ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 TAG: 9609100081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Northside High School's football team was a fairy tale in reverse Monday night.
The Vikings went from swans to ugly ducklings in less than a half against host Heritage at hot and steamy City Stadium.
Pumped from a big win over Cave Spring to open the season, the Vikings sustained the momentum for most of the first two quarters against the Pioneers. Then a late score before halftime gave Heritage the lead. Heritage proceeded to pile on 25 unanswered points in a 38-14 non-district victory.
Dewayne Banks rushed 17 times for 187 yards for the Pioneers (1-1), but the biggest play he made might have been a pass reception 21.4 seconds prior to halftime.
That's when Heritage, smarting from having an apparent scoring toss from quarterback Shaunta Jefferson called back because an illegal receiver was detected downfield, came right back with an aerial from Jefferson to Banks. The 6-foot, 192-pound senior caught the swing pass over his right shoulder, made a move on the defender, and scored from the 14. He subsequently plowed through and reached the end zone standing for the two-point conversion.
That gave the Pioneers a 21-14 lead at intermission and a substantial amount of confidence.
``That gave us the momentum coming out for the second half,'' Banks said.
Northside coach Jim Hickam was afraid that would be the case.
``From a psychological standpoint, those things can break your back,'' he said.
Northside (1-1) was never the same. Jefferson fired the first volley in a 17-point second half when he connected with running back Brian Harris for a 13-yard touchdown with 11:40 seconds left in the third. Jefferson, a lean and shifty signal-caller who was at his best on the move, finished 4-for-6 for 46 yards.
Northside had three of its four lost fumbles in the second half and Heritage scored on the next play after two of them. The most spectacular of these was Banks' 82-yard sprint down the right sideline with 3:35 left in the third.
``I saw the big guard Patrick Brizendine hit his man and open up the hole and I headed for the sideline,'' Banks said.
As with a substantial number of other plays, Northside defenders seemed to have a chance to make a play but didn't.
``Defensively, that was one of the worst games we've had,'' Hickam said. ``The No.1 thing from our standpoint was the extremely poor tackling. Most of the big breakdowns we had were defensive.''
Heritage rolled up 290 yards on the ground, but overall, the offensive numbers between the two teams were relatively close. In the end, Heritage outgained the Vikings 336-273.
Northside halfback John Doss had a 47-yard touchdown run and finished with 148 yards on 14 carries.
Heritage, dumped 20-0 by crosstown rival E.C. Glass in its opener and in its first season in Group AA after dropping down a classification, closed out the Vikings with a 24-yard Hakon Mattson field goal.
The big difference was turnovers, with Northside on the wrong end of the 4-1 spread.
``The kids need to learn how to throw the knockout punch,'' Heritage coach Pem Apperson said. ``Tonight, they did that.''
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB