Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Monday, October 28,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
NFL: N.Y. Giants at
Best bet
Philadelphia
6 p.m., ABC
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Oregon's Jason Fife is sacked by USC's Omar Nazel and Darrell Rideaux in the Trojans'44-33 victory Saturday.
Oregon suffers
second sting as
USC rolls to win
Oregon loses its second in a now as the Trojans dominate
the second half in front of a record number of fens in Autzen
Oregon 33
USC 44
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Oregon running back Onterrio Smith got a call from former Duck Rashad
Bauman on Saturday morning, and Bauman, as he is prone to do, said ex
aedy what was on his mind. He also said what was on all the Ducks’ minds.
“You better not lose your second in a row, because that hasn’t hap
pened around here in a long time,” Bauman told the junior running back.
On Saturday, Smith and the Ducks defied Bauman’s advice and lost
their second straight contest, this one a 44-33 defeat at the hands of the
No. 15 Southern California Trojans. Oregon led 19-14 at halftime, but
USC stormed back in front of a record 56,754 fans at Autzen Stadium.
“You can’t expect to win if you only play a half of football,” Oregon
linebacker Kevin Mitchell said.
The Ducks moved to 6-2 on the season, 2-2 in the Pacific-10 Confer
ence, but didn’t drop far in the polls; Oregon was 16th in the USA To
day/ESPN Coaches’ Poll and 19th in the Associated Press poll, both re
leased Sunday. USC improved its record to 4-1 in the Pac-10 and jumped
to 11th in both polls.
The Ducks said they came out of halftime fired up, but the Trojans
were the ones who made all the plays. USC senior quarterback Carson
Palmer threw two touchdowns in the third quarter and one early in the
fourth, and running back Justin Fargas ran for another score as the Tro
Turn to Football, page 10A
Autzen Stadium turns into house of horrors for Oregon
Suddenly, Autzen Stadium is a
haunted house for the Ducks — and
everybody else in the Pacific-10
Conference
wants to get
in for free.
Maybe the
Oregon evil
came out of
the egg shell
with the scari
er-than-hell
new mascot
prior to USC’s
44-33 spank
ing of the Out in left field
Ducks on Saturday.
Maybe the ghost was around all
along, but we were too blind to see
the imperfections.
At this point, the shock of the
Ducks’ two-straight losses is irrele
vant. What matters is that, lately,
their blemishes have outweighed
their good qualities.
In their biggest challenge of the
season, the Ducks showed their
true colors, which is apparently
more yellow than green.
Don’t let the final score fool you.
USG manhandled Oregon. The only
reason the game appeared close in
the end is because the Trojans put in
their bench warmers, who would
probably start for Oregon’s second
ary.
In the pass-happy Pacific-10 Con
ference, Oregon’s comers have
shown to be too young, too short and
too slow to keep pace. In their de
fense, though, Oregon head coach
Mike Bellotti said USC’s offense
would’ve burned the Ducks no mat
ter what defensive scheme was
called.
But the list goes on.
The defensive line, as big as it is
and as good as it is against the run,
has been closer to scoring with Brit
ney Spears than hitting opposing
quarterbacks in the last two games.
“If we don’t get better, (losing) is
something we’re going to have to
get used to,” Oregon linebacker
David Moretti said.
It’s not entirely fair to pick on the
defense, though. In a team game,
Bellotti said, the burden falls on the
entire team.
The Oregon offense, playing
against the best defense it’s seen
this year, proved fallible Saturday.
Onterrio Smith was brought back
down from heaven and held to un
der 100 rushing yards for the first
time this season.
Jason Fife, while hard to fault
effort, has yet to win a big game.
After running through a weak
preseason schedule that posed few
problems for the defense, the Ducks
have hit the reality wall. And like a
fly on the windshield, it’s not pret
m
ty
Gome December, it’s probably
not going to seem any better.
With two losses, the thought of a
national championship is long past.
The Rose Bowl? Ha. The Holiday
Turn to Jude, page 10A
Ducks get rain and shine,
split with desert schools
Oregon beats Arizona on
Friday night but gets burned
by Arizona State on Sunday
Soccer
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
Not only did the rain fall for 90
minutes Sunday at Pape Field,
but Arizona State rained on Ore
gon’s parade as the Ducks took
their fourth Pacific-10 Confer
ence loss.
The Sun Devils dominated on
offense for the first 45 minutes, but
Oregon’s defense stood its ground
en route to a 0-0 tie at the half. It
wasn’t until the 49th minute that
freshman Manya Makoski found
the back of the net from 17 yards
out to give ASU the lead.
* Just - severr ' minutes later,
Makoski set up freshmen Eliza
beth Bogus, who went for a 20
yard run and took a shot from 19
yards out. The shot hit the right
post and bounced in.
For the Ducks, it was too little,
too late when freshman Katie
Abrahamson scored Oregon’s
only goal in the 81st minute.
Abrahamson found the right side
of the net with a header from five
yards out, a play made possible by
sophomore Christine Mintz.
Oregon’s 2-1 loss to Arizona
State came after the Ducks found
magic on Friday night in a 3-2 win
over Arizona, after being down 2
0 with only 25 minutes left.
“One of the nice things we got
from Friday is that we can come
back, and we got a little too casu
al,” Oregon head coach Bill Stef
fen said. “They need to be a little
more aggressive, and we respect
ed (ASU) too much, and we let
them play — and if you let them
play, they are going to do danger
ous things.”
Both desert schools posed dan
gerous threats to Oregon, but Fri
day night the Ducks didn’t get
scared on the way to their first
Pac-10 win.
Oregon’s matchup with the
Wildcats began similarly to Sun
day’s game as both teams re
mained scoreless through the first
half. It wasn’t the 56-minute mark
that the Ducks found themselves
down 2-0 after freshman Lisa
Kosena and senior Naomi Ghu
scored for Arizona.
Senior forward Sarah Denner
was the spark Oregon needed, as
she notched the Ducks’ first score
with 24 minutes left, off a header
into the right side of the goal.
With Denner giving Oregon the
Turn to Soccer, page 9A
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Arlene Tuttle scored two goals in the final minutes of Friday's game to propel Oregon to a win.