ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 8, 1996 TAG: 9612100029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: MIDLOTHIAN
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
The masters of mud slid into a group that was a little more masterful Saturday.
Once again finding themselves slipping and sliding through the rainy slop, just as they had the week before in the state semifinals, the Giles Spartans couldn't find a way to mine gold from a mire.
Powhatan played as splendidly as a team could in hideous conditions and beat the Spartans 20-8 for the Group A Division 2 championship at neutral Midlothian High School.
It was the first time in three remarkable trips that Giles (13-1) has gone to the title game and lost. It was the first state championship for the Indians (12-2).
The difference was a Powhatan wing-T offense that produced big plays whenever it must against a defense that had been all but impenetrable this season.
"They have an excellent football team,'' Giles coach Steve Ragsdale said. "And they have a lot of size and power.''
The Indians' muscle and mass might have been the telling difference in the game's most decisive stretch.
Giles had been outplayed in the first half and was 14-0 in arrears at intermission. After that, a different team emerged from the locker room wearing the muddy Spartans' road whites.
Giles, which had stopped two-time defending state champion Powell Valley 14-7 in a monsoon in the semifinals, got a nice kickoff return from Chris Hutchison of 33 yards and started from its 47. The Spartans didn't have a kickoff return shorter than 30 yards all day, which consistently had given them good field position.
The Spartans immediately moved to the Indians 17, where they faced a third-and-eight. But a fumble was recovered by the Indians' Chuck Newton, snuffing that threat. No matter. The defense held and, following a punt, the Spartans began again from their 35.
The march through the muck required 16 plays, the last of which was an inside reverse of 1 yard to wingback Hutchison on fourth down for the touchdown. Tailback Chris Ratcliffe roped a two-point conversion pass to Emanuel Young, who made a spectacular catch, and the score was 14-8 with 10:17 left in the game.
"I was thinking then that we were going to have a good shot to turn this thing around,'' said Young, an end and linebacker, and one of only four Giles players who goes on both offense and defense. "It was 14-8 and anybody's ballgame.''
Powhatan and its 6-foot-4, 205-pound quarterback, Chris Paquette, then knuckled down. When Jeremy Saunders' kickoff sailed out of the end zone, the Indians had 80 yards to go. They did it because Paquette and his pals made all the plays.
The first was an 11-yard naked bootleg for a first down on third-and-five from the Indians' 36. Paquette had run 24 yards for Powhatan's second touchdown on the same play.
"First two times we've run that play this year,'' Powhatan coach Jim Woodson said. "We just put it in this week.''
The second killer play was a 12-yard swing pass to 256-pound fullback Rod Robinson that gave the Indians a second-and-two after a penalty (one of two for the game for the Indians) had left them with first-and-15 at their 47.
The last of the big plays was a 37-yard strike to end Zach Gray on third-and-eight from the Giles 38. Safety Chris Ratcliffe hauled down Gray at the 1, but Robinson bulled over for the score on the next play.
"Call it misreads, blown coverages, whatever, we weren't covering,'' Ragsdale said.
There was a little over four minutes left and for all practical purposes, the game was over.
"We're only human,'' Ratcliffe said. "That would have taken the wind out of any team's sails, especially with that little time.''
Ratcliffe and the rest of his fellow seniors - 21 played key roles - gave it everything they had, but time and a very good Powhatan defense were against them. Giles could not sustain another drive.
Ratcliffe finished with 73 rushing yards on 25 soggy carries to go with 57 yards passing, and that was pretty much the extent of the Giles offense. The Spartans did nothing in the first half until they drove to the Indians 12 before being stopped on downs near the end of the half.
"If we'd been able to score there and then taken the second half kickoff '' Ragsdale said.
If the other team hadn't had Paquette, it would have been in trouble. The big senior completed seven of 11 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown, and finished with 146 yards total offense, quite a feat in a game in which a driving rain never stopped.
"That was the best game of his career,'' Woodson said. "Of 11 passes he threw, every one of them hit the receiver right in the hands.''
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. Giles players (l-r) Monty Tickle,by CNBB.J. Smith and Chris Bales sit dejectedly during the final minutes
of Saturday's game (ran in B&W in Metro edition). 2. Chris Ratcliffe
(left) of Giles looks for running room as Powhatan defender Zach
Gray (88) moves in to stop the play. color.