Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409190004
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
One football faux pas (and a favorite Bermanism) told the story of this Old Dominion Athletic Conference contest :
Fummmmmm-ble!
The teams combined for 11 fumbles, but the Wasps were more successful in covering their mistakes - and the ball - while beating the Generals 23-2 before a crowd of 3,130.
W&L lost all five of its fumbles; E&H lost only one of six.
``Both sides made a lot of mistakes,'' said Lou Wacker, the Wasps' coach. ``[W&L] just turned it over in critical situations and that was the game.''
Emory & Henry scored 10 points on drives following Generals fumbles and three off an interception in the third quarter.
``[The turnovers] really kept it from being a wing-ding game,'' said Gary Fallon, W&L's coach. ``It could have been exciting, but that just took the juice right out of us.''
The Generals were shaky from the start, gaining only 1 yard on their opening series. The Wasps, however, charged down the field on their first possession. Junior running back Charles Cole capped the five-minute, 12-play series with a 1-yard touchdown run.
On W&L's next possession, sophomore tailback J.P. Josephson fumbled after a short reception on second-and-five. Cornerback Thomas Nelson recovered at the Generals' 30-yard line and the Wasps turned it into a 42-yard Jason O'Dell field goal to take a 10-0 lead.
The Generals used nine plays on a drive in the second quarter to move the ball to Emory & Henry's 25-yard line, but Josephson coughed up the ball on a run up the middle and linebacker Casey Kelley pounced on it.
``It seemed like every drive we had, we ended it for ourselves,'' said Matt Mogk, a junior running back who led the Generals in rushing with 39 yards on nine carries and caught three passes for 20 yards. ``... But we found out that we have a good team. What was missing today was just the polish.''
W&L's defense - which has all 11 starters back from last season - was intent on keeping the Wasps from taking a big lead into halftime. With three minutes left in the second quarter, they had Emory & Henry stopped on third-and-seven at the 20-yard line. But Cole slipped through the cracks for a 14-yard gain up the middle, and with time running out, the Wasps settled for a 27-yard Wade Vidal field goal and a 13-0 lead.
W&L's first possession of the third quarter ended when sophomore quarterback Brooks Fischer's pass intended for William Propst was picked off by John Luttrell at midfield. E&H turned that mistake into a 32-yard field goal by Vidal.
The Generals' only points came on a safety three seconds into the fourth quarter, when Wasps punter Mark Middleton fell on a bad snap in the end zone. W&L's defense had held Emory & Henry tailback J.D. Davis to 1 yard on three plays to force the punt.
Fischer set up the Wasps' final scoring drive when he lost the ball on a sack. Emory & Henry quarterback Jason Strange directed the Wasps 58 yards upfield before scoring on a 5-yard keeper. Davis rushed for all but 3 yards on the series and finished with a team-high 105 yards on 20 carries.
Strange was 9-of-21 passing for 86 yards. Fischer completed 14 of 24 for 98 yards, most on short passes to Propst.
``I was tentative a bit in the first half,'' said Fischer, whose brother Spence is the starting quarterback at Duke. ``I was trying to get the ball to Propst too much and I should have been looking to some others.''
The loss was W&L's 12th in a row to the Wasps, who fielded only four starters from a squad that went 7-3 last season. Fallon and the Generals had been optimistic about breaking the string of defeats Saturday against Wacker's young team.
``If we were going to catch them, this would have been the time,'' Fallon said. ``... There were times when we were capable [of scoring], but we couldn't put any first downs together. We couldn't get any continuity to put them in some pressure situations.''
Mogk said in past years the Generals had been overwhelmed by the thought of opening with the Wasps, but this year was different.
``We were really up for this game. We knew they were young,'' he said. ``We felt good about it. We just made some mistakes that really hurt.''
by CNB