THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130489
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
``It's not always great teams and great players that make for the most memorable games. They can happen any time, any place - perhaps even tonight. That's the beauty of sports.''
- The Virginian-Pilot/Ledger-Star
Friday, no sport was more beautiful than high school football in South Hampton Roads.
On the same day as this newspaper's story celebrating great high school football memories, several area teams and players scripted the latest chapter in the area's rich football tradition with a series of dazzling - and surprising - performances.
Consider:
Ocean Lakes looked every bit like a first-year team in a 56-0 opening-game drubbing at Princess Anne. But one week later, those seemingly woeful Dolphins jumped on top of Cox, then stopped a two-point conversion in the final two minutes to preserve a 13-12 victory.
Despite a 15-game losing streak, Kellam had to like its chances at home against Norview, a team that had lost eight in a row. Who knew the Pilots' unheralded Wayne Bacon would turn in a record-setting 427-yard, six-touchdown showcase which fueled a 63-7 Norview rout?
Meanwhile, in Great Bridge's 33-18 upset victory over then-ninth-ranked Kempsville, Wildcat running back Corey Holley ran for 237 yards and five touchdowns. Holley's performance, like Bacon's, seemed to come out of nowhere.
Third-ranked Lake Taylor, a team which prides itself on defense, needed only to stop Wilson at some point in the final 4:46 to launch a game-winning drive. Instead, the Titans scrambled around helplessly as the Presidents' Darryl Scott and Co. ran out the clock and held on for a 19-14 victory.
With a few Norcom fans already filing out of sold-out Churchland Stadium, the defending Division 5 state champion Greyhounds rallied for 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points to stun the Truckers, 27-19.
Bayside, the most-penalized team in the Beach District last season, used a facemask penalty on First Colonial to set up Jermerll Ford's 2-yard scoring run in overtime and a 20-17 victory.
Nansemond-Suffolk Academy's Walt Bondurant powered in from 5 yards out as time expired to give the Saints a 19-14 victory over Group AA Poquoson.
So many things were going on Friday that Isle of Wight's Brandon Blythe caught nine passes for 195 yards and a touchdown in his team's 33-12 loss to Greenbrier Academy and didn't even make it into the roundup.
All of this will make it easy when the paper writes its next story about memorable games. After all, the first one spanned contests over a 62-year span. The next one can concentrate on what happened Friday over about two hours. by CNB