Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 2, 1993 TAG: 9308310323
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY PREP FOOTBALL PAGE: PF-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
There was the constant metallic bellow of the train horn hauled across the state and to University of Richmond Stadium by the cardinal- and gold-clad Cougars fans. That whistle blew and kept blowing, enough to wear it out, as Pulaski County whipped the allegedly unwhippable Thomas Dale 35-20 for the Cougars' first state Group AAA, Division 6, title.
There was the wind, frigid and cruel, at W.T. Woodson in Fairfax for the semifinal match with Robinson, won 12-10 by the Cougars.
There was the awful, stricken look on the Cougars' sideline as running back J.J. Housel was stripped of the football late in the game to set up Robinson's go-ahead touchdown.
There was Shayne Graham, the Cougars' 14-year-old freshman kicker, scraping the mud off his shoes as two timeouts were called before he kicked the winning 22-yard field goal against Robinson.
There was the sophomore, Eric Webb, all over the field and all over Thomas Dale.
There was the calm, orderly mingling of the Pulaski County faithful with their heroes on the artificial turf after it was over that victorious day in Richmond.
But the single most vivid image from those two memorable games was the Pulaski County defense when Thomas Dale was driving down the field late in the third quarter. If the Knights could score there, cutting into the Cougars' 15-point lead, then momentum would be on their side, and the game would take on an entirely different character
Between plays, though, those defenders were conveying very clearly that they would not be beaten under any circumstances. The collective body language was almost ridiculously loose and confident. Larry Newcomb, a tackle, even went as far as to do some rubber-legged pantomiming and laughing with linemate Cameron Lewis before a play.
This was the biggest game any of them had ever played, and they were acting like it was some scrimmage in August.
"You have to be comfortable with yourself when you're playing," Pulaski County quarterback and defensive back Andre Eaves said. "We practice loose, and we are loose. But once that huddle breaks, we're down to business."
The business of these Cougars was winning, cleanly, efficiently and relentlessly. They did it with big plays; they did it by being smart; they did it with pleasantly grinning arrogance.
It was almost as though they could peer into Thomas Dale's helmet ear holes or saunter over to a Knights coaching conclave to see what was coming.
How else to explain how Webb, an outside linebacker, and inside 'backer Jeff Berkley bulldogged Dale's horse of a running back Ken Oxendine for a fourth-and-1 loss at the Cougars' 29 the last play of the third quarter?
Big? An elephant, a skyscraper, an 18-wheel truck of a play. Funny thing was, neither Webb nor Berkley was touched. Run the film back five, 10, 15 times, and you'll still never figure out how two linebackers go totally unblocked on the biggest play of the game.
"Busted assignment, I guess," Cougars' lineman Randy Dunnigan said.
Busted running back. Webb got Oxendine, but if he'd never made to the right spot, Berkley - a top student and one of many clever Cougar players - would have knocked him flatter than a tortilla.
Or how else to explain Webb's two blocked punts? Or Carl Lewis' 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown?
"We knew from Sunday [prior to the game] on that we were going to block a punt and score off a kickoff," Assistant Coach Perry Reese said.
"We were watching the film, and Eric Webb sat right beside me, punched me in the shoulder, and said that if we moved him to the opposite side [from where he usually lines up] that he would block the punt," Assistant Coach Freddie Akers said.
Or how did they know that Webb would score three times and gain 91 yards on the same inside reverse play that the Cougars call "criss-cross"?
"Randy Dunnigan is the pulling guard on that play," Eaves said. "Two-hundred eighty pounds coming hard every time is going to wear somebody out."
That's just what the whole Dale team - winners of 25 of 26 and 13-straight coming in - was as the fourth quarter ticked off: worn out. Not the Cougars. That is a trademark of teams coached by Joel Hicks, himself a veteran of numerous marathons. Pulaski County is always as tough or tougher in the fourth quarter as it was in the first. Always has been, always will be.
What else is new?
Which was just what Hicks observed after Graham had soccer-styled that 22-yarder with 10 seconds left to beat gallant Robinson 12-10.
What else is new? How about the 5-foot-3, 125-pound Graham, who had been the first-team kicker for only the past four games. That's a pretty short football life, but before the biggest boot of that life, he looked like those Cougar defenders did during Dale's hugely failed drive. Big kick? What big kick? Graham was cleaning the mud out of his shoes as two timeouts, one official and one by the super-sharp Robinson coaching staff, were called.
What a football game that was - a classic. The huge hits, the grit, the determination from both teams were something to behold.
"There was more coaching in that game than there was the rest of the year combined," Hicks said.
There were failure and redemption in plays such as Housel's fumble, made up for a short time later by a 27-yard screen pass reception that set up the winning field goal. Cougars' people were overjoyed that it was Housel, a kid who had come back from an early-season broken leg, who did that. From goat to hero - it's the oldest and sweetest cliche in sports.
That game will always live in legend for the conditions. Winds that howled constantly from kickoff to final whistle, gusting to 50 miles per hour. Below-zero wind-chill factor.
How cold was it?
"I've never played in a game so cold in my life," Dunnigan said. "I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life."
How savage was the wind?
"I can remember seeing folding chairs blowing across the top of the press box," said Assistant Coach Dave Bell, there the whole game to work the phones. "They had to tie the chairs down. All I could do was hold on and stay in behind big Todd Browning [another assistant]."
Two good games.
One good team.
Memories of a lifetime.
by CNB