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.