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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2000)
USC win continued from page 9A minutes into the game. It was the longest run of McCullough’s ca reer, as he woke up the dormant Trojan rushing attack with a ca reer-high 152 yards. Hackett came into Saturday’s game with a defensive plan cen tered around Oregon tailback Mau rice Morris. Sounded smart enough, considering that Morris had carried the Ducks throughout the season and that quarterback Joey Harrington had only complet ed 47 percent of his passes on the year. But on the Ducks’ first drive, it was evident that Harrington had come ready to play. Harrington completed his first pass to tight end Justin Peelle. He then connected on a 14-yard com pletion to wide receiver Marshaun Tucker down at the Oregon 46 yard line. Then he threw a 17-yard dart to wide receiver Keenan Howry down at the USC 34. On the next play, it was Harrington to Tucker for 13; then to Howry for 13 more on a third-and-11. Finally, the drive was capped on a Harrington shovel pass to Morris, who scampered in from eight yards out to tie the game at seven with 8:24 to go in the first. It would be a sign of things to come as the junior quarterback from Portland busted loose and complet ed 28 of 42 passes for four touch downs and a career-high 382 yards. “Joey was clicking,” said Tucker, who hauled in four passes for 80 yards. “We knew that when this offense started to click, it was go ing to be on.” Harrington just kept rolling. He completed 12 of his first 14 passes, including a perfectly placed 23 yard touchdown pass to fullback Josh Line at the start of the second period to extend the lead to 14-7. Later in the quarter, the Ducks appeared to be on their way to turning the game into a rout. On a Ihird-and-four from the Trojan eight-yard line, Harrington found Howry in the right corner. Howry lunged toward the end zone, and appeared to have his head jerked around on a facemask as he fum bled the ball. No penalty was called, and Joey was clicking. We knew that when this of fense started to dick, it wasgoingtobeon. Marshaun Tucker Oregon wide reciever j j since the ball rolled out of the end zone, it went for a touchback. “Howry’s a little sore after that facemask, but it didn’t get called, so I guess it didn’t happen,” said Bellotti of his sophomore receiver who finished with 126 yards on eight catches. Smith continued from page 9 yards downfield and firing it. It ap pears as though receiver Matt Nick els is going to pull it in, but Oregon rover Steve Smith bats it down to turn over possession of the ball. Did you just see Harrington? He didn’t see the play, but he heard the silence of the 54,031 fans in atten dance and jumped for joy. He picked up his helmet and stormed out on the field. All the Ducks have to do here is run down the clock and the first road-win of the season is theirs. The first three plays are running plays, and the Ducks are faced with a fourth-and-three from the Trojan 18-yard line. Looks like it’s up to struggling place-kicker Josh Frankel to extend the lead to seven points. Huh? Head coach Mike Bellotti just decided to go for it on fourth down. Harrington seems pretty pleased with the call. He takes the snap, finds a streaking Justin Peelle running toward the right part of the end zone and lets the ball go. It floats 18-yards into his tight end’s hands for the touch down. “At that point I didn’t think a field goal would do us any good because we’d still only be up by seven and the Trojans could score and go for two and win the game,’’ head coach Mike Bellotti said. “It worked perfectly.” It was the exclamation point. Oregon 28, USC, 17. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the final 70 seconds to tick off and the fifth win for the Ducks will be official. Those Oregon Duck fans in the east end zone sure can’t wait. Look at those crazies. They’re already celebrating and taunting the Tro jans. USC sophomore wide receiver Marcell Allmond must obviously respect them because he just gave all those fans a certain “No. 1” salute with a certain finger on his hand as he was being carted into the locker room. Three... two... one... ballgame. Some Duck fans rushed the field, as they have in the previous weeks against Washington and UCLA. Oregon wide receiver Mar shaun Tucker is greeted by his family and friends who have made the trip up from El Centro, Calif. And those Trojans walk off the field with their heads held low af SEARCHING SUCKS THIRD VOICE DOESN'T Let the information you want on the Web come to you. Don't go anywhere. Just click. Third Voice - free software that brings you info in a way that goes above and beyond what your search engine can do. Get it. And get it over with. thirdvoice www.thirdvoice.com (D 2000 Third Voice. Inc Oregon would extend its lead to 21-7 on Harrington’s 13-yard touchdown pass to tight end La Corey Collins in the third quarter, but the Trojans wouldn’t quit. USC’s John Wall converted on a 25-yard field goal, and then got the ball back when an Oregon drive sputtered. Trojan tailback Malae fou MacKenzie’s 34-yard run then helped set up quarterback Carson Palmer’s seven-yard touchdown pass to tight end Antoine Harris to trim the lead to 21-17 with 12:41 to play in the game. On the Ducks’ ensuing drive, Harrington’s near-perfect day was blemished when he was picked off by Troy Polamalu. “At that point, we were worried, but we knew we just had to keep making plays,” Oregon defensive end Jason Nikolao said. With its season presumably on the line, USC drove to the 50 and didn’t convert on a crucial third and-one. So on fourth-and-two with just more than six minutes left, Hackett chose to punt — much to the “booing” displeasure of the 54,031 fans on hand. Those six minutes went by fast as Oregon ran off the clock, punted, stopped USC’s offense and then drove the nail in the coffin. Oregon chose to go for it on fourth-and three and Harrington connected with Peelle for an 18-yard touch down strike to clinch the Pac-10 road win. “It’s another big win for this team,” said Harrington, who be came the first quarterback to throw for four touchdowns against USC since Notre Dame’s Steve Beurlein did in 1986. “We had such a tough stretch and it’s not over. It’s such a cliche to say, but it’s the truth: We need to take it one game at a time.” That next game is the No. 21 Arizona Wildcats, who will enter Autzen Stadium Oct. 21 in a tie for-first with the Ducks. Said Nikolao: “USC’s over with.. It’s all about Arizona now, boy.” ter their third-straight Pacific-10 Conference loss. Let’s follow these triumphant Ducks through the tunnel to their locker room. They have a certain champi onship look to them, don’t they? Yeah, they’re excited; but not too much, ya know? “We enjoy [playing] big games,” linebacker Matt Smith said. “Yeah, we made some mistakes, but we stepped it up when we needed to.” Okay, so maybe Oregon full back Josh Line is a little bit excit ed. He deserves to be though, es pecially after that clutch 23-yard touchdown pass that he pulled in from Harrington in the second quarter. “Who’s next?” Line is scream ing to nobody in particular. "Who’s next, baby?” Keep on following me and stay close because we’re about to brave the media crush. Come through these doors and into this room, where you’re not going to be able to breathe, let alone walk around from player to player. “It’s a zoo in here, man,” wide receiver Marshaun Tucker said. Sure is, full of national media wanting to get a piece of these up and-coming Oregon Ducks. In one corner, Bellotti is surrounded by scribes and speaking into an ESPN microphone. In another, there’s Harrington talking with the bright lights of Fox Sports Net cameras in his face. We know what this means, right? These Ducks are no longer a secret. They haven’t been a secret since their 29-10 victory over the Bruins Sept. 23, but really, there were a lot of people waiting for the “Duckies” to get on the road. Some were not quite ready to hail them as legitimate contenders un til they won away from their bois terous crowd. “Today we showed we can play on the road,” senior linebacker Gar rett Sabol said. “We need to show that. We showed that we could come to somebody else’s house and win. This was huge for us.” { C Today we showed we can play on the road. We need to show that We showed that we could come to somebody else’s house and win. This was huge for us. Garrett Sabot Oregon linebacker Come check this out. Peer out in the hallway with me. Do you see what I see? It’s Oregon athletic director Bill Moos and Bellotti ex changing an embrace. And not just your “Hey, nice win” embrace either. It was more like a “Well, coach, we really have something special on our hands” embrace. So, let’s get out of here and let these players, coaches and athlet ic director enjoy this win. There’s a big game next week against Ari zona at home that needs our atten tion now. But we both know that in a few months we could be taking a simi lar walk through a similar stadi um just a few miles north of here in a town called Pasadena. Jeff Smith is the sports editor of the Emer ald. He can be reached at Smittside@aol.com NAME THAT DEFENSE Want to name the Oregon football defense? They’re a gang and they’re green, but defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said that these Ducks can’t share the same nickname as the 1995 Rose Bowl squad. So, we at the Emerald sports desk are hosting an informal “name that defense” competition. It’s simple: Just e-mail your nickname ideas to Smittside@aol.com. We’ll publish the top-10 ideas in this week’s Homecoming Game Day supplement, along with your name, of course. For the top nickname, we are giving away a copy of the 1995 book titled, “The Year of the Duck.” The book is written by former Oregon sports information director George Beres, and it is a detailed look into the Oregon Ducks’ 1995 Rose Bowl season, full of unique anecdotes and captivating pictures. And hey, who knows. Your idea might make headlines across the nation.
