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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2001)
Sports Editor: Adam Jude adamjude@dailyemerald.com Assistant Sports Editor: Jeff Smith jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com Monday, October 1,2001 Best Get Monday Night Football. San Francisco at N. Y., 6 p.m., ABC OREGON 38 vs. UTAH STATE jjfm 21 A little scare didn’t hurt: UO pulls through late ■ Ducks win first nonconference road game in three years, but lose three key players against Utah State By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald It wasn’t easy, but for once, the Ducks beat the spread. An unorthodox — albeit effective — offense kept the Utah State Ag gies (0-4 overall) within reach of Oregon (4-0 overall, 1-0 Pacific-10 Conference) on Saturday in Logan, Utah, but only through three quar ters as the Ducks won their first non conference road game in three years, 38-21. Senior tailback Maurice Morris rushed for a career-high 175 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, and senior quarterback Joey Harrington kept his Heisman hopes alive with two touchdown passes and a one-yard touchdown run. The Oregon defense racked up four interceptions — three in the fourth quarter — while holding Utah State’s Emmett White, the na tion’s leader in all-purpose yards, to 83 yards rushing. The win, however, was not impres sive enough for the critics as the Ducks dropped Sunday from No.6toNo.8in the ESPN/USA Today Poll and to No. 7 in the Associate Press poll. “I’m pleased that we won. Is there any other stat that counts?... No,” head coach Mike Bellotti said. “We went on the road for the first time, handled the environment and stayed poised throughout the game.” Adam Amato Emerald Oregon’s 38-21 victory at Utah State on Saturday was costly, as junior wide receiver Jason Willis went down with a head injury. Willis is seen here celebrating a catch against Wisconsin. With 3:47 to play in the third quarter, Utah State quarterback Jose Fuentes hit receiver Gary Coleman in the end zone to bring the Aggies within a field goal at 24-21. From there, though, it was all Oregon. Onterrio Smith had a big running play on the Ducks’ first play of the fourth quarter and redshirt fresh man Keith Allen — in for injured starters Keenan Howry and Jason Willis — had two key catches to set up Smith’s four-yard touchdown with 12:30 to play. On the Aggies’ next drive, junior linebacker Garret Graham picked off a Fuentes pass inside the red zone, which set up Morris’s 69-yard score at the 8:19 mark, putting the Ducks ahead by the eventual 38-21 final score. Steve Smith’s interception late in the fourth quarter was his fourth of the season and 10th of his ca reer. Safety Keith Lewis and line backer Kevin Mitchell also had in terceptions for the Ducks. “The defense looked a little con fused at times, but that’s expected against (Utah State’s) offense,” Bel lotti said. “But they refused to give in and made some huge plays down the stretch.” After a lackluster, scoreless first quarter, the Aggies opened the sec ond session with the game’s first score on a screen pass from Fuentes to wide receiver Kevin Curtis, put ting Utah State up 7-0. “I’ve never been as confident for a game as I was tonight,” Curtis said. “I thought we were going to be tear ing down the goal posts.” Heading into the game, Curtis led the nation with 10.7 per game for an average of 130 yards. Lined up against Oregon defensive back Rashad Bauman, Curtis finished the game with 10 catches for 166 yards. “They came out with a lot of funky stuff,” Bauman told the Associated Press.“ That was a good offei ise. ” But it didn’t take long for the Ducks to respond, as Harrington found a wide-open Josh Line for a 34-yard score, tying the game at 7. Freshman placekicker Jared Siegel, the hero of last week’s 24-22 victory against Southern Caliform a, put the Ducks ahead 17-7 at ha p time with a 46-yard field goal, tl ■ s longest of his four-game caree i Siegel was also perfect on fivi point-after-attempts. “We hun< with them and Oregon is a class oi t fit,” said Utah State coach Mich Dennehy. “They played relative'y error-free and we did not. That w rs the difference.” Turn to Football, page 10 UO volleyball team now 0-4 in Pac-10 ■ Despite a tough loss against Washington to open their weekend, Oregon volleyball came back with a strong performance against Washington State By Hank Hager Oregon Daily Emerald After a weekend in the sweltering Arizona sun, the Ore gon women were hoping to come back to Eugene and cool down their Washington opponents. However, the Huskies and Cougars beat them to the punch. After losing to Washington in three games — 30-20, 30 23, and 30-22 — the Ducks (8-5 overall, 0-4 Pac-10 Confer ence) came back a night later and were again swept, this time to a stronger Cougar team. In another three games, Ore gon lost 30-23, 30-21,30-22. But it was not an entirely disappointing weekend for the squad. After coming out flat and seemingly uninspired against Washington (8-4,2-2 Pac-10), head coach Carl Fer reira’s team jumped out to a fast start against the Cougars. A kill by senior Monique Tobbagi gave the Ducks their first lead of the weekend, 5-4, in the first game. While hold ing Washington State (7-4, 2-2) off for eight more points, the Ducks trailed 9-8 before succumbing to the strong Cougar defense. Oregon would get as close as 19-20 before falling to Washington State in the first game. Two games later, the Ducks had their fourth loss of the Pac 10 Conference season, but not before putting up a fight. Tobbagi led the Ducks with 10 kills, but hit just .094 from the floor. Junior Lindsay Closs anchored the Oregon of fense, backing up Tobbagi’s 10 kills with eight of her own, and hit .286 for the match. Junior Stephanie Martin also looked strong in the Oregon loss while victimizing the Turn to Volleyball, page 10 Ducks shock No. 19 ranked San Diego Friday !_ Adam Amato Emerald ■ Oregon takes a step closer tc the NCAA Tournament with victories over San Diego and Eastern Washington By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald The Oregon soccer team has a “Bi-Mart Rally Clock” promotion at home games, where a fan can win gift certificates if the Ducks score within certain time periods. On Sunday, the fans cleaned up big-time. Two days after beating No. 19 San Diego, 3-0 on Friday, Oregon blew out Eastern Washington 5-0 on Sunday. The Ducks shattered many team records over the week end, and took a step closer toward their goal of a berth in the NCAA Tournament. “Each game presents a unique challenge, and we were able to re spond to those challenges this weekend,” Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said. “We were happy that we were able to put out consecu tive efforts.” Oregon’s biggest win this week end was Friday’s victory over San Diego. The Toreros became the highest-ranked team ever to fall to Oregon, and the Ducks felt they Turn to Soccer, page 10
