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)