THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510080201
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Not even a bum ankle could keep James Roe from setting another record Saturday.
Roe's 13-yard second-quarter touchdown reception was 39th of his career, a CIAA record. He also extended his pass-catching steak to 37 games, another record.
All this on a badly sprained right ankle that had Roe wincing in pain after the game.
``It's pretty sore, it's pretty bad right now,'' he said.
But as Roe said, the ankle would have felt a lot worse had he not caught a 5-yard touchdown pass to lift Norfolk State to a 35-33 victory over Bethune-Cookman.
That catch prompted coach Darnell Moore to lavish Roe with perhaps his highest praise yet.
``He's the Michael Jordan of football,'' Moore said.
STORM CLOUDS: Want to know why it rained Saturday afternoon? Easy. Bethune-Cookman was in town.
It seems the Wildcats travel with their own personal low pressure system. Bethune has played five games this year, and has been rained on every time.
``It either rains before the ballgame or during the ballgame, or both,'' coach Jack ``Cy'' McClairen said.
The wet track didn't slow down a Bethune passing game that racked up 391 yards, and four touchdowns. All but 126 of those yards came in the second half.
``We got wet and were getting humiliated, so we decided to come back and redeem ourselves,'' McClairen said.
ODDS AND ENDS: The win was Norfolk State's first over a Division I-AA opponent since a 6-0 win over North Carolina A&T in 1989. Norfolk State moves to I-AA in 1997. . . . Aaron Sparrow set a school record with 57 passing attempts. Sparrow also went over 2,000 yards passing, to 2,091. by CNB