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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1983)
sports_ Strange, but true: Ducks 0, OSU 0 By Steve Turcotte Of the Emerald Incredibly enough, after 11 tur novers, four missed field goals, 16 punts and 60 minutes of football, Oregon and Oregon State laid goose eggs. Saturday's 0-0 tie at Autzen Stadium was the sixth scoreless tie and the first since 1931 in Civil War history. The deadlock left Oregon 4-6-1 on the year and 3-3-1 in the Pac-10 while Oregon State finishes 2-8-1 and 1-6-1. Unlike previous years, there was a lot of meaning to this season's Civil War. For starters, an Oregon victory may have lifted it to a first division conference finish. Fur thermore, a win would have put the Ducks' record at 5-6 — at least three wins better than most ex perts projected. For Oregon State, a victory might have saved coach )oe Avez zano's job. Avezzano's fate will be determined Tuesday by Oregon State's athletic board. An OSU win also would have ended an eight year Civil War winless skid. But with a lot on the line, each team seemed determined to avoid scoring. "It was a strange football game," said Oregon coach Rich Brooks. "Both teams had their chances but were not able to score." The game may make a football follies film. Oregon fumbled the ball seven times and lost it four times, while the Beavers fumbled it four times and lost it twice; the Ducks were intercepted twice, the Beavers three times. "The fumbles were just incredi ble — people just dropped the football," said a disbelieving Brooks. "Every time we had good field position we'd fumble." The game was dominated by Oregon State in the first half and the Ducks in the second half. The Beavers rolled up 156 yards at halftime to Oregon's 45 but still were unable to score. The Ducks then outgained OSU TOO to 82 in the second half, yet they failed to find the end zone. Oregon State had six scoring op portunities in the first half — some washed away by turnovers, others by missed field goals. On their first series of the game, the Beavers drove to the Ducks 20-yard line before running back Bryce Oglesby fumbled and Oregon's Dan Ralph recovered. Early in the second quarter, OSU recovered a Lew Barnes fumble on a punt return but couldn't score. On its next possession, Oregon State rolled to the Oregon nine, but kicker Marty Breen was wide left on a 26-yard attempt. A minute and one-half later, OSU sacked Oregon punter Kevin Hicks on his own 14. No matter — running back James Terrell fumbled on the ensuing play. Oregon State had one last chance before halftime. Oregon freshman quarterback Chris Miller coughed up the ball and the Beavers recovered, but Breen missed from 48 yards as time ran out. "We took it to them in the first half," said Oregon State coach |oe Avezzano. "But then they took it Photos by Brian Erb Fumbles told the story of the Civil War. Here, Alan Jackson (bending over) coughs it up. OSU's Will Stubblefield (99) gets set to recover, while Chris Miller (back) looks on helplessly. Ducks and Beavers played to a futile 0-0 tie. ' 4 Wmmm*?. Oregon's Kevin McCall eludes OSU defensive back Reggie DuPee on his way to a 25-yard run in the third quarter. But the play, and McCall's 100 yards on the day, went all for naught. to us in the second half." That the Ducks did. In the second half Oregon had no less than five chances to put points on the board. The first came with 7:06 left in the third quarter, but Paul Schwabe blew a 20-yard field goal. On their next possession, the Ducks moved to the Oregon State 21-yard line before a holding penalty forced them to punt. After Oregon linebacker E.|. Duffy intercepted OSU quarter back Ladd McKittrick's pass at the Beaver 47, the Ducks ran seven plays before Todd Bland fumbled at the OSU 15. With 5:25 left in the game, Schwabe was wide left on a 50-yard field goal attempt. Oregon had a last desperate chance to score with one second left on the clock. Mike Owens hit Kwante Hampton over the middle, and Hampton lateraled to Ladaria Johnson. Johnson sprinted to the Beaver 14 before safety Tony Fuller knocked him out of bounds. "In the second half we got the ball down the field but just couldn't put it in," said Oregon of tensive guard Gary Zimmerman. "I just can't give an explanation why we didn't." Maybe the Ducks were shut down by an inspired OSU team trying to win one for its coach. Avezzano, who is 4-T8-2 in four years at Oregon State, is rumored on the way out despite having a year left on his contract. Still, a weary Avezzano insisted that "it should be obvious to anyone watching how far this pro gram has come. These men had several chances to bail out, but they never did." His players think Avezzano's record is deceiving. "We don't want him to leave," said Oglesby. "You people (media) don't understand, you just write whatever you want. We feel kind of responsible for what's happened — you can't put all the burden on a coach." Avezzano refused to comment on his job status. "I've said before that I won't comment on that," said the Beaver coach. "And I still won't. I have another year on my contract, and I plan on living up to it." r 1 Lang leads cagers to tourney title Behind 26 points and 14 rebounds from senior center Alison Lang, Oregon's women's basketball team defeated University of Cal Irvine 73-59 Saturday to win the eight-team Straw Hat Classic in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Playing in their first tournament of the year, the Ducks eked out a 60-59 victory over San Francisco State University in first-round play Thursday. Oregon then advanced to the title game with a 75-65 win over San lose State University Saturday. The Ducks almost didn't make it past the tournament's first round. They trailed SFSU 59-58, but Chris Metzger's layin with 30 seconds left gave the Ducks the lead. SFSU still had a chance to win following an Oregon turnover with five seconds left, but it never got off a shot, probably because its players thought they were ahead, not behind, by a point. "Their players immediately started celebrating (after the turnover) and didn't at tempt to get off a shot," said Oregon coach Elwin Heiny. "They must have thought they were ahead." Lang scored only 11 points against SFSU after injuring an ankle, but the All-American hopeful came off the sick list to score 27 points and grab 16 rebounds in Friday's win over the Spartans. Sophomore guard Heather McDuffie added 14 points for the Ducks. Saturday, the Anteaters were no match for the Ducks, Oregon jumping to a 46-30 halftime edge with 63 percent shooting. Lang's perfor mance helped her secure tournament Most Valuable Player honors, and forward Helen Higgs backed her teammate with 13 points and nine rebounds. McDuffie, who scored eight points against the Anteaters, joined Lang on the all tournament team. "We really controlled the game from the very beginning," said Oregon assistant coach Mike Petersen. The Ducks, now 3-0 this season, play Belcoe Electric in a non-counting game Saturday at Mc Arthur Court. Netters lose two NorPac playoff matches, still clinging to NCAA at-large bid hopes Despite finishing fourth in the NorPac Con ference volleyball tournament this weekend in Stockton, Calif., Oregon hopes to nab an at large bid for the NCAA championships. The Ducks lost to top-ranked University of Pacific Friday and fell to No. 15 University of California Saturday night. With the two losses, Oregon's chances of receiving an at-large berth are cloudy. The Ducks, now 24-18, lost to UOP 15-10, 15-7, 15-9, in the first round. In consolation play the following night, Cal beat the Ducks 15-13, 15-12, 9-15, 15-9, possibly ending Oregon's season. The netters had aspirations of knocking off Pacific, but the top-ranked team crushed the Ducks in three games. "We did play much better than we did against Pacific in Eugene earlier in the year (Oct. 15)," said Oregon coach Chris Voelz. Better was not enough, however. Oregon's All-American candidate, Sue Harbour, had 25 kills and senior co-captain Cathy Hill added 12, but Pacific firepower (the Tigers claim six All American candidates) overwhelmed Oregon. "Unfortunately, the scores didn't reflect our effort," said Voelz of the opening-round loss. "Pacific was really strong, as we expected, and pushed us into some errors." Oregon didn't fare any better against the iMh-rankea bears, cal, last year s tournament champion, was upset by 19th-ranked Oregon State on Friday, but took revenge on the Ducks. After four hard-fought games, the Ducks had more kills than Cal (70-66), but costly errors hurt them. The duo of Harbour and Hill com bined for 50 kills in the loss. The two losses may prevent Oregon from receiving an invitation to the NCAA Cham pionships in Lexington, Ky. Selections will be made at the end of next week to determine at large berths. The Ducks, Cal and OSU hope to receive bids while tournament champ Pacific gets an automatic nod. Duck freshmen wrestlers shine in first tourney A pair o i Oregon freshman — Sean Braddock and Brad Stewart — won in dividual titles to highlight the Ducks' appearance at the Lumberjack Open at Humboldt State University in Aracata, Calif., Saturday. Braddock, a 142-pounder from Springfield High School, defeated three op ponents en route to his in dividual championship while* Stewart, at 190 pounds, also defeated three wrestlers to pocket an in dividual trophy. I wo mo re Oregon freshmen, Garett Clayton at 118 and Daemon Knight at 177, c aptured third plat es in their weight classes Senior ISO-pounder Rate Mumiord took third in his weight class. The* tourna ment marked the first ap pearance in a Duck uniform since 1980 for Mumford, who has been studying at a Bible College lor two years. "The young guys did a heck ot a job competing," said Oregon coach Ron Finley. The tournament, which was the first competition of the season tor Oregon, was a non-storing team event.
