Oregon daily emerald., October 15, 2001, Image 7

Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@daUyemerald.com
Monday, October 15,2001
Best Bet
MLB Playoffs: Game 5
Oakland at New York
5 p.m., FOX
Ducks ‘D’ delivers
strongest showing
of the year in rout
■The Ducks defense makes its presence felt and avoids
giving up big plays in the Oregon win
By Scott Pesznecker
for the Emerald
BERKELEY, Calif. — Oregon free safety Marley Tucker’s in
terception with one minute, 16 seconds left was enough to
bring the Memorial Stadium crowd to its feet.
Oregon fans stood up to cheer, and California fans got up
to leave.
Because, under a sunny California sky and against a near
perfect backdrop — a sprawling, forested canyon and a score
board that read 48-7 in the Ducks’ favor — Oregon’s defense
played a near-perfect game, and Golden Bear fans finally had
had enough.
“I have no complaints today — not today,” said Oregon de
fensive coordinator Nick Aliotti, who beamed like a proud fa
ther as he talked to reporters. “We almost shut that team out
today.”
Indeed, the Ducks (6-0 overall, 3-0 Pacific-10 Conference)
almost did. California’s (0-5, 0-3) only scoring drive, in the
fourth quarter, was set up when Oregon tailback Maurice
Morris fumbled on the Ducks’ 31-yard line.
Cal quarterback Kyle Boiler completed a 28-yard slant pass
to receiver Charon Arnold on third-and-long, setting up
Boiler’s six-yard touchdown pass two plays later.
Through the game’s opening 48:32, though, Oregon forced
four California fumbles and recovered two of them, collected
three interceptions and recovered the ball on downs. Three
of those turnovers were converted into touchdowns.
“They tried to run a lot of motion plays and funky forma
tions,” linebacker Wesly Mallard said about Cal’s offense.
“The Utah State game helped a lot in helping us deal with a
lot of that stuff.”
The Oregon ‘D’ set the game’s tone by brushing the Golden
Bear offense off the field in four downs.
Boiler was constantly pressured in the pocket. He was 18
of-40 passing with an interception, and his longest pass was
his 28-yard toss to Arnold. The Ducks put a cork in Cal’s of
fensive line, bottling up the opponent’s running game to 78
yards.
“When we stepped out there, we knew we were ready to
play,” Oregon cornerback Steve Smith said.
Said Mallard: “We’re just running to the ball. If you’ve got
11 people running to the ball, then something is bound to
happen.”
Was it a breakthrough game?
Heading into Saturday’s game, Oregon’s defense ranked
ninth overall in the Pac-10.
^ “We wanted to come out here and make a statement,”
Smith said. “We wanted to show people that we’re for real,
and that we know how to put people away.”
Turn to Football side, page 12
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Ben Miller Daily Californian
Oregon tailback Maurice Morris runs through a California defense that had trouble stopping him all game. Morris finished with 81 yards on 22 carries.
No contest as UO rolls over Cal
■ Oregon hits the Bears hard on
both sides of the ball in its
convincing Pac-10 victory
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
BERKELEY, Calif. — Overrated?
At one of the nation’s most acclaimed
academic universities, it’s hard to imag
ine the student section confusing one of
the most widely-known chants in all of
college sports.
But the few brave brainiacs who opted
to attend Oregon’s 48-7 blowout Satur
day over the California Bears must not
have done their homework before they
chanted the word — the team with the
most points wins, of course.
Maybe the Bears fans were just bewil
dered, considering the amount of sup
port and attention the visiting team re
ceived.
Oregon fans packed the southeast cor
ner of Memorial Stadium, seemingly ac
counting for half of the 34,152 fans in at
tendance, to watch the fifth ranked
Ducks (6-0 overall, 3-0 Pacific-10 Con
ference) crush their second conference
opponent on the road in as many weeks.
Off to their worst start in program his
tory, the Bears are now 0-5 on the season
(0-3 Pac-10).
“We felt like we were at home,” said
Oregon defensive back Steve Smith, one
of the first Ducks to thank the green and
yellow faithful as the clock ran out. “Our
fan support has always been great. They
were so much louder than (the Cal) fans.
It’s not supposed to be like that for the
home team.”
After three weeks on the road, Oregon
now returns to Eugene for the home
coming game Saturday at 12:30 p.m. At
6-0, the Ducks are off to their best start
since 1964.
Oregon’s next opponent is Stanford,
the same team that thwarted the Ducks’
6-0 perfect start 37 years ago.
There would be no thwarting of Ore
Turn to Football, page 12
Record crowd cheers on Ducks in tough loss to No. 9 Stanford
■ The Ducks score their first ever
goal against Stanford, but it’s still not
enough to pull of the win
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
Oregon brought an intense hunger
into Sunday’s tilt with No. 9
Stanford.
And feeding off a boisterous,
school-record crowd of 816 at Pape
Field, the Ducks nearly satisfied that
hunger with a first-ever%win, or tie,
against the Cardinal.
But, alas, Stanford is Stanford, and
in the end, that proved to be the dif
ference as Oregon lost a hard-fought
3-1 match. The Ducks, who lost to
California on Friday, 3-0, dropped to
6-4-1 and 0-2 in the Pacific-10
Conference, while Stanford improved
to 9-1, 2-0.
“Stanford’s a really good team and
I’m glad we battled like we did,”
Chalise Baysa said.
The Ducks had plenty of support
from the crowd as each solid play was
greeted with an even more solid
thumping of the white noise-makers
handed out before the game.
“It was all excitement and adrena
line,” Oregon goalkeeper Sarah Peters
said. “We were all so excited to play. It
felt a lot louder, especially with those
bangers.”
Those “bangers” were out in full
force when Baysa scored the Ducks’
only goal of the game — and the first
ever against Stanford in five meetings
— at the 31:03 mark of the first half.
Teammate Ann Westermark set Baysa
up beautifully with a picture-perfect
Turn to Soccer, page 10
R Ashley Smith forthe Emerald
Stanford’s Brittany
Oliveira (22) attempts
to pass the ball to her
teammate while
Oregon midfielder
Annie Murphy (14)
goes for the steal.
The Ducks had their
chances to pull of the
upset, but Stanford
prevailed in the end.