Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993 TAG: 9311110114
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
Crisp fall mornings. The fragrance of steaming syrup and melted butter. Grandma planting a stack of luscious delicacies on a warm china plate.
For scholars of football, an altogether different image comes to mind when the subject of pancakes comes up:
Crisp fall evenings. The fragrance of grass and cool, damp soil. A big bull of an offensive lineman burying a hapless rag doll of a defender in the dirt like a farmer plants a turnip.
That is a pancake.
Giles High tight end Patrick Steele astounded his coaches, not to mention disturbed the brain waves of a number of Grayson County victims, when he delivered 14 pancake blocks during the course of the Spartans 50-13 whacking of the Blue Devils last week.
"That was exceptional," said Giles coach Steve Ragsdale, for whom "pretty good," is usually considered high praise.
Steele, a senior, didn't just bludgeon them off their feet on offense. Stationed at defensive end, he had five tackles, 1 1/2 of them (meaning he shared in one) resulting in lost yardage.
"It was a big game," he said. "You get up for big games. You get into what athletes call `the zone.' "
A combination of factors came together in his favor, Steele said.
"We'd had an off week, which you hate because you practice and practice and the game never Steele comes. The week before that, we had Bland County [a lesser Mountain Empire District foe that Giles pounded 34-16]. We were ready to play. We were hungry."
There was more.
"They [Blue Devils defenders] were coming real hard," he said. "A lot of it was just the deception of the single wing [offense], too."
Deception is never a kind thing to do, and you can imagine the horror of a kid who has just been tricked by a nifty backfield fake and at the last second turns the right way only to be blind-sided by a big old farm boy tight end with mayhem on his mind.
Leaves 'em spread-eagled every time.
Furthermore, even after starting for three years, Steele feels like he has much to prove.
"The linemen tease me all the time by telling me, `You're no lineman. You get to go upfield sometimes to catch a pass.' I tell them, `I have to block that sled every day. I'm a lineman.' "
Steele is a possession receiver of considerable merit, but still, there is no question that he has the mentality of a lineman.
"Raypheal [Milton, the tailback] and Peter [Janney, the fullback] run real hard, real hard," Steele said. "They're the kinds of guys you want to block for. They don't tiptoe around out there."
Ragsdale said that Milton's and Janney's blockers didn't do any tiptoeing, either.
"That was our best game of the year blocking," Ragsdale said. "To tell you the truth, even though we've scored a lot of points and gained a lot of yards, that's been a softness on our football team this year. We haven't been too pleased with our blocking at all until the Grayson County game."
Hard to complain about 14 pancakes.
Other performance of note:
Giles defensive tackle Byron Sargent had five tackles for losses and 11 as a whole. "Byron was unreal," Steele said. "He had that wild look about him."
Raypheal Milton had 171 yards total offense, threw for one TD and ran for another; and Maurice Milton rushed for 141 yards and two TD's.
Blacksburg's Terry Simpson and Tony Wheeler combined for 228 yards rushing, and Wheeler scored twice in a 21-8 victory over Carroll County.
Six Pulaski County backs rushed for at least 66 yards and Carl Lewis and C.A. Burkes each scored twice in a 45-6 victory over Patrick Henry. Pulaski County rushed for 525 yards.
Larnelle Lewis rushed for 103 yards and three touchdowns and Casey Underwood passed for 104 yards in Radford's 28-6 victory over Floyd County.
by CNB