ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609170021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
THE VIKINGS suffer their second loss in a five-day span, this one a 24-6 setback to Liberty.
An emotional assembly of Liberty Minutemen and a short work week left Northside long in the face.
Liberty bounced back from its first defeat of the season with a resounding 24-6 victory over the visiting Vikings in a non-district game in front of a standing-room-only crowd.
Northside (1-2) outgained the Minutemen (2-1) 201-163, but couldn't stop them when it absolutely had to. The Vikings didn't help themselves, either, with five fumbles, three of them lost.
One difference in the two teams, aside from what was shown on the field, was preparation time. Northside played Heritage on Monday and was whipped 38-14. That left only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to get ready for Liberty of the powerful Seminole District.
``I read one time that excuses are no good because your enemies don't believe you and your friends don't care,'' said Jim Hickam, Northside's coach. ``This is a young football team and lack of preparation hurt us.
``It gives you an appreciation for Coach [Willis] White [of Salem], who moved the game with Pulaski County to Saturday after Pulaski had to play Monday. That's doing [the] thing right. Here, the dance was more important and they wouldn't move the football game.''
Maybe an extra couple of days did help Liberty, who knows? It certainly couldn't have hurt that it had some extra time to find ways to throw passes to Robert Carson, the regular tight end.
Carson caught five balls for 61 yards and a touchdown after Liberty coach Mike Scharnus deployed him for the first time at split end.
``That meant that there was just one man on me man-on-man when I went out,'' said Carson, a 6-foot, 209-pound junior. ``I thought that if the quarterback [Duane Butler] could get it anywhere near me, I could catch it.''
He was right about that. Carson ended with one touchdown, a 12-yard strike from Butler.
That left Liberty with a 13-point halftime lead. The Minutemen held their own in the second half, not allowing Northside to score until there was 8:59 left in the game. Northside had 144 yards rushing out of its wishbone offense. Xavier Cargile and John Doss combined for 108 of the Vikings' yards on the ground.
``We played hard but our timing was off,'' Hickam said. ``Again, you know how much most of that goes back to your amount of preparation.''
Liberty linebacker Rick Wright said that the Minutemen defense knew what to look for in the wishbone.
``The focus was on tackling this week,'' he said. ``We didn't do it very well when we lost to Martinsville. We worked on that a lot this week. We were getting to plays, we just weren't making the tackles. ''
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY\STAFF. LIberty's Jay Overstreet (8) looks forby CNBan opening before being tackled by Northside's John Doss (22) KEYWORDS: FOOTBALL