THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410140190
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 31 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sports
SOURCE: BY JEFF ZEIGLER, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
ELIZABETH CITY State University's football team may not be consistent this year, but they sure are entertaining, especially at Roebuck Stadium.
In a recent back-and-forth contest with Virginia Union, quarterback Kenny Crump hit Sharano Woodley with a four-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds to play to lift Elizabeth City State University to a 40-36 come-from-behind win.
Vikings head coach George Moody joked after the game with ECSU Chancellor Jimmy R. Jenkins that the outcome of the contest was much different than last year's 67-0 trouncing the Vikings took in Richmond. And how.
Trailing 36-33 with 2:39 to play, the Vikings drove from their own 14. The big gainer was a 39-yard pass from Crump to Malcolm Mackey down to the Virginia Union 11. Runs by Aaron Murchison and Crump brought the Vikings down to the four. On a third down play, ECSU head coach George Moody called an option play for Crump. He rolled and spotted Woodley wide open in the back of the end zone for the touchdown.
``I used that formation because they were stacking up for the run,'' Moody said. ``Time was running out and I gave Crump an option to run or pass.''
Woodley, you might recall, was better known for rebounds and jump shots than catching passes. He was a reserve on last year's Vikings basketball team.
Virginia Union had taken a 36-27 lead in the fourth quarter on a 19-yard touchdown run by Warner Jones with 14:20 to play and a 13-yard touchdown strike from Donald Ruffin to Ronald Stevens with 8:46 to play.
ECSU closed the gap on a 57-yard drive with 6:00 to play in the game. An 11-yard run by Malcolm Mackey and a 16-yard by Murchison set up Crump's four-yard touchdown scramble. The extra point run failed and Union held on to a 36-33 lead.
Crump also scored on a one-yard run and a nine-yard run, both in the first quarter.
It looked as though the ECSU defense would not be able to contain the Union passing game in the second half.
Ruffin came out with a new look and went 13-for-18 for 144 yards in the last two quarters. He finished the game with 278 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown pass to Stacy Graves.
Moody, however, wasn't as worried about the Viking defense as he was the offense, which has sputtered at times this season.
``I told them all week that if they put 21 points on the board we should win the game,'' Moody said. ``I noticed from the game films that they weren't too mobile, so we ran a lot of sweeps on them.''
A key mistake for the Panthers was the loss of a fumble right after they recovered a fumble from the Vikings. With 5:40 to play in the half, Dwayne Rouff recovered a fumble by Murchison. But on the next play ECSU's Clifton Autry pounced on a fumble by Bobby Phillips. The Vikings went on to score on Mackey's nine-yard run to go up 27-12.
``You can't go out and make mistakes and expect to win,'' said Union head coach Harold Jackson.
``You can't afford to do the things we did. It was a disappointing loss because I felt they were really up for this game.'' by CNB