage Friday night with a 32-0 victory over Mountain Empire District opponent Auburn.
The Green Wave (3-1 district, 6-1 overall) rushed for 383 yards, in the meantime holding Auburn (2-3, 2-4) to a single yard on the ground.
"In practice I felt good this week, I felt good about us being able to run the ball," said Narrows tailback Whitey Blankenship, who ran for 146 yards. "The game plan was to run the ball, to put the ball in my hands. And the line did an excellent job blocking."
Blankenship played just three quarters but still had the ball put in his hands 20 times. Seven of those times he carried it 10 or more yards.
And Blankenship crossed the goal line with both of the Green Wave's second-quarter touchdowns.
The efforts moved Timesland's leading rusher over the 1,000-yard and 100-point marks for the season. With three games to go, Blankenship has 1,059 yards and 102 points.
In the first quarter, fullback Brett Mosley was an even more dangerous weapon. He scored both of Narrows' early touchdowns, and 58 of his 79 yards came in the first 12 minutes.
"When I get it, it's because they're looking for Whitey," Mosley said. "And with teams concentrating on Whitey, that means a big game for me."
The running tandem of Blankenship and Mosley, plus an occasional scramble from quarterback Jeff White - who had 67 yards and the Green Wave's third-quarter touchdown - proved to be much more than the Eagles could handle.
"We knew what we wanted to do against them," Auburn coach Steve Wright said. "They just out-quicked us up front."
Narrows also did the work up front on defense. The Eagles did not break into positive yardage rushing until their final possession. And the passing attack never became a factor as they completed only five passes, none over 15 yards.
"I've got to give credit to the line. They stopped the run, and their pressure caused the interception," said linebacker Corey McGlothlin, who intercepted a pass for the Green Wave late in the first half. "We knew we had to take them out of their passing game. We worked on that all week. We wanted to keep them under 100 yards, and we wanted to keep them from scoring."
Narrows' defense accomplished both of those objectives in recording a shutout for the third straight week. It allowed 44 yards of total offense, nine of those yards coming in the first half.
"They were on top of Danny [Dickerson] before he could get out of the quarterback position," Wright said. \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB