Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993 TAG: 9311180021
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When should a team put away its bag of tricks, shut down for the night and try to end a game as quickly as possible?
In other words, are 40- and 50-point victories too much?
Two weeks ago, Fort Chiswell football coach Larry Neely was not happy when Bland County's first-string quarterback threw a touchdown pass with two minutes left in the game.
Did that break a tie or clinch a victory for the Bears? Hardly. It made the score 36-0.
Last year, Christiansburg lost 55-0 to Salem, and this fall the Spartans beat the Blue Demons 49-14. Yet, Christiansburg coach Mike Cole says he was upset this year and not last fall.
"I've always felt like I had a good relationship with [Salem coach] Willis White and all the coaches I've beaten," Cole said. "I can take a beating. I've taken them as a player and a coach.
"There have been years when we've put outrageous numbers on the board. Our philosophy [in those kinds of games] is to play my starters one series on offense and one series on defense in the second half."
Cole's problem this year came because Salem scored twice late in the game while throwing passes.
"He [Cole] just said he hoped we needed the last two [touchdowns]," White said. "Of course, those touchdowns were scored by the junior varsity."
Salem and Bland County are not the only teams that have been accused of running up the score. It's almost a cliche that every team that consistently wins by lopsided margins draws a complaint.
This year in football, North Cross, Pulaski County and Giles have been scoring machines. In girls' basketball, Floyd County has so dominated the Mountain Empire District that the Buffaloes often win by 50 or 60 points. In one game, Floyd County beat winless Bland 99-13. Of course, Bland was 0-21 and has never come closer than 12 points to any team it played.
Pulaski County mauled Northside 63-21 a few weeks ago in football. The Cougars have been held to fewer than 30 points only once.
Still, Northside coach Jim Hickam didn't feel that Pulaski County ran up the score.
"The first thing is, if you beat me by one point, you might as well beat me by 1,000. I don't care," Hickam said.
Hickam said Pulaski County coach Joel Hicks said he was afraid to take his starters out because the Vikings kept scoring. After three quarters, Pulaski County led 42-21, which meant Northside was in the game.
"Almost every coach I've talked to after the game felt we were very gentleman-like," Hicks said. "They've seen us substitute, and if you're throwing the football near the end of the game, that would upset them. But if you substitute and don't throw the football, they're not upset."
John Cooke, Roanoke Catholic's coach, wondered aloud on the sideline why North Cross' No. 1 quarterback, Hal Johnson, was playing toward the end of the Raiders' 40-22 victory over his Celtics.
"Somebody made the comment when we started doing well that they [North Cross] had their second team in there," Cooke said. "We scored and I wanted our kids to get fired up, so I was trying to let them know North Cross still had some good players on the field."
The Celtics' coach was aware that North Cross was using second-team players other than Johnson. "If he [North Cross coach Jim Muscaro] had kept his first group playing, there's no telling what it [the score] would have been. He let up in the second half and I appreciate that. You remember that later down the line," Cooke said.
The real scoring machine in football this fall has been Giles. The Spartans have put 414 points on the board in 10 games.
Says Giles' coach, Steve Ragsdale, "I don't know what other coaches think. We try to do everything we can to prevent [running up scores] from happening. Sometimes it's difficult to do just short of telling your kids to quit. But you hate to tell kids to do that."
Temple Kessinger's Galax team lost to Giles 52-0. Yet, he doesn't think the Spartans ran up the score and he hasn't heard anyone specifically accuse them of doing so.
"It's up to me as an opposing coach to stop it. I played against Bath when they had those great players [running backs Tim and Chris Williams]. People accused them of running up scores. We prepared for them as well as we could and generally we had a good game with them," Kessinger said.
Ragsdale says he has had games where he's on the sideline, "hoping we don't score, hoping the other team gets the ball and moves a little bit so some clock will run down."
Last year, Ragsdale tried to keep the score down against Auburn by ordering second-teamers to run out of bounds, even though they weren't about to be tackled.
"It's not fair to your kids and it's degrading to the other team. But if I'm the one getting beat, I'd rather get beat by one point than 100. At least we played them close," added the Giles coach.
Now Ragsdale puts in his reserves and runs basic plays. He still scores points late because many of his second-team players "are very capable."
Christiansburg's Coles isn't the first one to accuse Salem of running up scores. When the Spartans totaled 50 and 60 points on teams the past few years as the No. 1 Group AA team during the regular season, there were whispers that Salem was pouring it on.
"Occasionally, you get a smattering, but not from other coaches," White said. "I might receive a letter every now and then. I'm not sure if some of them [other coaches] didn't think we ran up the score."
White says games have a way of getting out of hand before a coach can slow his troops. So Salem has a policy.
"If we're more than three touchdowns ahead going into the second half, we let the starters play the opening series of the third quarter and then bring in the backups," White said.
White says you can't tell reserves to lie down. "I'd rather have the reserves play hard than lie down on me," he said. "That's a slap in the face."
In girls' basketball, Floyd County coach Alan Cantrell has a team that is too strong for the Mountain Empire District. The Buffaloes have not had a competitive game since a season-opening tournament against Group AA teams.
Adding fuel to the Floyd machine is the fact that the Buffaloes' bench is just a tick below the first team and the third team isn't far behind the second group. So Cantrell can only stop pressing and running traps, but he can't stop scoring.
"Ever since I've been coaching, we play one style - run the ball, pressure defense and man-to-man defense," Cantrell said. "People feel we should go in and play straight zone, give some kind of shot to the other team. But we don't have a zone defense in our scheme. We haven't practiced it or played it. We've pretty much stayed in the same game plan all year."
Lynette Nolley is regarded as one of the state's best players. Yet, she is not a statistical leader in Timesland because she doesn't have enough playing time to rack up a lot of points, rebounds and other statistics.
"She could easily be averaging 25 to 30 points a game. We have two or three kids who could be leading in stats, but if they're lucky, they play two quarters. That's the strength of this team - we have a bench," Cantrell said.
Fort Chiswell was drummed 86-28 by Floyd, and that's not a lot better than 99-13 against Bland. Yet, Fort Chiswell coach Danny Jonas says he doesn't think the Buffaloes ran up the score.
"I don't know about anybody else, but if you look at his girls' individual statistics, none of them are near the top in anything. They don't play enough. He plays his best seven or eight girls two quarters, pulls the press by halftime and stops half-court trapping," Jonas said of Cantrell. "When you've got 10 players like Floyd County, they can just score. They score a lot and they score quickly."
So while good teams are accused of running up the score and embarrassing other teams, it's generally not true. Most people agree that the worst thing about lopsided games is you're dealing with the egos of youngsters and they can be bruised easily. So, if possible, it doesn't hurt to be humble and not win by such a large margin.
by CNB