SPENCER He said it with a
straight face, giving the impression that he really believed North Rowan could do it.We said tonight we were going to have more running
yards than passing yards,Cavalier quarterback Mario Sturdivant said.
It almost happened in the first half of Friday
nights nonconference game against visiting South Rowan. Then Sturdivant continued to
pick apart the Raider defense to lead theCavs to a 29-13 win, and the passing yards won
out.
Again.
The pass was there, too,Sturdivant
added. It was an either-or situation.
Sturdivant threw to six different receivers and
looked like he could do anything he wanted against the Raiders defense. The senior
finished 20-for-31 for 184 yards and also scored on a 2 -yard run to give North (3-3) a
20-6 halftime lead
I knew I was going to have a good game in
warmups,Sturdivant said. My arm felt so strong that was the tightest
spiral Ive ever thrown.
It also might have been the most running
Sturdivants done in a while. He took nearly every snap from 8 yards deep in the
shotgun, then darted left or right to give the bigger but slower South lineman something
else to think about. He was sacked only once, but not when the game was on the line.
Sturdivant collected 23 yards on his first pass of
the night when he found Alfonzo Miller between two defenders. Running back Jamel Alexander
ended that eight-play drive with a 4-yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead, but South (1-6)
responded with some solid passing of its own.
Raider QB Tim Cook didnt use his three
backfield mates except for play fakes and blocking in the early going. He connected on
several nice throws to put South in scoring position, then found a wide open Keith Garrett
in the middle of the end zone from 11 yards out to tie the game at 6-all.
Weve really worked on throwing the
football in practice,Cook said. The play fake and the bootleg were working
great for us, weve just got to keep concentrating and stay focused on every
play.
Sturdivant and Alexander went back to work on
Norths next drive, with the quarterback completing four throws for 32 yards and the
tailback finishing the job with a nifty 24-yard scamper after making a South defender miss
him in the backfield.
TheCavs got the ball back at midfield after a punt
and needed just five plays on long passes to Graham Hosch and Andre Byrd to set up
Sturdivants 2-yard sneak into the end zone. The second of two successful point-after
kicks the first of the year from Kevin Rutherford made it 20-6.
That drive put Sturdivants passing yardage
ahead of Norths rushing total, but barely 93 yards to 91.
Souths yardage took a big jump and then a
big step back on its last drive of the first half, the one head coach Rick Vanhoy said
turned the game around.
Garrett reeled off a big run and Cook had a
16-yard quarterback sneak behind big linemen Tripp Isenhour, Brian Billings and Patrick
Gaddy to help put the Raiders first-and-goal at the 9.
North called a timeout to regroup the defense and
Souths offense started moving in the wrong direction. Cook sent an option pitch to
Tore Girty that ended up on the ground before Cook covered it for a 12-yard loss.
Cooks throw on second down came when he was past the line of scrimmage, and
Souths third-down play netted an intentional grounding call because of Brian
Alfords big rush. Staring at fourth-and-goal from the 32, Cooks next pass fell
incomplete.
They did a good job bottling us up in the
first half. We had to try to do something different,Vanhoy said. Offensively
we were up and down. Wed have a good series and a bad series.
The second half belonged to Sturdivant and the
North defense, which forced a fumble and a quick punt in the third quarter.
The Cavaliers moved the ball up and down the field
and took a 23-6 lead early in the fourth, and after Girty pulled South within 23-13 with
5:48 remaining, Sturdivant delivered a third-down completion to Hosch that sealed the win.
Mario is a great quarterback, I love
watching him,Cook said. They kept getting first down after first down, driving
and driving
And without even trying or so it seemed.
Sturdivant had to work hard for his 184 yards. The Cavalier ground game was nipping at his
heels with 141 yards, after all.
Thats part of the game. You just have
fun and do what you do get open so Mario can throw it to you,Hosch said.
He says, If youre open Im gonna throw it to you, and
thats how its been since Day 1.