Saints are bowl bound

= By Jason Norman
Tuesday, November 1, 2005 10:22 PM CST

NSA football: The Nansemond-Suffolk Pee-Wee Pop Warn= er football team kicks back after its 20-14 defeat of Virginia Beach Sunday. The Saints and th= eir Junior Midget counterparts will head to North Carolina later this month for bowl competition. n Jason Norman/Suffolk News-Herald

C.J. White charged two yards for his second touchdown of the d= ay as Nansemond-Suffolk's Pee-Wee Pop Warner team closed out its regular season with a 20-14 overtime defeat of visiting Virginia Beach= Sunday, ending = at 7-1, the best PW season in NS history.

The Mustangs scored first, but T.J. Gay tied things up 7-7 at halftime. VB scored on its first drive of the third quarter, then took a Saint fumble and charged to the NSA 20. But the Saint defense held, and a series of penalties gave them the ball at the NS 46 to start the fourth quarter.

Bobby Estienne carried for six yards, and a false start penalty upped NS to the B= each 43 yard line. White, Estienne and Thomas Westfall made it 11 yards, and thr= ee White carried and a pair of unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties gave NS a fir= st down at the VB seven with two minutes to play.

White made it three yards, and a false-start penalty moved the Saints to the two. White burst through the line and scored, then repeated the procedure on the extra point to send the game to overtime, in which the teams started at= the 10-yard-line and had four chances to get to pay dirt.

VB couldn't score, but White was stopped for no gain on first down. On seco= nd, Estienne took the handoff and charged toward the right side of the field. A tackler grabbed him around the middle, but he kept going. Another defender = got his shoulder, but Estienne stepped forward. One other tackler jumped onto h= is back, and he finally fell - at the two.

"I just kept fighting," he said. "I had to get in to win, and everybody on offense kept on pushing."

One play later, the left side of the line blasted a path for White, and he scurried over the goal line for the win.

"I was excited," he said. "I couldn't wait to get into the endzone. The blockers opened it up for me, and I could see a lane."

The Saints will head south Nov. 12 for a bowl game in Sanford= , N.C.

The NS junior midget team also closed out its season with a win over Chesapeake, 35-0. Wade Hig= gins, Darius Miller, Forrest Hannah, Carlton Read and Zack Repco scored.

The Junior Midget Saints will head to Greenville, N.C. Nov. 19 for the= ir own bowl game.