Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994 TAG: 9404280119
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That's why the Raiders' top defender also is their leading scorer.
"I didn't know that," says the senior midfielder. "I'd rather play defense."
Statistics such as goals are unimportant to Porterfield and his teammates.
"Sometimes statistics are important," says Ry Moore, an outside back for the Raiders. "It just depends on the school. But private schools [such as North Cross] are out to prove that they can play with the Group AAA or AA [public] schools. When we beat them, that's our statistics."
These two seniors had teamed with goalie Eric Mull, who overcame a serious knee injury suffered during football season, to lead the Raiders to a 7-1-3 record after they beat Group AAA Heritage and tied Group AAA E.C. Glass last weekend.
The Raiders' lone loss came to Martinsville 1-0, but North Cross avenged that defeat by beating the Bulldogs 4-0 on the road. The big test comes Friday when the Raiders take on William Byrd for supremacy in the Roanoke Valley.
North Cross' two ties came against 1993 Group AA champion Blacksburg, which seems to have a team capable of repeating this year, and perennial power Tennessee High School of Bristol, Tenn.
"That first loss to Martinsville was a disappointment," Moore says. "It's possibly their best team and we may not have taken them seriously."
North Cross, a member of the Virginia Independent Conference, doesn't take it's own league seriously. All three players consider games against Martinsville, Patrick Henry, Cave Spring, William Byrd, Blacksburg and other public schools more important.
It's no wonder. North Cross has lost only one VIC game in recent memory. In the past 10 years, the Raiders are 186-33-15 against a schedule that has been made up mostly of public schools. Winning the VIC each year is taken for granted.
"There have been a lot of times we didn't have anything to gain and we had a lot to lose," Porterfield says. `'That's why I prefer playing a big, competitive game that means a lot."
Mull knows about big games. He was a key member of the Raiders football team that won the state private school title in the fall. But as big as winning the title was, beating Bath County 48-42 in a three-overtime thriller during the regular season was a greater accomplishment, he says.
Again, it was the private school vs. the public school. It also was Mull's final football game; he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and eventually underwent surgery. He did continue to play against Bath County, though, kicking an extra point that prolonged the game for the Raiders.
Richard Cook, the North Cross coach, says his 1988 team that went 22-1 and lost only to Blacksburg was his best. The other Raiders teams to lose only once were the 1990 (18-1-1) and 1993 (17-1-2) squads, both of which lost to Blacksburg.
This year's team has beaten one of its biggest rivals - Patrick Henry.
"We all play select soccer together," Moore says of the players' experience with the Roanoke Star teams. "We hang out with them on the weekends and talk trash at parties."
Says Mull, "One of their players is still giving me grief about a corner kick [that got by me for a score]."
"That was a direct kick, wasn't it?" Cook asks.
Assured by his three team members it was a corner kick, the North Cross coach added, "Then you should have been given grief."
The Raiders won't play Cave Spring this year. The Knights dropped that series for a year because of an incident that occurred during a game between the teams last year.
"That was a real disappointment because it was our last chance as seniors to play them," Porterfield says.
All three players started in soccer as youngsters in recreation leagues. Cook saw them when they started playing on select teams. The veteran coach says soccer players don't surprise him because he knows all of them before the start of practice.
Mull is the only one of the trio who doesn't list soccer as his favorite sport. He prefers football, but when he goes to Bucknell, he hopes to play goalie in soccer and kick for the football team. It's no surprise that he's attending Bucknell since an older brother and his father attended the Lewisburg, Pa., school.
Moore will attend the University of the South, and Porterfield probably will chose the Tennessee school over the University of Colorado. Both were recruited by the Division III liberal arts school to play soccer. Porterfield is considering Colorado, which doesn't have a soccer program, because he has a brother at the University of Denver.
That Mull is even playing soccer this spring is amazing. Most people who suffer an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament are out of athletics for a minimum of six months. Salem's Marcus Parker was back playing football in five months, but that was considered a minor miracle.
"I couldn't have played a regular position with this injury," says Mull, who still hasn't regained all of his lateral movement because of the surgery.
Most goalies might think that Mull, who moved to the position full time last year, is saying it doesn't take a lot of athleticism to be a goalie.
"The thing is he doesn't have to sprint as much," Cook says. "He's still not at 100 percent."
by CNB