South routs North 47-19

LANDIS — South Rowan coach Rick Vanhoy said the Raiders’ opening game of the 2001 football season had the feel of a basketball contest.

If so, South must be the Lakers.

The Raiders kicked sand in North Rowan’s face, turning what was supposed to be a tossup into a bullying 47-19 rout.

“We expected our defense to step up and make big plays, and they sure did it,” said Vanhoy.

South forced seven Cavalier turnovers, producing a devastating series of big plays in the early minutes, nullifying a terrific statistical effort by North quarterback Alfonzo Miller, who ran for 146 yards and threw for 167 more.

The Raiders’ rock-ribbed defense would create seven turnovers and was responsible for a 21-0 lead before South’s offense was asked to produce a first down.

The teams traded early punts and the game seemed headed for the defensive struggle it was billed to be.

But then a simple out pattern turned into disaster for the Cavs. A Miller pass hit tight end Jerome Allison just as South linebacker Dale Rice arrived on the scene.

Allison and Rice wrestled for the ball until Raider safety Brad Lanning streaked in, plucked the ball from the air and returned it 41 yards down the sideline to the North 5.

“We both had it and then I guess Brad had it,” said Rice. “I never saw Brad.”

Fullback David Ritchie punched in on third-and-goal and the Raiders were up 7-0.

Two minutes later, North was on the move looking for a tie. But when Miller hit young receiver Jerom Cauthen with a short flip, Cauthen was soon in the bear-like grasp of linebacker Jay Phillips, who slung Cauthen around like he was participating in the hammer throw.

The ball bounced to the turf and popped into the eager arms of Raider corner Ricky Childers, who sprinted 81 yards for a TD. That made it 13-0 and an SRO crowd began to sense that this would not be North’s night.

Confirmation of that fact arrived with 2:20 still remaining in the first quarter when North punter Blake Nichelson got a bad snap, tried to run and was stripped of the ball by Keith Clark. The ever-present Rice was in the right place at the right time again, fielding the ball like a shortstop and dashing unopposed to paydirt. After Ritchie’s 2-point conversion, it was 21-0.

“I was just making my regular drop, getting ready to set up the return wall and then I see over this short guys’ shoulder pads that the punter is trying to run with it,” said Rice. “I went around the end to cut him off. Then Clark got the ball and I just picked it up. I knew someone would get me, but no one ever did.”

Rice, one of 30 Raider seniors, said all those huge plays by the defense were satisfying proof that actions always speak louder than words.

“North talked all week, but we weren’t afraid of ’em,” he said. “You can talk it all you want, but then you have to get on the field and prove it. I guess we proved it.”

The misery wasn’t over for the Cavs.

Miller was picked off for the third time when linebacker Anthony Rhyne stepped in front of a short pass and hauled it back to the Cavalier 16.

The quarter ended with still first-downless South knocking on the door for its fourth touchdown.

The Raiders got it when QB Andrew Morgan slanted in to the end zone from a yard out for 28-0.

Just when it looked like South might chase North all the way back to Spencer, however, the Cavs stabilized a bit.

That’s where that basketball stuff that Vanhoy was talking about came in.

North finished the first half with a couple of scores, one on an electrifying 56-yard burst around right end by Mike Mitchell and another on a 34-yard Miller-to-Cauthen aerial strike.