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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2002)
Sports Editor Peter Hockaday peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com -Oregon Daily Emerald Sports Best bet MLB Playoffs: San Francisco at Atlanta 5:20 p.m., FOX Monday, October 7,2002 Line em up: Duck lines shine at Arizona Oregonis offensive and defensive lines help the Ducks to their 31-14 victory Saturday in Tucson Peter Hockaday Sports Editor There was a line of scrimmage drawn in the desert Saturday, and the Oregon football team dominated it on both sides. The Ducks’ often-unheralded offensive and defensive lines shone Saturday in Oregon’s 31-14 win over Arizona in Tuc son. By substituting often, head coach Mike Bellotti kept his linemen fresh and enabled the Ducks to reel off 24 unan swered points as they came back from deficits of 7-0 and 14-7 in the win. Oregon quarterback Jason Fife, who threw for 244 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, and running back Onterrio Smith, who rushed for 145 yards and two touchdowns, both benefit ed immensely from the solid play of the offensive line. “I give credit to the (offensive) line people because our protection was awe some for Jason all day long, and the abili ty to run the football by Onterrio was set up by their blocking up front,” Bellotti told KUGN radio after the game. The offensive line allowed two sacks early in the contest but gave Fife more and more time to throw as the game wore on. That time allowed the junior signal-caller to engineer two crucial scor ing drives that put Oregon ahead for good. The first drive was a five-play drive Turn to Lines, page 8 Kevin Klaus Arizona Daily Wildcat Jason Fife threw for244 yards and two touchdowns in Oregon's 31 -14 win on Saturday. Wild night in Tucson, Ducks win After a slow start, the Ducks surge to a 31-14 win behind another 100-yard effort by Ontenio Smith and a strong offense Oregon 31 Arizona 14 Adam Jude Senior Sports Reporter There’s nothing like a little scare to start the day. Or, in Oregon’s case, a jolting wake-up call to start Pacific-10 Conference play. Arizona scored on its first possession Saturday and jumped out to a 14-7 first-quarter lead over the No. 7 Ducks at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, Ariz. Then the Oregon defense, like a sleeping giant, awoke from its preseason haze to shut out the Wildcats (3-2 overall, 0-1 Pac-10) in the final three quarters of a 31-14 Oregon win. The Ducks (5-0, 1-0), the defending Pac-10 champions, have won 10 consecutive games, the second-longest streak in the nation behind Miami. “Any time you can get a road win in the Pac-10 is great,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti told KUGN-radio after the game. “I think we started off slow and we were our own worst enemy, but I thought the defense improved dramatically as the game went on.” The Oregon defense held Arizona to 30 yards on the ground and recorded five sacks, including the first career quarterback takedown for fresh man tackle Haloti Ngata. Offensively, tailback Onterrio Smith kept the Ducks in the game in the first half. Smith continued his assault of opposing defens es and the record books, as he finished with 145 yards on 28 carries and two touchdowns. He has Turn to Arizona, page 8 Harmon leads Oregon to third at Willamette Emerald Laura Harmon (10) finished 14th overall at the Willamette Invitational, pacing the Ducks to a 3rd-place finish at the daylong race in Salem. Harmon was the top Oregon finisher. With two top runners injured, Oregon makes a strong showing Saturday in Salem Cross Country Mindi Rice Freelance Sports Reporter SALEM — Despite missing two of its top runners because of injury, the Oregon women’s cross coun try team finished third in Saturday’s 28th annual Willamette Invitational at Bush’s Pasture Park. Junior Laura Harmon finished 14th in the race in 17 minutes and 41 seconds, dropping 10 sec onds from her seventh-place time last year. “I wanted them to come away feeling they raced better than last week,” head coach Tom Heinonen said. “We trained really hard this week, so some of them looked a little tired, as expected, and that was part of the goal — to help tune-up before Pre-Nationals.” Senior Carrie Zografos and junior Magdalena Sandoval were both held out of the meet with in juries. Zografos sat out with a slight calf injury, while Sandoval had an injured hamstring. “Erinn (Gulbrandsen) was our highlight runner today,” Heinonen said. “It was by far her best performance for us in a couple of years and a real boost. She gives us a real strong sixth runner when we get Carrie and Magdalena back in the picture.” Gulbrandsen (25th), freshman Nicole Feest (26th) and redshirt junior Eri Macdonald (28th) all finished within six seconds of each other. “During the race, I thought Nicole, Erinn and Eri did a decent job working together, and en couraging each other, especially in a big field,” Heinonen said. “I was also please that several of our runners ran faster today than they have be fore on this course.” Redshirt junior Alicia Snyder-Carlson, who was working through sore Achilles tendons last week, finished fifth for the Ducks and 58th over all in 18:57. Other runners in the meet for Oregon were freshmen Krissy Sonniksen (60th, 18:59) and Chelsea Manesh (71st, 19:16), redshirt sopho more Taylor Bryant (74th, 19:18), redshirt fresh man Haripurkh Khalsa (90th, 19:49) and fresh man Sabrina Turner (92nd, 19:51). "During this race, I thought Nicole, Erinn and Eri did a decent job working together, and encouraging each other, especially in a big field" Tom Heinonen head coach The Willamette Invitational, hosted by Willamette University, is the largest collegiate cross country meet on the West Coast — 44 teams and 444 finishers raced in two women’s races. This year’s Invitational was held in honor of Peter Lundblad, a member of the Willamette cross country team who died July 5. The Willamette students who raced and volunteered at the meet wore red ribbons around their heads in his memory. The women have two weeks to train and rest before heading to Indiana for Pre-Nationals on Oct. 19, where both the men and women are scheduled to race. Mindi Rice is a freelance writer for the Emerald.
