Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511120018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Salem players and coaches stood in the middle of the field at Salem Stadium on Friday, celebrating another Blue Ridge District football championship after stopping Northside 21-7.
The Spartans have enjoyed a lot of success at Salem Stadium over the years. The question is, will they be celebrating a Region III championship at the same site two weeks from now?
With the regular season finished, Salem prepares for a likely first-round home game against Martinsville next week in the Region III Division 4 opening round. Salem (9-1 overall, 5-0 in the district) clinched the top seed in the Region III tournament and will play at home as long as it wins.
The victory over archrival Northside didn't come as easily as the total yardage and score indicates. The Spartans struggled until the final quarter and put the Vikings (5-5, 2-3) away thanks to quarterback Seth Moore, who had 201 yards of total offense, the best night of his career.
Between Moore's brilliance in running and passing the ball, Salem turned the ball over four times, collected 74 yards in penalties and gave up a 90-yard touchdown run to Dee Shovely that was the Vikings' only offense.
``We shot ourselves in the foot 10 times,'' Moore said. ``We made mistake after mistake after mistake.
``It was a strange game. At times, we looked great,'' Salem coach Willis White said. ``Offensively, we kept getting fumbles, penalties and interceptions. Anything to slow us down. At times we didn't handle adversity well.''
Northside coach Jim Hickam said his team was plagued at times this season by inconsistent offense.
``We haven't had any offense for a variety of reasons,'' Hickam said. ``That's been the case in our losses. Tonight, Salem got a lot of penetration.''
The Spartans ran 59 plays to just 38 for Northside. Moore worked well in the short passing game and was Salem's leading rusher. The Spartans led 6-0 after one quarter, but it took a fumbled punt for the Spartans to keep the ball after the Vikings defense held on the first series.
Salem's Chris Stuart recovered on the Northside 35, and the Spartans moved down the field in 11 plays before Chris Huff barged in from the 1.
After intermission, Salem scored on the first series. Moore hit Brent Humphrey on a 42-yard pass to spark the drive. Then the Salem quarterback, on fourth down and 1 at the Viking 5, ran behind the blocking of Dan Baker and Shawn Dobbins for the touchdown to make it 14-0.
Two penalties after Salem's kickoff pushed the Vikings back to their own 10, setting up the Spartans for the kill. Shovely stopped that as he ran a reverse left, got a block from Clay Kasey and then used his speed to leave the rest of the Spartan defense behind.
After Shovely's score, Salem didn't immediately put the Vikings away. The end came after the Spartans were stopped by a fumble on the Northside 8.
This time, the Vikings didn't escape the deep hole, and a short punt left Salem in business at the Northside 39. Three penalties did not slow the Spartans, and Moore finished off the drive with a 17-yard pass to Jeff Akers, who got a great block at the goal line from Humphrey to score.
Northside didn't give up. The Vikings ran the reverse to Shovely one more time.
``We tried to spark things up,'' Shovely said, ``but they caught on to it.''
see microfilm for box score
by CNB