Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993 TAG: 9310300165
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Parker had his first 100-yard game and scored three touchdowns. Most important were the timing of the scores. One came at the end of the first half. Another at the beginning of the second half.
Those two scores propelled the Spartans (6-2) to a 49-14 non-district high school football victory over Christiansburg (3-5).
"I told the offensive line they needed to make bigger holes," said Parker, who gained 124 yards on 10 carries. "At first, I was being caught by one guy. But after I talked to the line, they started opening up big holes. They did a great job. And in the second half, we came out and took the ball to them a lot better."
Parker talked to the line right before the half. The result was a 19-yard run that extended Salem's lead to 21-7 with just a minute to go before halftime.
"We played OK in the first half but we gave two scores," said Christiansburg coach Mike Cole. "Everything was going fine until right at the end of the first half. I felt the worst it should have been was us going in down 14-7."
Then Parker got even better in the second half. His five carries after intermission were 31, 10, 5 (touchdown), 28 and 24 (touchdown).
The short scoring run capped a 61-yard drive that put the Spartans up 28-7 with just more than two minutes gone in the third quarter.
"When we scored at the last of the first half and then on the first possession of the second half, I thought that pretty much settled it," said Salem coach Willis White.
Before Parker's exploits, Jomo Nelson gave the Spartans a good running start. Nelson had touchdown runs of 63 and 29 yards in the first quarter. The second score happened one play after Salem recovered a muffed punt.
"The offensive line - that's the reason we were able to run the ball," said Nelson, who rushed for 170 of his 190 yards in the first half. "They opened up the holes that gave us the big lead. That was the best job they did all season."
Despite their early difficulties, the Blue Demons came back to make things interesting. First, they drove inside the Salem 15 but came away without any points when Trey Stone's 34-yard field-goal attempt early in the second quarter fell just short.
After the missed kick, the Christiansburg defense stopped the Spartans. And a short punt put the Demons back in business at the Salem 38.
From there it took Andra Beasley just two plays - the second of which was a 14-yard touchdown run - to make the score 14-7.
But for rest of the first half, Christiansburg could never quite get around the corner on the Spartans' defense. Several times, defensive back Mike Murphy stepped up and made touchdown-saving tackles.
"I pretty much was able to get the angle on them," said Murphy. "That was pretty much what it was."
That kept the score close. Until Parker started running loose for Salem.
\ see microfilm for box score
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.