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West Craven Highlights
News From Along The Hanks Of The Neiise
NAIftMAl rXWSMiVS
VOLUME 12 NO. 39 OCTOBER 12. 1989
VANCEBORO. NORTH CAROLINA
PHONE 244'0760 OR 946-2144 (UPSP 412-110)
26 CENTS
EIGHT PAGES
Eagles celebrate touchdown over Rams en route to 12-7 win.
Becton touchdown lifts Eagles
By Mike Voss
Editor
HAVELOCK — Junior running
back Lee Becton scored on a six^yard
plunge with 3:16 left tolift unbeaten
and eighth-ranked West Craven to a
12-7 Class 3-A Coastal Conference
win over seventh-ranked Havelock
last night.
Becton’s ID capped a fourth-
quarter rally in which the Eagles
took advantage of two Ram miscues
to get the win and good positioning
for the state playoffs.
Becton scored the go-ahead
touchdown three plays afWr a high
punt sailed over the Havelock
punter’s head and was recovered by
the Eagles Ray Hardee at the Rams* *
7-yard line. The Eagles overcame
two procedure penalties before Bec
ton snaked his way through a mob of
defenders at the goal line to stand
triumphantly in the end zone.
A two-point pass conversion
failed.
The Eagles were down 7-0 at the
end of the first quarter and Becton,
who finished with 69 yards on 23
carries, was limited to four yards
rushingin the first half. But the Ea
gles closed to 7-6 when Eddie
McKee] hit Rams’ bock Kenny Fra
zier and forced a fumble eventually
recovered by Hardee at the Rams*
22.
Becton moved the ball to the 1 in
three plays and quarterback Kevin
Hclzwor^ scampered in firom the 1
with 7:09 left in the fwrth (quarter
to bring the Eagles wimn enepoint.
Chris Stilley*s converrion kick was
wide.
Havelock, having scored on a
24-yard rush by Silas George in the
first period, took possesion on the
ensuing kickoff but, on a fourth-
and-10 punt attempt, the ball sailed
high and was recovered by the Ea
gles to lead to Becton’s go-ahead
score.
Havelock had one more chance af
ter Becton’s touchdown. Facing a
fourth-and-20 after a quarterback
sack, the Rams saw a pass fall three
yards short of the first down.
West Craven took possession and
ran out the clock with five running
plays by Becton.
Becton also posted two sacks and
at least two tackles for losses in the
omtest.
The Eagles’ longest play in the
game was 28 yards and came in the
first half. The Rams unveiled a new
defense against the Eagles’ lone-
back set, said coach Wilbur Sasser.
It worked as Becton in the first half.
For the game, Holzworth threw
eight incomplete passes, completed
five and threw one interception in
the first half.
Neither team showed much offen
sive firepower as West Craven had
In defense of Pack,
Campbell speaks out
By Mo Krochmal
Sports Editor
RALEIGH — If there has been
one constant this season for the N.C.
State football team, it has been the
plq^f the defense.
: fVG^e member of that defense,
wbojusthappenstobe fix>m Vanceb-
oyo, "speaks out* loudly with his
performances.
• Saturday afternoon, it was the
Pack’s defense that held NCAA Di
vision I-AA opponent Middle Ten
nessee at bay until the offense could
nank up as the Wolfpack emerged
With a 35-7 triumph in posting its
liXth-straight win this season.
■ But, for the second straight week,
ah unheralded opponent had Wolf-
pack fans worried.
•; The Blue Raider defense inter-
tepted the Wolfpack twice in the
firsthalfandkept things close, trail
ing 7-0 at the half.
;' Last week, it was Dick Crum’s pe
sky Kent State that aggravated the
\Volfpack before falling 45-22.
! I') Ibe second half Satur-
ttej'^fl^eemed like the officials were
the best weapon the Wolfpack had
as a pass interference call at the
Middle Tennessee 2-yard line fueled
a 48-yard scoring drive, capped by
tailback TVrone Jackson’s 1-yard
TD plunge to give the Peek a 14-0
lead it took into the intermission.
Tlie Wolfpack then found some
momentum on a turnover in the
third quarter as Vanceboro’s Jesse
Campbell, an all-conference defen
sive back and lost year's rookie of
the year, got into the act.
Campbell looked like he was tak
ing a ^p into a zone for pass pro
tection. Then, suddenly, Cam(i)ell
was sprinting out of the pack, bcdl in
hand. He ended up in the end zone
after grabbing a fiimbled pitch but
was not able to advance it and had to
trot back after sprinting to the end
zone.
*They missed the pitch,” Camp
bell said. "I was right there, it was
easy. It would have been a
touchdown.”
Campbell, who came in as the
leading tackier on the Wolfpack
squad with 45, said the defensive
goal was to hold the Blue Raiders to
three downs each possession.
See CAMPBELL, Page 7
U» Kroctanil photo
N.C. State's Jesse Campbell (42), escorted by Bobby Houston,
tries to advance a fumble recovery In Saturday's win over Middle
Tennessee.
Powers misses football,
football misses Powers
By Mike Vos
Editor
Jeir Powers grimaced in pain.
Both physical and emotional pain
as he sat in a wheelchair, shackled
to the sideline. Perhapa moat of the
pain came from knowing there was
rfothi ng he coul d do to help his team-
fpates — nothing physical that is.
Powers, a 6-1,260-poundlineman
for the West Craven Eagles, had
been sidelined the week before with
akneeinjury. Last Tuesday, Powers
underwent surgery end appears lost
to the Eagles for ths rest of the
spason.
But there is more to life than foot
ball and more to football than suit
ing up and playing on the field — a
philosophy Powers believes.
West Craven’s Eades faced con
ference rival Havolou this post Fri
day night. ‘Hie Engles hadn’t beaten
the Rams in four years. And with
Powers out of the lineup and unable
to open holes for Eagio tunning
backs, the outlook for West Craven
dimmed.
1 miss it already,* ssdd Powers
from his wheelchair. But as much as
ha missed the game, the Eagles
were missing Powan. Iha senior
provides leadership and axperisnea
that has helped Ism the E^les to a
6-0 record and a ranking among the
top 10 3-A schools.
‘Ws’rs going to miss him, both for
his playing skills and what ha con-
tributos in other ways,* said heed
Sea POWERS, Pago 7
Four-laning
Highway 17
is celebrated
NEW BERN — The four lane
UB. 17 bypass proposed under the
state Transportation Improvement
Program is iMing looked at as a way
to remedy the "bottlenecks” near
New Bern, especially at the Neuse
River bridge.
Local government officials got a
firsthand look at the location of the
bypass during a dinner at the Shera
ton Hotel herelaat night tocelebrate
thedecisiontobuild a four-lane U.S.
17 from the Virginia border to South
Carolina.
The project would also four-lane
the highway from Wilmar at the
Craven-Beaufort county line to
Bridgeton at a cost of about $29 mil
lion. The bypass around New Bern
will cost about $100 million.
The projects will be financed
mostly through the recent
5^4 -cent-per-gallon tax increase on
gasoline and an increase in title
fees.
The project puts easter North
Carolina on the "brink of finaliza
tion of four-inning U.S. 17 from
state line to stote line," said
Basnight.
The bypass is part of an overall
program costing over $720 million
that will encompass all of the
285-mile U.S. 17 system, one of the
largest in the state.
U.S. 17 stretches from Camden
County at the Virginia border to
Brunswick County at the South
Carolina border.
Senator Marc Basnight, spokes
man for a del^ation of eastern
North Carolina legislators who
pushed for the passage of the high
way bill, said, "I think it was a mqjor
breakthrough for eastern North
Carolina.”
See HIGHWAY, Page 7
183 total yards and Havelock had
170.
Prior to the opening kickofT, Bec
ton visited injured lineman Jeff
Powers on the sideline and showed
Powers a towel tucked into his his
(Becton’s) waistband. The towel had
the name "JefT printed on it. Becton
told a reporter the towel was a re
minder to score for the lineman who
has opened holes for the Eagle run
ning back.
The towel worked. It worked late,
but the Eagles are now 6-0 and
earned a win over Havelock for the
first time in four years.
Kip Bryan, the leading pass re
ceiver for the Engles and the confer
ence, caught four passes for 56
yards, had one interception and
broke up two passes. Tony Coward
also added an interception to the
West Craven defensive effort.
See EAGLES, Page 7
Mums the word
The Latham Garden, foreground. Is abloom with mums in time for
the New Bern Chrysanthemum Festival. The gardens and
groundsofihe 13-acre Tryon Palace historic site will be open free
to the public Oct. 13-15 during the festival.
Area codes required
for toll calls in 1990
TARBORO — Beginning March
2, 1990, North Cardina residents
will have to include the three-digit
area code when they dial long
distance, even if they are phoning a
number with the same area code as
their own.
According to Carolina Telephone
officials in T^rboro, the reason for
the change dwells in the theory of
supply and demand. The number of
available three-digit prefixes to
loco] telephone numbers — known
as NNXs—no longer is sufficient to
meet the demand for liiore central
offices to serve the growing demand
for telephones.
A solution, though temporary, is
to increase the number of available
prefixes by allowing a *l*or "0” to be
the middle digit. The 1 and 0 have
been excluded in the past because
they were used for access to long
distance dialing.
By allowing 1 and 0 to be used,
152 new prefixes — to be known as
NXXs — will become available for
both the 919 and 704 area in North
See PHONES. Page 7
Study of currents should
not delay drilling: Mobil
JafI Powers watches teammates from sideline.
GREENVILLE - Mobil Oil Corp.
officials told a representative of
three conservation groups calling
for a study of ocean currents off the
North Carolina coast that such a
study has already been mode.
A spokesman for Minerals Man
agement Service, a division of the
U.S. Department of the Interior,
said the request by the three groups
should not delay Mobil’s proposed
oil and natural gas exploration.
The comments were made during
a public meeting on the company’s
exploration plan Tuesday on the
East Carolina University campus.
"We just spent $1 million for a
study on the dynamics of currents in
this area,” said James C. Martin,
Mobil environmental and regulat
ory affairs manager and manager of
the North Carolina drilling project.
"Our report should have four times
the data of the proposed Congres
sional study.”
"It would not be appropriate to de
lay this decision based on this re
quest,” Martin said.
Representatives from the North
Carolina Coastal Federation, the
Sierra Club and LegaSea, a Dare
and Hyde County-based conserva
tion group, said Mobil shouldnotex-
plore for oil or gas off the coast until
the congressional study is complete.
The groups called for the study in
a press conference yesterday morn
ing in front of the Department of En
vironment, Health and Natural Re
sources in Raleigh.
The request was reiterated at the
public meeting by Tom Perlic of
Sec OIL, Page 7