THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408210234
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEVIN DOEPP, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Whenever wide receiver Charles Mott touched the ball for the Tidewater Sharks something good happened.
Mott scored two touchdowns, running for one and catching the other, in leading the Tidewater Sharks to a 22-7 victory over the Catawba Hornets in their season opener in front of approximately 800 at the Center for Effective Learning on Saturday night.
Mott scored on a 26-yard end around and then caught a 31-yard pass from quarterback John Ealey, staking the Sharks to a 15-7 lead.
``We set up the end around with some power dives and on the fade we noticed that the corners were sitting still after eight yards,'' said Mott.
``Johnnie has a good arm and he did a good job of laying the ball out.''
However, it was the Hornets (0-1) who struck first.
Rod Weaver connected with Ricky Daniels on a 64-yard bomb on the second play from scrimmage to give the Hornets a 7-0 lead.
The Sharks (1-0) closed out the scoring in the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Tailback James Rogers punched one in from two yards out for the final score.
The drive was capped by a 33-yard pass from Ealey to Savoye Cherry, setting up Rogers' touchdown run.
The game did have its sloppy moments, however,
The Sharks fumbled three times and threw one interception, while the Hornets threw two interceptions.
The Sharks also had two touchdowns called back, while the Hornets had one called back on a fake field goal attempt.
Both teams were also penalized nine times.
``We have a long way to go,'' said Sharks coach Red Stickney.
``We made some mistakes and we need to work on our specialty teams. We played a lot of guys to give everyone a look and I think that some of the mistakes we made were common ones.''
The Sharks will begin league play next week at home against the Maryland Invaders at 7 p.m. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
RALPH FITZGERALD/STAFF
Steve Greenlee of the Sharks, right, attempts to run around Bernard
Rhinehardt of Catawba.
by CNB