THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511180267
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 30 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, CLIPPER SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
WINNING HAS BECOME something of a habit for the Deep Creek Middle School football program.
Entering the 1995 season, the Hornets had won six of the past nine Chesapeake Middle School League championships. In those six seasons, Deep Creek went undefeated.
Although the Hornets didn't finish with a perfect record this year, one loss wasn't enough to keep the team out of the winner's circle. Paced by Willie Smith's three touchdowns and a strong defensive effort, Deep Creek shut down Great Bridge 30-6 in the final game of the season to claim its second straight city championship.
``Last year, the kids we had were athletes. All you had to do was put them on the field,'' said Hornets head coach Gene Babb. ``This year's kids we had to coach. But they were very receptive to that.''
Deep Creek surged through its first three games - wins over Oscar Smith, Indian River and Western Branch. In week four, the opponent was Crestwood, and the Hornets went home with a 14-6 loss that Babb blamed on himself.
``We got outcoached. We knew nothing about Crestwood - they had a brand new coach, we didn't know what kind of offense or defense they had. That was my fault,'' he said.
It would have been easy for the Deep Creek players to feel like their season was over. Babb admitted that some of the Hornets were emotional after the game.
``I told them two things. One, if you have a tear in your eye, you have a lot of heart,'' Babb said. ``Two, if you're just mad about losing, you should have done something about it during the game. Afterwards, it doesn't matter.''
Going into the final week of the season, Deep Creek needed help. Tied with Crestwood in the standings at 3-1, the Hornets needed Indian River to beat Crestwood in order to win the championship outright.
``We were rooting for them. We had the telephone in the stadium hooked up and were calling scores back and forth,'' Babb said.
The Braves did their part, beating Crestwood 8-6. Deep Creek took the lead against Great Bridge on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Shawn House to Tim Johnson and never trailed.
Smith scored on runs of 25 and 45 yards, and caught a 54-yard touchdown pass from halfback Shareef Benjamin. Bobby Powell, brother of Deep Creek High School varsity quarterback Arnie Powell, rushed for 75 yards and two extra points.
Defensively, the Hornets were paced by Brian Atkins, Isaiah Hinton, James Wise, Mark Mills, Kishaan Billups, Rondell Barnes and Chris Jackson.
Offensive standouts included Chris Peterson, Keith Sears, Ben Hull, Ricardo Phillips, Brian Joyner, Johnny Herron and Justin Seaton.
Crestwood, Indian River and Oscar Smith, a 40-14 winner over Western Branch, finished tied in the standings at 3-2. Great Bridge and Western Branch finished 1-4. by CNB