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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2004)
Oregon Daily Emerald Monday, October 11, 2004 “You only get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so many times. ” Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor on starting a preseason game ■ In my opinion CLAYTON JONES SEVENTH INNING STRETCH Reducing penalities could result in roses PULLMAN, WASH. — A lot of specula tion goes into a win of this magnitude. “Is this the one that will turn things around?” or “Is the offense a cohesive unit now that will consistently put the ball in the end zone?” While the 41 points and the 646 yards of total offense might be impressive and the way Oregon came together in the last quar ter to score 27 points is a memorable feat, one has to question the opportunities that were missed. I’m not trying to be a pessimist jerk be cause this was one of the best football games I’ve ever seen, and the way Oregon competed and sacked up when it was crunch time was brilliant. But it never should have gotten to that. The Ducks were penalized 13 times for 104 yards. That’s far from brilliant. They lost three fumbles, but the Cougars and quarterback Josh Swogger were gen erous enough to throw the ball right back to Oregon twice. Oregon could have been dead in the water if Washington State had capitalized on its mistakes. Special teams issues reared their ugly head as well when the Ducks gave up a punt return for a touchdown. What makes this worse is punter David Dittman punted a ball over 60 yards, but had it called back because of an illegal formation. Nevertheless, this game should’ve been a cakewalk for the Ducks. Oregon hoarded the ball for almost two thirds of the game, out-gained Washington State 646 to 374 on offense, had 18 more first downs and ran 40 more plays. This should not have been a three-point game. An 11-play, three-minute and 40-second drive in the second quarter was an exam ple of their inability to execute. Despite two previous penalties for Ore gpn, they drove the ball down to the Wash ington State 9-yard line. On first down, Kellen Clemens found Dante Rosario for a touchdown, but wait ... a questionable penalty on Demetrius Williams for pass in terference brought the ball back to the Cougar 24-yard line. Two incomplete pass es later it was third down and once again the yellow hankie made an appearance for a false start on Tim Day. Now it’s third and goal on the 29-yard line and Clemens gets sacked for a two yard loss making in fourth and goal on the 31. Kicker Jared Siegel misses a 49-yard field goal attempt and the Ducks come away with nada after making it to the Cougar 9 yard line. Not good. While Washington State is no pushover, especially at Martin Stadium, Oregon can’t expect to continue to hurt themselves with silly penalties that take them out of scor ing position or give the opponent good field position and win against quality op ponents. If the Cougar defense hadn’t turned into JONES, page 8 ■ Duck football Geoff Thurner | Oregon Media Services Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemens produced 473 yards of offense against Washington State on Saturday in Pullman. It was the second-highest total in Duck history behind Bill Musgrave’s 498-yard performance against BYU in 1989. Clemens' stunning fourth lifts Ducks Quarterback Kellen Clemens threw three touchdown passes and ran for one in the final cjuarter, capping a career performance BY JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER PULLMAN, Wash. — One quarter of execu tion erased an afternoon of frustration for the Oregon football team. The Ducks fought through a plethora of mis takes to score 27 fourth-quarter points and capture a stunning 41-38 victory against Wash ington State on Saturday at Martin Stadium. Oregon (2-3 overall, 1-1 Pacific-10 Confer ence) overcame a 14-point deficit with just un der 12 minutes remaining, scoring the go ahead touchdown on a 13-yard run by quarterback Kellen Clemens with 1:21 to go. Washington State (3-2, 1-1) got one final pos session, but wide receiver TYandon Harvey dropped two passes from quarterback Josh Swogger to stall the drive. Clemens recorded the second-greatest offen sive day in Oregon history, completing 36 of 55 passes for 437 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 36 yards and three more scores. Clemens’ 473 yards of total offense ranks behind only Bill Musgrave’s 498-yard performance against BYU in 1989. Oregon needed Clemens’ herculean effort to make up for its sloppy play. Despite amassing 646 total yards, the Ducks trailed most of the game, due mainly to 104 yards in penalties, three turnovers and poor special teams play. “I’m proud that we won the game,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “I’m proud that we came back and overcame our own mis takes.” The Ducks’ most precarious position came late in the third quarter when Cougar wide re ceiver Michael Bumpus returned a punt 52 yards for a touchdown, giving Washington State a 27-14 lead. Oregon punter David Dittman had pinned the Cougars deep in their own territory with a booming 66-yard kick seconds before, but the play was wiped out af ter the Ducks were called for an illegal forma tion. On the ensuing punt, Bumpus caught the ball near the right sideline and broke several tackles before racing into the end zone. Oregon continued to battle, however, and answered Washington State score-for-score until late in the fourth quarter, when the Ducks caught a huge break. After a 14-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tim Day short ened the Washington State lead to 38-34, the Ducks recovered a fumble by Cougar defen sive back Tyron Brackenridge on the ensuing kickoff, giving them the ball at the Washing ton State 23-yard line. Oregon couldn’t cash in, however, as run ning back Terrence Whitehead fumbled the ball back to the Cougars on the next play. Washington State was forced to punt four plays later, though, giving Oregon one final chance on its own 40-yard line with 3:13 re maining. Clemens then led the Ducks on a seven-play, 60-yard drive that ended on a quarterback draw, “(Washington State) brought some pressure up the field, but not the direction where we were running,” Clemens said. “The offensive line opened up a hole, (fullback) Dante (Rosario) made a great block on the one line backer that was there. It was kind of scary how open it was. I panicked at first. I took a three-step drop and hit the hole that the offen sive line had opened up. Dante was leading FOOTBALL page 9 ■ Women’s soccer Ducks open Pac-10 play with two losses Oregon went scoreless during its weekend in Los Angeles, losing its first match at USC 2-0, followed by a 5-0 loss at UCLA BY BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTER The Oregon women’s soccer team’s two match winning streak came to a halt during the weekend. The Ducks dropped their first two confer ence matches of the year with 2-0 and 6-0 losses to Southern California and UCLA, respectively. Both matches were marked by Oregon’s in ability to capitalize on its opportunities, while watching its opponents capitalize on advantages. “We weren’t playing that bad,” Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said. “We just shot ourselves in the foot.” UCLA's Billingsley nets hat trick UCLA’s scoring outburst on Sunday began in the 10th minute with a goal by senior Kim Devine, who scored on a shot from deep in the right corner of the field. The Bruins scored again at the 26:37 mark when sophomore Bristyn Davis was dragged down inside the Oregon box. Senior Kendal Billingsley put in her first goal of the day on the resulting penal ty kick, giving the Bruins a 2-0 advantage. The best opportunity for the Ducks to score came in the 17th minute with senior defender Christine Mintz taking a penalty kick. Howev er, her shot hit the crossbar and bounced back into play. Billingsley scored her second goal of the match in the 47th minute when she capital ized on a loose ball in the Oregon box follow ing a UCLA corner kick. Davis gave the Bru ins a 5-0 lead on her second goal of the game, a ball up the middle from junior Jill Oakes. Billingsley completed the first hat trick of her career at the 86:25 mark, the 16th time that a Bruin has scored three goals in a game during the 12-year history of the program. For the match, the Bruins outshot the Ducks 20-7. “We’d get around them, or behind them, and our shot would go wide,” Steffen said of Oregon’s opportunities during the match. “We’d do very good things, but we just need , to keep it going.” Women of Troy capitalize Oregon failed to secure its first-ever victory SOCCER page 9
