A man of steal

By Andee Sears

Published: October 11, 2008

The football was the only thing on Pierre Hawkes' horizon.

Dinwiddie's senior defensive saw the pass leave the Thomas Dale backup quarterback's hand. As it came to his side of the field on the Knights sideline, it got bigger and bigger. By the time Hawkes rose up in front of receiver Jeremy Coleman and wrapped his gloves around the ball, it was positively huge.

"It looked as big as the moon," Hawkes said, grinning.

For the Generals, Hawkes' interception with under a minute to play was just about that big. Dinwiddie held on to a 32-29 lead and remains unbeaten in the Central District.

A no-huddle spread offense executed by senior quarterback Adam Morgan has been Dinwiddie's trademark. Morgan and his receivers were ruthlessly effective in the first half. His final two drives ended in punts, though, and Thomas Dale's defense adjusted at halftime.

"We covered a little better, we got to (Morgan) a little more," Knights coach Vic Williams said. "We just, we needed to score and we couldn't generate anything. We were sort of limited in what we could do with a backup quarterback with a bad hamstring."

Thomas Dale (2-1, 2-4) lost starting quarterback David Williams to a concussion late in the first half. Williams' misfortune pressed Demitrius Campbell into action.

It was finally the Dinwiddie defense that was able to make late stops, holding the Knights scoreless in the fourth quarter to seal the win. The Generals improved to 3-0, 5-1.

"Pierre, he just stepped up and did a phenomenal job," Morgan said. "The whole defense did. They just bit down when they needed to."

Campbell's final pass was a last-ditch effort at reinvigorating an offense that had run the ball brilliantly in the early going with three speedy running backs and the elusive David Williams, who put up over 100 yards rushing in the first half. Generals defensive tackle Corey Marshall had run down the hobbled Campbell on the previous play, sacking him for a 12-yard loss. On the next play, Vic Williams' directions were clear.

"I told him, I said, do not take a sack," Williams said. "Throw it up and let our guys make a play. Give our guys a chance to make a play on it and that's what he did."

The Generals took the lead with 10:38 remaining in the fourth quarter when Morgan and Jerrell White hooked up for their second touchdown of the game.

After the game, Morgan gestured to the end zone behind him and smiled.

"When I was a freshman, I scored my first touchdown in that corner," he said. "And my second one was to Jerrell."