Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409270050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
And though the surroundings may have been familiar, Stewart's homecoming reception was anything but friendly.
William and Mary quarterback Shawn Knight hooked up with Michael Tomlin on a 63-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the game and the Tribe went on to bludgeon the Keydets 45-7 in a non-conference game at Zable Stadium.
"I have got to do a better coaching job. When you can't get a team excited about coming to a place like this, against the eighth-ranked team in the country, something's wrong," said Stewart, in his first season as a head coach and at VMI. He coached the offensive line under William and Mary's Jimmye Laycock from 1981-83.
The Tribe (4-0), which outgained VMI (0-3) in total yardage 518-203, was in control from the start. W&M scored on five of its first six drives to post a 35-0 halftime advantage.
The W&M defense also set the tone early. The Keydets used 15 plays to move 65 yards to the W&M 6-yard line on their opening drive only to see freshman quarterback Al Lester throw an interception to W&M linebacker Jude Waddy at the 2.
Lester said the defensive coverage was not what he was expecting and he didn't see Waddy until after the ball was released.
"I don't know how he couldn't have seen me,'' Waddy said. "... I saw that I had no threat in the flat, so I stayed home and he threw it right to me."
The Keydets didn't make it back into Tribe territory until the end of the third quarter when sophomore tailback Thomas Haskins returned a kickoff 35 yards to the W&M 45-yard line.
Haskins, nursing a ligament injury in his left leg suffered in a 31-21 loss to East Tennessee State last week, helped move the ball to the 38-yard line where the Keydets faced fourth-and-three. Lester rolled right and looked to pass, but ended up sprinting to the right sideline for the first down.
On the next play, Haskins broke through the middle to give the Keydets their only score on a 32-yard run. He finished with 113 yards, 62 below his average.
Haskins agreed with Stewart that the Keydets did not come prepared for W&M, ranked eighth nationally in NCAA Division I-AA.
"It's called sudden change,'' Haskins said. "We as a team have to play consistent. We can't come out and dominate a team like ETSU and lose, then play William and Mary and play like crap."
Knight completed 9 of 17 passes for 142 yards in just over two quarters of work for the Tribe. He helped set up a 28-yard Brian Shallcross field goal to make it 38-0 with 12 minutes remaining in the third quarter, then watched Matt Byrne and Yonce Shelton mop up.
"Our guys did a good job of staying focused and taking care of the job at hand," said Knight, who will lead the Tribe next week to Charlottesville to face Virginia.
For the Keydets, it could have been worse. W&M missed field-goal attempts of 32, 24 and 29 yards in the second half.
Third-string tailback Alvin Porch led the Tribe in rushing with 109 yards. He scored W&M's final touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 5-yard run.
Junior Troy Keen gained 59 yards on 12 carries for the Tribe, including touchdowns of 1, 12 and 8 yards.
"I'm pretty pleased with the way we played, especially in the first half," Laycock said. "After that first drive [by VMI] we regrouped defensively. Offensively, we mixed it up and the execution was pretty much the way we wanted it.''
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Keywords:
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