Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Dec. 19, 1985, edition 2 / Page 22
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/?*? - Hampton to By DAVID BULLA Review Staff Writer THREE WAS a charm for Marco Stacy of Hampton University, but it proved to be another rejection for Winston-Salem State. Stacy directed the Pirates to their first Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association football championship ?inre IQ^I with a 1^-7 virtorv ov#?r th#? Rams Nov. 23. WSSU, on the other hand, had taken an impressive ninegame winning streak into the finale, but failed to win in its third consecutive C1AA title game. The Rams lost to Virginia Union 34-7 two years ago and Norfolk State 20-19 last year. Mesmerized wssu remains winless in all four of its title-game appearances, .*"also losing to Elizabeth City State in 1971. Stacy, Hampton's senior quarterback, is a local hero. He played on Hampton High School's back-to-back state 3-A championship teams in 1980-81 before winning a scholarship to HU. "With this I've won championships on both the state and college level," Stacy said after the Pirates staved off a last-minute Ram drive. "I can't ask for anymore than that." The Pirates couldn't ask for ^anything better than the victory in Winston-Salem, to atone for a 47-13 a 1 urnnv t _ a t t a n a ^n roui oy W33u ai nampion aepi. z?. Stacy wasn't much of a factor in the first game, in which WSSU built a 21-0 first-half lead and never looked back. "1 didn't start that game," Stacy said after he led HU to a 212-192 edge in total offense in the title contest. "When he (Coach Fred Freeman) put me in, we were 21 points down. Winston-Salem knew we had to pass, so they went into the prevent. We tried to score points quick and weren't suc** cessfuL" In that game, the Rams, behind the outstanding defensive play of strong safety Derrick Beasley and linebackers Angelo Spruill and Mark Wallace, limited the Pirate offense to 153 total yards. Undaunted, Hampton noseguard Ike Readon, the CIAA's most likely National Football League draftee next June, told Winston-Salem State Coach Bill Hayes that the Pirates and Rams would meet again. , "I told Coach Hayes we'll see him again," Readon remembered in the Pirates' noisy locker room at WinstonSalem's Groves Stadium. "When they came down there and beat us like that, it just wasn't our game. But they were not 34 points better than we were." \ - WSSU's Hayes agreed. Page 22-December, 1985 mSSSSSSSSSSSSm rgets earlier - M ' mk m dMjHf Local hero Stacy, behind center, n (photo by James Parker). "In the first game, Hampton was flat," the Ram coach said. "We had had the week off and they were coming off a real big game against Virginia Union (a 31-0 win). They were successful, but got banged up a good bit. We had a great game plan and had outstanding execution. "So people expected the second game to be the same way, especially when we scored on our first possession. But w$ did not play with the same degree of efficiency. We never gave up and our offense could move the ball, as the close total-yard statistics show. But we did not move the ball consistently enough. Stacy, who earned a reputation as an outstanding option quarterback* at Hampton High, demonstrated those decision-making skills in the second game with WSSU. He engineered three scoring drives after the Rams went up 7-0 on their first drive. More often than not, tailback Carl Painter was Stacy's choice among the options of the Pirate veer offense. The Norfolk. Va.. nroduct. who was the CIAA's only 1,000-yard rusher this season, raced for 108 tough yards on 25 carries on a drenched Groves shellacking ! ,v. V-"V: " * Ef. 7* ?u? 41V m wfi*m fHi B vf * \|^^ ^ I X W > _ wgjZ^ j-,fi"!' & IB m m the Hampton attack with aplomb Stadium track. Painter, who scored the game-winner on a five-yard run on the third play of the fourth quarter, finished the season with Hampton's singleseason record of 1,271 yards, counting his 111-yard effort in a 38-28 NCAA Division II playoff loss to Bloomsburg State, and was the championship game MVP. V V I t _ t rte saia ne sensed a distinct momenturn shift after Ed Byers plunged one yard for WSSU's only touchdown with 9:28 left in the opening quarter. "We wanted to take the momentum away from them after that drive," the Pirate junior said. "We knew we would have to work hard." Hard work wasn't the only thing that paid off for the Pirates. They made one major offensive adjustment, according to Stacy, and it opened the run for Painter. 11 We watched a lot of films on them and we felt we could run weak on them," the quarterback said. "When we were in a strong formation, they tended to shade strong. We really had them outnumbered going to the weak side and we took advantage of it." In a game he had predicted to be a knockdown, drag-out fight, Hayes , wins CIAA came away with the impression that Hampton won the battle in the trenches. "Our strength is running backs and defensive backs," he'said. "Without Danny Moore (three-time all-CIAA center out for the season with an ankle injury), our offensive line was relatively inexperienced. We're concentrating our recruiting efforts on linemen." Last year, the Rams nearly pulled out tne ciaa title game, out Tyrone Smith hit the upright on a 37-yard field goal attempt in the last 20 seconds. They had a chance again this year. While Smith paced nervously on the sidelines, Anthony Blaylock and Bruce Dunlap deflected a punt by freshman Thomas Walker, whose 60-yarder in the first half was instrumental in keeping WSSU bottled up most of the afternoon. Walker's last punt carried only 16 yards, to the Hampton 45. Three plays later at the Pirate 17, freshman quarterback Bobby Junior, who had alternated with junior Dana Walker throughout the fruitless second and third quarters, lofted a pass to tight end Harry Giles in the right corner of the end zone. Giles, who caught a pair of touchdowa passes on specially designed plays at Livingstone the week before, had a step on cornerback Blake Anderson. The spiralling ball reached j Giles at the same time Anderson's hands pushed the receiver's legs. Giles, a Suffolk, Va., native and an excellent basketball player, grasped the ball momentarily. But it bounded harmlessly to the Groves Stadium turf. Two more passes followed and each failed. 4'It just slipped away again," Hayes said. 44We had to establish the running game early. We were in poor field position most of the game and we couldn't get anything consistent going. 44No one wanted this game more than I did, but I couldn't ask for a better group of guys. "Every time I lose .it is the most frustrating loss I've ever had. Every loss is equally frustrating. I never accept defeat." Despite the heartbreaking setback, Hayes finished the year with the best record (9-2) among college football coaches in North Carolina. Hampton Coach Fred Freeman, whose team finished 10-2 after the loss tr* RlnAmcKiipn ka<4 ??.t?l?. wiwvuMi/uigi nau wui i icu uiai 1119 team would lose a physical game with WSSU. "They bring so many backs," Freeman said. "We were worried about them running those people in and out of there, and wearing our people down. But it didn't happen. Our guys hung in there and played real well."
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Dec. 19, 1985, edition 2
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