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Essex's Tutt finds his niche in Richmond backfield

October 19, 2005 1:06 am

EXPERIMENTS SOMETIMES provide football teams the intended boost. Often, though, the coach is left scratching his head and saying to himself, "What was I thinking?"

Richmond's Dave Clawson was caught in the latter circumstance but was bright enough to correct matters. He switched senior Stacey Tutt (Essex) back to quarterback after the Spiders showed little offensive punch in an 0-2 start with Tutt playing wide receiver.

Tutt was in fine form on Saturday, completing 16-of-25 passes for 212 yards and one touchdown and running for another in the team's 20-10 victory over 22nd-ranked Delaware. The win boosted the Spiders to first place in the Atlantic 10's South Division.

"We knew coming in that he was one of the best pure athletes in the league," Delaware defensive back Kyle Campbell said about Tutt.

"We want the ball in Stacey's hands on critical downs," Clawson commented on the Spiders' Web page. "I think the thing about Stacey right now is how much he has improved from a year ago.

"I think he is throwing the ball away when he needs to. He is keeping his eyes downfield and when he gets flushed from the pocket he continues to look for receivers down the field."

Particularly pleasing for the Spiders' coaching staff was Tutt's third-down effectiveness. On those plays, he connected on 9-of-11 passes for 124 yards, enabling the Spiders average 9.7 yards per play on third-down conversions.

Tutt needs 496 passing yards to move into fourth on the Spiders all-time list ahead of Buster O'Brien (1966-68) with 4,424.

Safety Josh Baldwin (North Stafford) gave Christopher Newport a 21-0 lead five minutes into the second quarter when he returned a blocked punt 29 yards for the score as the Captains routed Chowan, 47-26.

Seven other athletes from the Fredericksburg area play for Christopher Newport: running back Mark Kratzer , offensive lineman Billy Keating , tight end Scott Keeven and defensive lineman Zachary Wilson (all from North Stafford); running back Ramarcus Baylor and defensive back Josh Beamer (both from Essex), and linebacker Chris Salas (Colonial Forge).

Hampden-Syndey's J.D. Ricca became the first 7,000-yard passer in Old Dominion Athletic Conference history in last weekend's 38-34 loss to Washington & Lee. His younger brother, Keith, broke another of his conference records by passing for 472 yards in leading Catholic to a 41-34 victory over LaSalle. The Tigers and Cardinals clash on Saturday in what should be a high-scoring affair.

William & Mary won both the men's and women's cross country team titles with Virginia Commonwealth placing second in Saturday's Tribe Invitational.

Top area finishers in the men's 8K race were William & Mary's Dan Nally (Liberty, 16th, 26:48.26), VCU's Chris White (Massaponax, 21st, 26:52.18), W&M grad and Team Blitz member Bert Jacoby (Stafford, 26th, 27:02.92), and George Mason's John Crain (Colonial Forge, 30th, 27:19.69).

Top finishers in the women's 6-k event included William & Mary's Loren Cutright (Louisa, 18th, 23:54.10), and VCU's Libby Little (Courtland, 19th, 24:01.64) and Reagan Merriam (Massaponax, 35th, 25:40.93).

Salem College's Rachel Fichthorn (Liberty) continued a banner freshman season, earning all-state recognition with a fourth-place finish (26:37, 6K) a the North Carolina Collegiate Cross Championship meet in Greensboro.

"Her success is due to her workout ethic in practice and her competitiveness during the race," said Spirits coach J.P. Widner (by e-mail) about his star runner who has earned Collegiate Women's Athletic Association's runner of the week five times this season.

The Virginia Tech men's soccer team is hoping midfielder Ben Nason (Colonial Forge) can rejoin the Hokies in time for their regular-season final games against Virginia and Maryland. The junior is rehabbing the ankle he injured the second game of the year and has yet to participate in regular practice drills.

Shenandoah's Proteus Herring (Courtland) set a school record in Saturday's 34-27 loss to Greensboro College, totaling 161 yards and two TDs on six catches. The Hornets' leading receiver has 309 yards and four scores on 14 catches.

Senior linebacker Dennis Thornton (Spotsylvania) recorded four solo tackles and 16 assists and broke up a pass to spark Marshall's 20-19 football victory over Alabama-Birmingham.

George Mason's Niki Bernardes (King George) achieved a match-high 22 kills and 13 digs, but it was not enough as the women's volleyball team dropped its sixth match in a row, falling 30-24, 30-25, 16-13, 30-14 to Colonial Athletic Association rival Hofstra.

Radford's Fernando Ramos (North Stafford) picked up his fourth assist of the season as the Highlanders (8-3, 5-0) took over the Big South Conference men's soccer lead following a 2-1 victory over Birmingham-Southern.

KURT NICOLL can be reached at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401, by fax at 373-8455, by phone at 374-5441 or by e-mail at knicoll@freelancestar.com.