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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1974)
The point spread was only nine Ducks surprise Trojans By BOB WELCH Of the Emerald It probably surprised the Emerald progger who picked the Ducks to lose by 117, and it definitely unpleasantly surprised DSC coach John McKay, but Oregon, a team that five weeks ago was getting blown out 61-7 by Nebraska and last week was losing to Cal by 30, made the Trojans sweat to win Saturday at Autzen Stadium. Before the game, the Southern Cal Sports Information Director had yawned it would be SC's 16th straight PAC-8 win. No "if we win" followed. Sure enough, three hours later the Trojans had won, 16-7. But realizing that the SC victory came on the heels of a 41-3 r thrashing of Iowa and a 54-7 dismantling of Washington State, Oregon at least made it in teresting. So interesting, in fact, that Duck followers didn't head for their Winnebagos and bottles of Jim Beam until 1:22 left when Norval Turner was intercepted by linebacker Richard Wood to throttle Oregon's chance for another touchdown. Oregon's defense, buckling down whenever USC Davised (as in Anthony) its way deep into Duck territory, deserves much of the credit. And Oregon's offense? Well, with guys like 6-3, 265 lb. nose guard Otha Bradley and two-time All-American linebacker Richard Wood doing their thing, there wasn't much of it around. For a team that ran 19 plavs less than USC, that was nearly doubled in first downs and total yards, and that only twice was inside the SC 45, Oregon came out smelling like a rose on the scoreboard. Or so it would seem. The silence in the Oregon locker room af terwards suggested that, nine points or 90, a loss was still a loss. Even if it was to a team blessed with much more talent. "I'd feel a lot better if we'd won," said Norval Turner, checking to make sure a band-aid was sticking over a deep cut on his nose. "I mean, we were in the game. We really could have won but we just made the wrong mistakes at the wrong time. USC, they deserved to win." John McKay would debate that point. Oregon linebacker Derrel Mehl, credited with 13 unassisted tackles, would not. "You can't win by just playing defense on the goal-line, that's not enough. You've gotta think of ball control. Heck, look at the yards they got off us (337 on the ground), you've gotta play defense upfield, too." Don Read, the affable Oregon coach, pointed towards ball control, too. "They're (USC) a very physical team," Read said. "All they had to do was wear us down. They could use two fullbacks, two tailbacks. Our defense had to play too much." Not discrediting the tenacious Trojan defense, Read did say, as he has all season, that the Ducks lacked execution. Emotion, however, was abundent, ac cording to Read. So high were the Ducks before the game that the traditional ore game pile up on the sidelines saw three Ducks slide off the mound of green and yellow and over a bench. The predictable Trojans posted ten points on their first two possessions, netting a 21-yard field goal when their first drive stalled and tallying a touchdown — Davis barely making it in from the one — after Turner's first pass had resulted in an interception and excellent SC field position. Oregon got its touchdown in the second quarter on a 45-yard pass from Turner to Greg Bauer. Turner rolled right, launched the bomb to his 5-9 flanker on the three-yard line in the corner and Bauer took it in for six after SC defensive back Danny Reece bobbled it. Chris Limahelu, a 65-inch soccer style kicker who booted the Trojan's first field goal, came back with another before the half and a third in the fourth quarter to bring the score to its final 16-7. What went on in between was a lot of Anthony Davis' high stepping runs for five yards, an occasional successful blast up the middle by SC's fullbacks Ricky Bell and Dave Farmer and so many Oregon punts that you were half expecting Bob Palm's leg to fly off with one of them. Oregon's main weapon on of fense was SC's knack of getting penalized 15-yards when Palm lofted one of his eight punts. But, while the Duck's offensive display was considerably less than awesome, the defense came through often enough to make it a game. One 61-7 was bad enough. Patti Johnson slaps the ball back at Oregon College of Education as the Ducks won 15-6 and 15-9. While Johnson and the A team whomped OCE, the Oregon 1.1. I - — .—— — II I Photo by Michael Mathews B team lost to OCE, in three games, winning the first 15-6 before losing 15-9 and 15-10. Anthony Davis pno'o Ov John Dong sports AD has his options By MIKE YORKEY Of the Emerald Anthony Davis, the USC tailback who skittered for 160 yards in 38 carries Saturday, slumped over and began cutting away layers of ankle tape with a pair of shears. Earlier, he had talked little to the press while he peeled off successive layers of his Trojan uniform. Now, nearly naked, he was hacking away at ankle tape when Jim Perry, publicist for USC, sat next to Davis and opened with the conventional questions. He received a monotone of brief conventional answers. Davis, his light brown natural hair standing straight up and the charcoal slats smeared underneath his eyes smudged all over his sweat baked face, was simply tired. Running the ball 38 times like a Mo-ped cycler can do that to you. Perry soon got the message and quietly slipped away. AD, finished with his tape-cutting chores, stood up, noticed Perry was gone and began talking about USC's inability to put Oregon away once inside the 20 yardline. We have to (earn we can t do this, said Davis in reference to the Trojans dilly-dallying near the goal line. “Against WSU (54-7) we took it for granted we would score once inside the 20 but against good ball cluGs, we can't do this," explained Davis. "We can't take anything away from Oregon's defense, though," he said. All of a sudden AD was asking the questions. “Was Reynolds drafted last Jund?" asked Davis, referring to Oregon's two-sport athlete in football And baseball, Don Reynolds. Davis himself was boxed into the same situation, as he played baseball for the NCAA champion Trojans last spring. When told of Reynold's baseball leanings, Davis was asked if he would make a pro career out of baseball or football. Answering that he has more going for him in baseball (“I switch-hit, I'm better built for baseball"), AD added that maybe sports will not fulfill what he wants in life. "I like to keep my options open," he said. And what are those? "I may go into movies, I don't know. I have a double major, you know. I'm 14 units short of a degree in speech and 24 units short of a degree in urban studies. Maybe I'll get into education. I don't know right now." "Hey, excuse me, but I have to catch a shower," said Davis as he turned to negotiate his way to the baths. Meanwhile, Chris Limahelu, the diminutive 5-5, 130 pound USC kicker, had returned from his shower. A single towel was all he needed to dry off. For a steady, reliable placekicker, Saturday was one of mixed results for Limahelu, connecting on three of five kicks, his two misses from 22 and 51 yards out. But Limahelu had booted a clutch 38-yarder in the fourth ouarter to keep John McKay's white hair from turning gray. USC had the ball on Oregon's 19 midway through the fourth quarter ( Continued on Page 16)
