SPARTA - The spread offense is all the rage in football these days, especially a scheme that puts an athletic quarterback in the shotgun and makes him a featured rushing threat.

Alleghany coaches spent this past off-season installing such a spread attack for 2007, building it around their dynamo signal caller Drew Piscopo.

While Elkin knew what was coming Friday night, the team could do little to stop Piscopo, who helped orchestrate a 20-14 Trojans victory with his feet and a strong right arm.

Piscopo kept the ball on 32 snaps, rushing for 132 yards and a touchdown. He also completed 10 of 15 passes for 142 yards, including touchdown tosses of 70 and 6 yards.

Piscopo's heroics helped Alleghany beat Elkin for the first time since back-to-back wins in 1999 and 2000. The Trojans improved to 4-5 in the Northwest 1A standings and 2-4 overall, while dropping the Buckin' Elks to 4-5, 3-3.

"He's the kind of quarterback you look for - a real good athlete who can make you miss," said Elkin coach Richard Grissom, who had such a quarterback last year in Tyler Transou, the 2006 Northwest 1A offensive player of the year.

"We've seen the spread offense a bunch. A lot of people have been doing that. It's not a matter of (our players) not seeing it before but it's a matter of them executing against it and stopping it."

Even with Piscopo proving as tough to corral as the wind, the Buckin' Elks still had a chance to steal Friday's game on their last drive. Trailing 20-14, Elkin took over at its own 21 after an Alleghany punt with 2:56 to play.

On first down, Corey Uldrich got behind the Alleghany defense, but a long throw from quarterback Russell Stewart was just out of his reach.

Three plays later, Damon Smith streaked down field wide open, but a pass from Stewart bounced out of his hands.

Undaunted by two golden chances missed, the Elks kept plugging away and moving down the field.

Brian Carter turned a screen pass from Stewart into a 20-yard gain to the Alleghany 41.

On third-and-nine, Carter caught another pass and rumbled to the Trojans' 21. Two plays later, Carter pushed to the 15 after hauling in yet another throw from Stewart.

But here is where the Elkin drive stalled. Stewart couldn't connect with his receiver on third down, and a fourth-down play with 42.9 seconds left, designed to be a screen pass, fell incomplete near the line of scrimmage.

"This was a big win for us, especially with how we did it," Alleghany coach Gil Maxwell said. "We put it on our defense and toward the end of the game, we stayed with our philosophy of bend but don't break. You're always scared to death it's going to be 21-20."

While Piscopo was a handful, Elkin proved its own worst enemy at times. The Elks fumbled the ball away in nice field position (their own 42-yard-line) on their second offensive play.

After driving from the 12 to the Alleghany 11 in the second quarter, Elkin missed a 37-yard field goal. The killer point in that series was an Elks penalty that turned a first-down gain to the Alleghany 4 into a third and long from the 21. That backed the field goal try up about 15 yards.

The Trojans led 7-0 at the half and took advantage of an Elkin fumble on the opening kickoff of the third quarter to go up 14-0. The Buckin' Elks gave Alleghany the ball at the 26, and Piscopo rushed five times in seven plays before finding the end zone on a 5-yard scramble out of the shotgun.

Elkin finally got on the board with 6:24 left in the third quarter after a short run by Brandon Cox on third-and-goal. But Alleghany quickly answered.

Two plays later, Piscopo completed a slant pass to Jesse Moxley, who snagged the ball between three defenders and outraced everyone to the end zone for a 70-yard touchdown.

"We've come a long ways since last year," Maxwell said. "When we put together our offense for this year, we based it around our quarterback. Our productivity on offense has been better and our point production has been better. Hats off to the kids. They have bought in to what we've asked them to do."

A blocked punt by Travis Myers with 8:21 left in the game gave Elkin its second touchdown. Justin Strickland covered the loose ball in the end zone, and Paul Ardizzola converted his second extra point to make it a six-point game.

Alleghany kept things rather conservative the rest of the way, with Piscopo keeping it seven of nine plays on the next drive. The Elks forced a punt to set up their final drive, but ran out of time and downs at the end.

"Piscopo is our horse and we were going to ride him," Maxwell said. "That's why towards the end there we kept running the counter with him, kept running the sweep with him. We were going to win with him or lose with him, and we can live with that decision."

Grissom said mistakes ultimately came back to haunt his Elks.

"I thought we did a good job in the second half coming back, but really we should have never been in the situation we were in," he said. "Right now, we're just making too many mistakes to be a good catch-up football team."

While Elkin only rushed for 48 yards, Stewart did tally 178 yards through the air. He was picked off once, and a penalty on Alleghany kept that play from turning into a Trojans touchdown. Carter had six receptions for 88 yards.

"We do a good job sometimes with the passing game," Grissom said. "But we're very erratic. We'll do a good job, then we'll do a bad job. That's just the way it has been all year long. I don't know if it's inexperience because we do the same things over and over again in practice or whether we just don't have the kids right now. We'll just have to find out the rest of the year."

Elkin will close against two of the top teams in the Northwest 1A, Mount Airy at home this week and then at East Surry on Nov. 2.

Both the Elks and Alleghany should make the state playoffs, thanks to the expanded 1A field that has been in place for several years. There are some prognosticators who forecast Elkin and Alleghany meeting up again in the first round, a match-up the Elks would likely favor for travel and pride reasons.

But Grissom certainly isn't looking that far ahead, not with two of the school's biggest football rivals coming up the next two Fridays.

"Mount Airy, it's a big ball game," he said. "We'd better get in gear. Until we get some consistency, it's going to be hit and miss."

Alleghany 20, Elkin 14

Elkin 0 0 7 7 -- 14

Alleghany 7 0 13 0 -- 20

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

A - Drew Piscopo 6 pass to Jesse Moxley (Jhonathan Piedras kick), 5:41

Third Quarter

A - Piscopo 6 run (Piedras kick), 8:48

E - Brandon Cox 1 run (Paul Ardizzola kick), 6:24

A - Piscopo 70 pass to Moxley (kick failed), 5:24

Fourth Quarter

E -- Strickland recovers block punt in end zone (Ardizzola kick), 8:21

Individual Stats

Rushing: Elkin 26-48 - Kyle Whitman 8-18, Russell Stewart 8-11, Brandon Cox 4-9, Israel Murphy 3-5, Lorenzo Cardona 3-5. Alleghany 43-191 - Drew Piscopo 32-132, Jesse Moxley 7-42, Jamie Weaver 4-17.

Passing: Elkin - Russell Stewart 10-of-23 for 178 yards, 1 INT. Alleghany - Drew Piscopo 10-of-15 for 142 yards, 2 TDs.

Receiving: Elkin - Brian Carter 6-88, Corey Uldrich 3-57, Israel Murphy 1-33. Alleghany - Jesse Moxley 6-103, HunterThomas 4-38.

First Downs: Elkin 12, Alleghany 16

Penalties: Elkin 2-15, Alleghany 4-30

Turnovers: Elkin 3, Alleghany 0

Missed Field Goals: Elkin 1 (37 yards).