Oregon daily emerald., October 14, 2002, Page 9, Image 9

Football
continued from page 1
in both polls, gave them control of
the young Pac-10 race and sent a
message, according to the Oregon
players, to the rest of the confer
ence that Oregon won’t easily relin
quish its conference crown.
“People feel we haven’t been
tested this season, so this was huge
for our program,” Duck tailback
Onterrio Smith said.
Smith was one of many offensive
stars for Oregon on Saturday, but it
was really the UCLA offense that lit
up the Rose Bowl for most of the
game. The Bruins used big plays to
put them up 7-0,14-7 and 30-24 as
Oregon was forced to play catch-up
football for much of the contest.
But the game turned on three
key plays — plays that fall under the
“small stuff’ category that Bellotti
stresses so often with his team. The
first Was a 59-yard field goal by
Jared Siegel on the last play of the
half that boosted the Ducks into
halftime. The second was a blocked
extra point by Oregon’s Haloti Ngata
on UCLA’s last touchdown with 7:28
left in the third quarter. The third
was an attempt at a fake field goal by
UCLA in the fourth quarter that was
stopped short of the first down.
No play was as big as Griffith’s
field goal, a play that Oregon line
backer David Moretti said gave
him “deja vu.”
The drive itself was similar to
last season’s game-ending Bruin
drive, when UCLA coach Bob
Toledo made several questionable
play calls to keep his team from
getting closer to the endzone. Sat
urday, the Bruins started their
drive from their own 20-yard line
with 5:54 left and slowly marched
down the field. UCLA halfback
Tyler Ebell had runs for eight,
nine and five yards. Halfback Akil
Harris had an 11-yard rush. Bruin
quarterback Gory Paus hit Craig
Bragg — who finished the game
with nine catches for 230 yards
and three touchdowns — for gains
of 12 and 10 yards.
With less than three minutes left,
UCLA had a first-and-10 from the
Oregon 25. Toledo ran a play for
Ebell up the middle, where he was
stuffed by Duck free safety Rasuli
Webster. Ebell ran around the right
end, where he was stopped by Web
ster again for a loss of three yards.
Paus threw incomplete for Bragg on
a swing pass to the left side. That set
up the 46-yard field goal attempt,
which Griffith booted wide left.
“They were getting close, but we
knew if we kept it to a 40-some
thing-yard field goal, we had a
chance,” Moretti said.
After Griffith’s miss, the Ducks
needed only to gain one first down
to run out the clock. Smith broke
for runs of six and 10 yards to put
the game out of UCLA’s reach.
Smith didn’t have a touchdown on
the day but rushed for 154 yards. It
was his sixth-straight game with
more than 100 yards, breaking the
Oregon record in that category.
But Smith left the scoring to his
backup and the Duck receivers on
Saturday. Terrence Whitehead
rushed for a 37-yard touchdown to
tie the score at 14 early in the second
quarter, George Wrighster caught the
first Oregon touchdown pass in the
first quarter and Keenan Howry ac
counted for two touchdowns.
Howry’s first touchdown was also
his first punt return of the year, a
79-yard sprint in the second quar
ter, and may signify his return to
form from last year, when he re
turned two punts for touchdowns.
Oregon continues the defense
of its Pac-10 crown Saturday
when it hosts Arizona State at
Autzen Stadium.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
Adam Amato Emerald
George Wrighster catches Oregon's first touchdown of the game Saturday.
Kicking
continued from page 7
room with a 24-21 halftime lead.
Although the Bruins racked up
477 total yards (compared to Ore
gon’s 383) UCLA dug its own grave
with its special teams play.
“We missed our chance,” UCLA
defensive back Ricky Manning told
reporters after the game. “We not
only missed the last kick, we
missed a lot of other opportunities.
There’s no way we should have
lost that game. They were not the
better team.”
To make matters worse for the
UCLA special teams, Oregon true
freshman Haloti Ngata blocked an
extra point attempt midway
through the third quarter, providing
the eventual margin of victory.
“All week I thought that we
would have the opportunity to
block a field goal or an extra
point,” Bellotti said. “When it hap
pened, even though UCLA was
ahead, I thought it would be a big
factor in the outcome of
the game.”
It was. And the Bruins can only
kick themselves.
Contact the senior sports reporter
at adamjude@dailyemerald.com.
Hockaday
continued from page 7
made all the right shots, but they
still didn’t make it out of that Coli
seum alive. Dang it all.
“See, it seems to me that every
one with their newspapers, and
their highfalutin’ Internet, and
their fancy-pants television, all
them people wanted to talk about
was some boring town meetings in
Texas and Florida and other such
places. Dang it, when are they
gonna turn those television cam
eras this-a-way? Out west is where
all the action is. Out west is where
people are losing their lives every
danged Saturday. When are they
gonna give the West Coast the re
spect it deserves?”
“I, uh, dunno, I guess,” the bar
tender said, flustered by the entrance
of a new gentleman into the bar.
This new gentleman is well
dressed. He carries a cane, the top
of which is polished to shine like a
mirror, and leads a pit bull by a
leash with the other hand. The
well-dressed gentleman sits at the
other end of the bar from the
scruffy man, who still hasn’t
touched his whiskey.
“Danged right-coasters,” the
scruffy man says as the gentleman
orders a drink.
“What was that?” the gentle
man asks.
“You heard what I said,” the
scruffy man says. “You easterners
are all the same, with your fancy
canes and fancy bulldogs, coming in
here like you own the West Coast.”
“Sir, I will have you know that
back east we have only the finest
of everything.”
“Yeah? Give me a shoot-out over
a trench war any day, even if it
means we have to sacrifice some
teams. Give me a thriller over any
kind of Saturday chess match.”
“Sir, let me ask you, what do you
prove when you win a shoot-out?
Hooray — you are a rag-tag bunch
of shooters that can beat up on oth
er rag-tag bunches of shooters! You
can get lucky!”
“Ahh, but what about a team of
shooters like Oregon? What about
a so-called ‘rag-tag bunch’ that can
win shoot-out after shoot-out? That
can win shoot-outs even when they
look like they should lose, when
the casualty list grows, when the
other bunch seems to control the
advantage? What of that?”
“No rag-tag bunch will ever be
able to compete with the trench
warfare style of East Coast bunches.”
“Yes, that may be, but we won’t
know until the events of Jan. 1. Un
til then, I’ll take my shoot-outs any
day, even if they reek with danger
and the possibility of failure.”
“Nothing will ever be more fun
to watch.”
With that, the man leaves a dol
lar for the bourbon, puts on his
coat and waltzes out the door, sure
ly heading for a better life than the
gentleman, a spicier life than that
boring, other, East Coast existence.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His views do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
Adam Amato Emerald
Jared Siegel (25) watches his Oregon-record 59-yard field goal sail through the pipes.
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