Can’t catch me: Ducks establish run
■ Oregon s running game
finally cranked into gear against
Utah State, as Morris and
Smith ran for big games
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Run, run, run, ’til your Aggie
takes your two feet away.
That was the strategy of the Ore
gon football team as they beat Utah
State 38-21 on Saturday in Logan,
Utah. Senior tailback Maurice
Morris broke out for a career-high
175 yards in his first big game of
the year, which was the first time
Oregon’s had a 100-yard rusher
this season. Amazingly, backup
Onterrio Smith nearly eclipsed the
century mark, finishing with 98
yards on the ground.
“The O-line did a great job. The
holes were huge,” Oregon quarter
back Joey Harrington told the As
sociated Press. “This is a good con
fidence builder that we can run the
ball now.”
Harrington was not overshad
owed by the running game in any
sense. The senior signal-caller threw
17 passes for 261 yards, passed for
two touchdowns and ran for anoth
er. But the focus of many in Logan
was Morris and the Oregon running
game, which struggled in earlier
games against Wisconsin, Utah and
Southern California.
Getting Morris on track was one
the biggest concerns coming into
Saturday’s game. A second-team
all-Pac-10 back last year, Morris av
eraged only 54 yards per game be
fore Saturday’s running explosion.
Smith, in limited action, was aver
aging 42.3 yards per game.
Before Saturday’s game, head
coach Mike Bellotti said there was
Adam Amato Emerald
Senior Maurice Morris rushed for a career-high 175 yards Saturday against Ohio State.
“tons of room for improvement” in
the running game.
Then the runners improved Sat
urday. Morris asserted himself ear
ly, with help from the offensive
line. By the time the game was
over, the two running backs had a
combined 273 yards on 37 rushes
and two touchdowns.
“Morris had a couple runs that I
think will go down in history,” Bel
lotti said Sunday after watching
the video tape. “I’m surprised peo
ple haven’t been awed by them
more. They were just flat-out awe
some.”
Oregon set the tone early by giv
ing to Morris on the first drive of
the game. In the second quarter,
Morris helped Oregon to its first
touchdown with two rushes for 20
yards at the start of the drive.
In the fourth quarter, Morris put
the game away for good with a ca
reer-long 69-yard touchdown run
with 8:19 on the clock. That big
gain came four minutes after
Smith’s four-yard touchdown run
put Oregon up 31-21.
“We ran the ball well in the sec
ond half and that helped us out,”
Harrington said.
Harrington also rushed for a
touchdown in the second quarter.
The signal-caller ended up with 14
yards rushing in the game.
The Oregon rushing corps lost a
valuable member, Allan Amund
son, to injury early in the game.
Amundson was on crutches after
the game, but did not break a bone.
He will be out for two to six weeks.
Duck men finish
11th in Minnesota
■ Hartmann and crew finished
11th for the men’s cross
country team, but the women
didn’t fare as well
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
It was a star-studded cast at the Roy
Griak Invitational on Saturday, and
the Ducks did not shine as brightly as
they had hoped. There were 14 top
25 teams in the 36-team men’s field,
and 11 top-25 teams in the 32-team
women’s meet.
Overall, the No. 16 Oregon men’s
team finished 11th with a score of
326, while the women took 28th
beating only Iowa State, Coastal
Carolina, Army and Youngstown
State. Pacific-10 Conference rival
Arizona State won the women’s
race with 109 points and Arizona
finished in third place with 167. No.
9 Providence finished with 139
points for second place.
Wisconsin won the men’s race
with Portland and Providence Col
lege finishing second and third, re
spectively. The Ducks did run well
enough to beat five top-25 ranked
teams — No. 10 Georgetown, No. 11
William and Mary, No. 12 Arizona,
No. 20 Minnesota and No. 25 Air
Force. That will help them at the
end of the season when they are try
ing to receive an at-large bid to go to
the NCAA Championships.
Individually, Jason Hartmann
led the Ducks, placing 12th with
a time of 23:31.7. Following the
All-American junior on the eight
kilometer course were Seth
Pilkington (52nd, 25:01.4), Ryan
Andrus (84th, 25:15.6), Noel
Paulson (85th, 25:16.0), Brett
Holts (93rd, 25:19.4), John Lucas
(98th, 25:21.9) and Eric Logsdon
(116th, 25:29.6).
Junior Carrie Zografos was the
first to finish for the Duck women,
as she did in Oregon’s last race .
She was 99th overall with a time of
22:32.2 over the 6K course. Zo
grafos was followed by Laura Har
mon (106th, 22:35.8), Magdalena
Sandoval (162nd, 23:04.0), Erinn
Gulbrandsen (180th, 23:19.1), Ali
cia Snyder-Carlson (188th, 23:24.0),
Annette Mosey (199th, 23:41.2) and
Sara Schaaf (210th, 24:23.8).
Head coach Tom Heinonen ques
tioned the pace at which the
women came out of the blocks.
“Our runners started very conser
vatively, and it backfired on us,” he
said. “They moved up during the
race but were just too far back.”
In order for Heinonen’s squad to
have a shot at going to the NCAA
Championships, a feat they have
accomplished in 24 of his 26 years
as head coach, they need to com
pete better and beat some of the top
ranked teams in the nation —
something they have had difficulty
doing up to this point.
“It was disappointing, but I still
think we can be better,” Heinonen
said about Saturday’s race.
The meet was held on the Les Bol
stad Golf Course and hosted by the
University of Minnesota. The Gold
en Gopher men finished 17th, while
the women ran to a 12th place finish.
The Oregon harriers’ next race is
on Oct. 13 at the Furman Invite in
Greenville, South Carolina.
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