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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 1977)
■■■■■■■■■■■■MM! Badger quickness douses Duck fireworks By MIKE MARINO Of the Emerald Oregon answered a brilliant halftime fireworks display with some fireworks of its own Satur day night, but the occasional flashes weren't enough to match Wisconsin's talent as the Ducks suffered their second loss, 22-10, at Autzen Stadium. "We got it all in bunches." said Oregon Head Coach Rich Brooks. There were no sustained drives. We had a chance; we just didn’t get it done.” It was a dismal third period that eventually did in the Ducks, as the offense managed but one net yard and one first down. Wisconsin, meanwhile, capitalized on a safety and a field goal on the ensu ing drive to build a 15-7 lead. On a fourth-and-five at the Oregon 25, Duck center Fred Quil lan snapped the baX over punter Roy Geiger’s head into the end zone, where Geiger smartly kicked it out the back for a safety. “It was a helluva of a play,” said Brooks. “He kicked it out instead of trying to be a hero.” The Ducks had one last chance for heroics in the fourth quarter. After comerback David Haynes in tercepted a Wisconsin pass on his own five, the Ducks drove deep in Badger territory. With third-and four and the Wisconsin 10, Ed R add iff took a pitch but was nailed for a two-yard loss by safety Dan Schiebte. Trailing by eight, Brooks chose to go for the field goal on fourth down, and Geiger con nected on a 29-yarder for a 15-10 score. In choosing the three-pointer Bottom line shows just another defeat for disappointed Ducks By DAN UNDAHL Emerald Sports Editor Somewhere down there below Ken Page's 60-yard touchdown reception, below the ability of the Oregon defense to continually fight back when Wisconsin moved deep into Duck territory, below the feeling that Oregon had again nearly" beaten a very good foot ball team, came the bottom line. Oregon’s 22-10 loss to Wiscon sin in its home opener Saturday night was yet another loss. And in the final analysis that was all that really mattered to first year Coach Rich Brooks and his players. Although Oregon played com petitively all night, and until the final minute had a chance to win, there was no joy in the Duck locker room. There was no mistaking that Oregon wasn’t satisfied with just coming dose, again. “Satisfied? If we're satisfied with this there is no reason to even come back,” said quarterback Jack Henderson, who battled rain and some slippery-fingered re ceivers enroute to a 9 for 24 night. You can just look around this •ocker room and see no one is satisfied. We're real disappointed — it hurts." Indeed the dressing quarters was dearly somber. Making the defeat — Oregon's second in Oregon Daily TfmrraM three games — most difficult to swallow was the knowledge that with the game on the line, Oregon’s defense was not able to put the clamps on Wisconsin. “We had the chance," stated Brooks simply, “we just didn’t get it done.” When Brooks elected to have Roy Geiger smack a 29 yard field goal with 6:25 to play instead of going for a first down on fourth and six at the Badger 12, he was bank ing on the trust he has in his de fense. Brooks had reason to believe in his defense. Although the speedy Badgers were able to roll up 409 yards total offense, including a kil ling 255 on the ground, the Duck defense had kept Oregon in the game by turning in big plays, such as David Haynes’ interception at the Oregon five and Reggie Grant's fumble recovery at the Duck 14. Brooks was counting on it hap pening again. It didn’t. Instead, Wisconsin ran out the dock by grinding upfiekl using no thing but running plays. Starting at their own 20 following Geiger’s field goal, the Badgers ran the ban 16 times, with fullback Mike Mor gan carrying seven times. Morgan’s last cany, with one sec ond left, put the ball in the end zone. While Wisconsin was able to secure the game using the run ning attack, Oregon was never able to mount any kind of rushing threat. The Ducks totaled just 63 net yards rushing and again there were no answers for Oregon’s lack of a ground game. Fortunately Henderson's pas sing, particularly to Ken Page, was sharp enough to keep Oregon in the thick of the battle, thick of the battle. Trailing 10-0 with 12 minutes gone in the second quarter, Hen derson found the lightning Page with a strike down the right sideline. Page, who is beginning to look like Oregon’s most exciting player since Bobby Moore, caught the ball in stride and went in for a 60 yard score. “It was just a footrace, me against him, and Jack laid it right in there," recalled the fleet junior. Following the score, Page spent some time bowing to the fans in the east end zone seats while they in turn expressed their delight. Following the game some of the pleasure had worn off for Page. “My TD doesn't mean anything, there is no personal satisfaction when we lose," explained Page. “I’m never happy with a loss.” With that, Page seemed to speak for the entire team. over the gamble, Brooks rose to his own defense. “We couldn’t win the game without two scores, and it wasn’t a good chance on fourth-and-six,” he said. “We figured to go for the field goal, and get the ball back and score again." ft wasn’t to happen, however, as Wisconsin took the kickoff and rushed 16 straight times to wind out the clock. Mike Morgan’s one-yard score with :01 left iced the cake. “We needed the score as a morale booster,” said halfback Ira Mathews, who led all rushers with 95 yards on 11 carries. “We’d been down there before and didn’t get it. This time we had to.” What it finally came down to, though, was the fact that the Ducks gained 63 yards rushing to the Badgers 255, that their spunk couldn’t match the Badgers’ tal ent, and most importantly, Oregon didn’t score as many points. “They didn’t do anything differ ently than we expected,” Brooks said. “They just did it better.” Which was a situation that fireworks just couldn’t beat. TEAM STATISTICS WISCONSIN 0 10 5 7—22 OREGON 0 7 0 3—10 Wis-Matthews 25 pass from Dudley (Veith kick) Wis-Veith 39 Field Goal Ore-Page 60 pass from Hen derson Wis-Safety (Quillan hike over Geiger in end zone) Wis-Veith 32 Field Goal Ore-Gieger 29 Field Goal Wis-Morgan 1 run (Veith kick) INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING - Wisconsin, Matth ews 11-95; Morgan 23-93 Breuscher 7-35; Halleran 8-34 Dudley 10-1; Cohee 2-5. Oregon, Henderson 13-34; Nutting 12-26 Radcliff 5-18; Page 2-18; Davis 3-2; Williams 1-3. PASSING - Wisconsin, Dudley 10-18-1 154. Oregon, Henderson 9-24-0 184. RECEIVING - Wisconsin, Charles 3-59; Breuscher 2-16 Matthews 3-59; Halleran 1-9; Morgan 1-11. Oregon, Page 0-80 Cafferty 4-81; Radcliff 1-21; Vin cent 1-2. sportfolio Women kickers set tryouts The Oregon women s soccer team will hold tryouts for the fall season Monday from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Wednesday Thurs day and Friday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the athletic field located at 18th and Agate streets. For more information, contact the dub sports office or call Becky at 686-4125. Crew meeting plans announced The University men's crew team will have a meeting Monday at 6:30 in the EMU. The room will be posted on the EMU daily calendar. Freshmen heavyweights, (over 6’ and 175 lbs.), light weights (under 165 lbs.) and coxswain candidates (under 120 lbs.) are urged to attend. Emerald seeks sportswriters The Emerald sports department is seeking qualified appli cants for sports writing positions. Interested parties should attend a meeting being held for applicants Monday night at 7 p.m. in the Emerald office, located in Room 300 in the EMU.
