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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2004)
Ian Reynoso consoles Oregon center Dan Weaver (63) after the Golden Adam Amato Photo Editor Gophers squeaked past the Ducks, 31-30. PARKER continued from page 7 in the second quarter. With the Ducks at Minnesota's 18-yard line, Clemens found the Long Beach, Calif., native with a pass to the corner of the end zone. Parker's second touchdown came with 3:09 left in the third. Reminiscent of a touchdown pass against Colorado in the 2001 Fies ta Bowl, Parker broke over the middle for a 40-yard touchdown strike. "We knew one of their guys (cornerback Trumaine Banks) got sent home and they were moving a safety (Jason Isom) over there to play corner," Parker said. Isom was the unlucky recipient of attention from Oregon quarter back Kellen Clemens. The sopho more completed 32 of 42 pass at tempts. Half of those, and more than half of his passing yardage (363), went to Parker. "Sarnie just shook his defender a lot of times," Clemens said. "He made some great catches today." Parker got off to an early start against Minnesota. He had six re ceptions in the first quarter and nine in the first half. Meanwhile, Clemens had completed 18 passes in the first half, five of which were destined for the hands of running back Terrence Whitehead. It is the end of his Oregon ca reer, but the potential beginning of a new career for Parker. The Honorable Mention Pac-10 receiv er is an alternate for the Jan. 10 East-West Shrine Game in San Francisco. From then on, he will attend the NFL's scouting combine in hopes of landing attention for the June NFL draft. He should very well be Adam Amato Photo Editor Oregon's Justin Phinisee (31) and Minnesota’s Aaron Hosack (34) battled throughout the Ducks’ loss on New Year’s Eve in El Paso, Texas. a new member of former Oregon standouts that currently play in the NFL. That number is at 15 and climbing. Contact the sports editor at hankhagert@dailyemerald.com. SUN BOWL continued from page 1 in this case, a Wednesday. "I give my hat off to Minnesota. They did a great job." On this Wednesday, it was a field goal that decided a game that saw more than 850 yards of total offense, which included three Minnesota (10 3 overall) running backs rushing for a combined 241 yards and Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemens passing for 363. Lloyd's field goal simply ended a back-and-forth contest between two impressive offensive teams. Oregon (8-5) had a 30-28 lead until the field goal, but only because Jared Siegel put a 47-yarder through the uprights with 4:16 left to play in the game. The Golden Gophers picked up where Siegel left off and immediately went on a 16-play, 55-yard drive that spanned 3:53 and ended with Lloyd's field goal. On a 2nd-and-3 play from the Oregon 26, the Ducks looked like they had put a nail in Minnesota's coffin. Devan Long stopped Lau rence Maroney for a 4-yard loss to the 30. An Oregon timeout at that point stopped the clock with 38.5 seconds left and the Golden Gophers picked up from there with a 5-yard run to Oregon's 25. Another Oregon timeout with 28.3 seconds left preceded Lloyd's game-ending field goal. "We took a timeout because they were in field goal range," Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. "I did n't want to let them have the last say. I wanted to have a chance, if they did make it, for us to get a chance to get back in." That chance was short and ended prematurely for Bellotti and the Ducks. After Kenny Washington re turned the kickoff to the Oregon 21, Kellen Clemens' pass fell into the hands of Jason Isom for the game's only interception. The play ended what was a record setting day for Clemens and the Ducks. Wide receiver Sarnie Parker had an Oregon-record 16 catches, which resulted in 200 yards. He set Oregon records with 77 receptions this season and 178 for his career. For Parker's efforts, he received the C.M. Hendricks Most Valuable Player award. Clemens, meanwhile, was 32 of 42 passing for 363 yards and three touchdowns. He ended the season with 2,400 passing yards, 18 touch down passes and just nine intercep tions. However, it was a play that wasn't made that Clemens took the hardest. Two plays before Siegel's field goal put the Ducks ahead, Minnesota's Eli Ward almost intercepted an intend ed pass to converted wide receiver Ja son Fife in the end zone. Had the pass been completed, Fife would have scored, sending the Ducks to a six-point lead. "If I had made the play two plays (before Siegel's field goal) when I threw it to Jason, we would have won that game, probably," Clemens said. "At least it would have forced them to score a touchdown instead of a field goal to win it." Perhaps, but it can also be said that Minnesota's rushing attack ulti mately had a say in the outcome. The Golden Gophers ran for just five yards in the first quarter, but turned up the tempo with 83 in the second. Maroney rushed for 131 yards on 15 carries and Thomas Tapeh ran for three scores — two of which were 1 yard runs. Overall, the Golden Gophers ran for 241 yards on 55 attempts. It was the third-lowest rushing output of the season for Minnesota, but came against the nation's 12th-best-rush ing defense. "They had way too many third down conversions," Dorsey said. "I don't know where to place the blame or if we can place it on one spot. Our whole defense, we didn't do what we needed to do to take care of busi ness." For Dorsey, Parker, Fife and a number of seniors, the loss was a bit tersweet way to end their careers in Eugene. "I feel OK because we fought to the end," Dorsey said. "At the same time, it was my last game as a Duck, and I wanted to have a good memo ry of my last game as a Duck." Contact the sports editor at hankhageh@dailyemerald.com. FIFE continued from page 7 Because he was an academic par tial qualifier when he came to Ore gon in 2000, Moore has the chance to return next season. That will de pend on whether or not he can grad uate by the end of summer, a stipu lation set forth by the NCAA. He said he has no doubts that he will be back. "That's my goal for the offseason: try to get the school thing done," Moore said. Lineup changes Fife was forced into the third-string receiving role when Kyle Weatherspoon injured his hamstring a few days before the game. Oregon was already thin at the position when Marcus Maxwell re injured a separated shoulder during the latter part of the season. That added to a long list of Oregon receivers that went down this season, including Iordan Carey and Keith Allen, who was injured before Ore gon's first game of the season against Mississippi State. Alex Mercier saw action against Min nesota. The freshman from Edmonds, Wash., had seen action in just one oth er game this season against UCLA and did not catch a pass in either game he played in this season. Defensively, Jerry Matson was a bit bruised up before the game and saw Justin Andrews start in his place at middle linebacker. Matson fin ished the game with nine tackles, including two for a total of seven yards lost. Hold on to the ball The teams combined for just two turnovers, both coming in the sec ond half. Kevin Mitchell forced a fumble by Asad Abdul-Khaliq with 7:37 left in the fourth quarter. It was recovered by Igor Olshansky and led to Siegel's 47-yard field goal that put the Ducks up by two with a little more than four minutes left. Oregon's only turnover of the game came with 10 seconds left. Clemens was pressured by the Min nesota defensive line and threw an ill-advised pass that landed in the hands of Jason Isom. Contact the sports editor at hankhager@dailyemerald.com. Adam Amato Photo Editor Laurence Maroney (with ball) ran for 131 yards against Ducks. The 241 overall yards Oregon allowed was the most this season. FOCUS continued from page 9 Despite having experienced cold spells before, the loss to UCLA was different. The Ducks didn't fall into a hole early that they couldn't get out of — that would be much easier to deal with. Instead, Oregon had control of the Bruins and let them off the hook. Junior point guard Corrie Mizu sawa said the Ducks' youthful squad needs to do a better job of playing the game one possession at a time. "We're a young team, we're not the most experienced team, * Mizusawa said. "Obviously we're going to go through some bumps and some times it's hard for the younger play ers to get their heads back into the game and realize that it's just one play, and that's one thing that we have to work on." The Ducks put up a good fight down the stretch, but it should never have come down to Oregon scram bling to find a way to score during the game's final minute. With Oregon facing its worst con ference start since the 1995-96 sea son, the Ducks need to find a way to overcome the disappointment of los ing a game they should have won. "It's hard not to let it (bother us)," Bills said. "We just can't have that happen when we're up five, 10 points and trying to build a bigger lead. We have to get those stops and can't have mental breakdowns and turnovers." Contact the sports reporter at jonroetman@dailyemerald.com.
