Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 26, 1993 TAG: 9311260026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Several years ago, Pulaski County built a visitors' dressing room next to the field so that opposing teams wouldn't have to walk from the school to the field.
And the Roanoke Valley District has outlawed noisemakers.
Still, the football teams and crowds remained.
Gar-Field journeys to the Cougars' lair tonight for the Group AAA Northwestern Region Division 6 championship in one of five regional title games involving Timesland teams.
In Group AA, surprising Laurel Park visits 1992 state champion Jefferson Forest in Region III Division 3, and Blacksburg entertains Lee in Region IV Division 4.
In Group A, Giles plays host to George Wythe in a battle of unbeaten Playoff pairings in Scoreboard. B8 teams for the Region C Division 2 crown, and a few miles away, Narrows is host to Rural Retreat in Region C Division 1.
All games, except for Pulaski County's matchup with Gar-Field, which starts at 8 p.m., will kick off at 7:30.
Pulaski County, ranked 12th in the nation by USA today, features an imposing offense that has set school rushing records three times. The crowd probably will top 10,000, but don't look for the visitors to cringe.
"We've played a very challenging schedule, including four teams that are in the playoffs and DeMatha, which is the champion of the [Maryland] Catholic league," said Chuck White, Gar-Field's coach. "We're 5-0 on the road and played some of our best games on the road.
"Pulaski County is definitely the best team we've seen this year. They have an awesome offense. Everyone down there is used to them beating up on people and taking their starters out at halftime. Not at this stage. They'll have to play well, because we think we have a pretty good football team."
Joel Hicks, Pulaski County's coach, is impressed, especially with Winston October. The Gar-Field running back-wide receiver ran for 158 yards, caught three passes for 69 yards and scored all five touchdowns Friday in the Indians' 34-21 victory over Woodbridge.
"You'd better be alert to where he's at on the field. He has a lot of speed, good hands and is a tough kid," said Hicks, whose team stopped Hylton 21-13 on Friday in the first round of the playoffs.
"Gar-Field is better than Hylton. I think the difference is that Hylton [which was off the week before playing Pulaski County] had two weeks to work for us. This time it's even-up."
One of the more intriguing matchups is at Giles, where the Spartans and George Wythe boast 11-0 records. The key may be whether the Maroons' defense, which has given up more than two touchdowns only once this year, can contain a Giles offense that is averaging 40.6 points.
"Defense is our strong point, but we knew that coming into the season," said Larry Russell, Wythe's coach. "We had most everyone back from the defense [of] last year. Giles is an explosive club, and once they get going, they're sometimes hard to stop."
Linebacker Robert Dillow leads a Maroons defense that must stop quarterback Raypheal Milton, fullback Peter Janney and tailback Maurice Milton, who run out of the Single Wing.
In the other Group A game, Narrows and Rural Retreat meet in the playoffs for the second consecutive year. The Green Wave rolled past the Indians 32-9 a year ago.
"They held Parry McCluer to 20 yards rushing the second half [on Friday] and people might be overlooking their ability to stop people. They're a year older than last year and lost this season to three playoff teams," said Don Lowe, Narrows' coach.
The game will match the Green Wave's Whitey Blankenship, who has been nearly unstoppable as a runner, against the Indians' rushing duo of Jason Childers and Kevin Burton.
In Group AA, Laurel Park knocked off top-ranked Magna Vista 16-14 on a last-minute field goal by Darrell Wilson to spoil a rematch of the 1992 Region III Division 3 championship game. Ironically, Laurel Park had tried to run for two extra points before coach John Kovack turned to Wilson.
Kovack said injuries to the Lancers' regular kicker, Floyd Martin, forced him to go with Wilson. "But we've been doing real well on two-point conversions and the muddle-huddle stuff," the coach said. "We had a different thing to run, but it didn't work, so we ended up in a situation dictating a field goal."
Wilson's 33-yarder may have surprised Kovack, but the victory didn't.
"We knew from the beginning that we had a good team," he said. "We were making a lot of turnovers and those things kill you. Then we stopped making them."
Blacksburg and Lee struggled early this year, but both teams are finishing on a high note. "We're much better offensively and defensively," said coach Dave Crist, who has had success in the playoffs with unranked teams at Blacksburg.
"Everything has to go right for you [to win a state title]," Crist said. "I don't care if you're 10-0 or 5-5, like we were going into postseason.
"Our players don't talk much, except for whatever game they're playing. Last week they talked about Carroll County, and this week it's Lee. There's no mention of what we might do beyond this."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***