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8 GAME SCHEDULE WOMEN’S GOLF at the NCAA Fall Preview in Lafayette, Ind., \ Monday PONTAPT ITS WOMEN’S SOCCER vs. Charleston Southern, 7 p.m. Wednesday ■ ;" L' 11 1 MEN’S SOCCER vs. Louisville at the Pro-rehab-Aces Classic in Story ideas? Questions? Comments? - Evansville, Ind., 5 p.m. Friday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com VOLLEYBALL vs. Kentucky, 7 p.m. Friday Gamecocks fall short of upset Fumbles cost football team a win for second straight week BY ROBIN NURRE THE GAMECOCK It was a game of lost chances and missed opportunities. The USC football team came up 2 yards short in its quest to upset No. 9 Georgia, losing 13-7 Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. USC (1-2,0-1 SEC) had plenty of chances in front of the third largest crowd in USC history (84,227), but the Gamecocks couldn’t hang on to the ball when it counted. With less than a minute re maining, Carolina was facing a fourth-and-one situation from the Georgia 2-yard line. Quarterback Corey Jenkins ran left and pitched the ball to fullback Andrew Pinnock, but Pinnock didn’t catch it. The Bulldogs recovered the fumble and crushed any remain ing hope of a Carolina comeback. “We were running the option, and the guy came off the edge quickly,” Pinnock said. “I should have been expecting the pitch to come when it did. I dropped the pitch, and we lost the game.” USC head coach Lou Holtz said he called the final play. “I should have listened to Skip,” said Holtz, referring to his offen sive coordinator. “He wanted to put a tight end in and run it to the tight end. And then Corey Jenkins would have maybe ended up with the ball.” Holtz wanted the ball in Pinnock’s hands, however. “You get Andrew Pinnock in an open field going north and south, and with his momentum, nobody’s going to hit him,” Holtz said. Like their previous game against Virginia, turnovers cost the Gamecocks in the end. Carolina had seven turnovers against the Cavaliers and four against the Bulldogs (2-0,1-0). “Three times we fumbled inside their 5,” Holtz said. “We fumbled on their 18 and missed a field goal. “It was a game of field position; we never had a whole lot of it.” In the game’s opening drive, Georgia’s David Greene connect ed with Fred Gibson for a 52-yard pass that set up a field goal by Billy Bennett. After seven plays by the Carolina offense, the game was suspended for 52 minutes because of lightning. When play resumed, both teams’ defenses played well until the second quarter, when the Gamecocks had their first real op portunity to get on the scoreboard. USC drove all the way to the Georgia 2-yard line before Pinnock fumbled away the ball. After another strong defensive stand, USC clawed its way down the field and got into field-goal range, but Daniel Weaver missed a 37-yard attempt. The defense was the strength all game for USC, limiting a talented Georgia offense to only 297 yards and four third-down conversions. “Our defense got better in prac tice this week,’ linebacker George PHOTO BY TRAVIS LYNN/THE GAMECOCK USC wide receiver Matthew Thomas, left, drops a ball in the first half of Saturday’s loss to Georgia. Thomas had a step on his man, Decory Bryant, but he couldn’t haul In the play-action pass from Corey Jenkins. Thomas finished with two receptions on the day. GAME 3 (A) Georgia 13 (2-0,1-0 SEC) tijSt use 7 (g^ (1-2,0-1) THE QUOTE “Where do we go from here? This was a heartbreaker. This was hard.” LOU HOLTZ use HEAD COACH With 12 seconds remaining in the game, USC fullback Andrew Pinnock fumbled a pitch on fourth and one from the Georgia 2-yard line. The Bulldogs recovered and ran out the clock. 2 Carolina came 2 yards away from upsetting the No. 9 Bulldogs, whom it had beaten the past two seasons. Gause said. “We stepped it up and made a few adjustments.” At the beginning of the fourth quarter, with Georgia still leading 3-0, Jenkins had one of his passes picked right out of his hand in the end zone by David Pollack. After Pollack’s touchdown put Georgia up 10-0, USC put togeth ♦ FOOTBALL, SEE PAGE 9 USC defense returns to form Gamecocks only give up two field goals BY MATT ROTHENBERG THEOAMECOCK The steady downpours at Saturday’s game and the subse quent loss might have dampened the clothes and hearts of the Gamecock faithful, but if there was one positive aspect from the game, it would be the play of the USC defense. After two straight weeks of giv ing up well over 300 yards of total offense, Carolina buckled down against Georgia. As a result, it did what no other defense has done in seven years: allow no offensive touchdowns in a loss to Georgia. The Bulldogs managed only 297 yards of total offense, and they could only score two field goals against the likes of Langston Moore, Rashad Faison and Dunta Robinson. USC head coach Lou Holtz could not have been much more impressed with what he saw from a group struggling to return to its days of dominance. “I think our defense played ab solutely outstanding football — it was just absolutely outstanding,” he said. Holtz also noted some of the dif ferences in this week’s defensive setup as compared with those in prior games. “We played more nickel rather than going for an eight-man front,” Holtz said. “We went four deep in the secondary. We could hide coverages: we could drop down and do some different things. We just turned our players loose and let them go play.” With the reins removed, the USC defense went at Bulldogs quarterbacks David Greene and D. J. Shockley. Moore’s first-quar ter sack of Greene — the only sack by USC on the night — drew loud applause from the crowd. Robinson, a native of Athens, played a solid game in the defen sive backfield, deflecting two pass es and playing tight coverage on the Georgia receivers. He said that he thinks the defense has pro gressed greatly in a week. “I feel like we improved tremen dously,” he said. “The first game was an icebreaker game. There were a lot of new faces out there — a lot of nervous faces. But we showed what we’re capable of do ing tonight. Georgia has a very high-powered offense, but we held them to six points, so I think we did a great job and played very well." The defense had Georgia’s quar terbacks on the move all night, flushing them out of the pocket. More importantly, it only gave up only one big play all night. Unfortunately, that 52-yard pass — the game’s first play from scrimmage — eventually led to a score. Defending Gibson was Ted Cravrford, who converted from re ceiver to defensive back this sea son. Crawford played with Greene in high school, and that first pass reminded him of old times. “I thought I was going to get (the pass), but he threw a great ball that faded out,” Crawford said. “It was great to play with David on the same field again. He’s come a long way; he’s one of the best in the SEC.” Alter maKing switches in his de fensive starting lineup last week, Holtz decided to put most players back into their ui xgxiiai pvxoxixvxxo, Faison which Faison thinks helped the squad. “The first game got off to a slow start,” he said. “I don’t know if we panicked, but then we made some positionphanges. I think that was a little Wo soon, so we put every body back in their respective places. Everybody was more com fortable with where they belonged, md it showed up tonight.” Despite the loss, Faison thinks that more work remains to be lone. “When we came out today, Coach Holtz said before the game to leave it all on the field,” Faison said. “We knew that we had bad games the last two weeks, and we got back to playing the kind of ball we’re expected to play here in South Carolina. “Football is broken down into six-second intervals. If you can’t go hard as a Division-I athlete for six seconds, then you know some thing’s wrong. We’ve got to keep our heads up. All we have to do is go out and battle back next week.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hoiihail.com PHOTO BY TRAVIS LYNN/THE GAMECOCK Rod Wilson of USC drags down Georgia quarterback D.J. Shockley for a loss of 6 yards during Saturday's game at Willlams-Brice Stadium. The Carolina defense had a tremendous game, only allowing 297 yards from the high-powered Georgia offense. Shockley, who shared playing time with David Greene, didn’t complete a pass in the game and left the game with a broken foot. Men’s soccer still unbeaten after Classic BY KYLE ALMOND THE GAMECOCK The USC men’s soccer team took back its own tournament Sunday, winning the Gamecock Soccer Classic with a 3-1 victory over Washington. Carolina had won seven con secutive Classics from 1993-99, but it came up short the past two seasons. This weekend, the Gamecocks reclaimed their ti tle in style, defeating New Hampshire 1-0 on Friday and Washington on Sunday. “I’m very proud of this team,” USC head coach Mark Berson said. “I think they met another big challenge today. Washington is a very good team; they have everything that you look for.” In the 11th minute of play, the No. 6 Gamecocks (6-0) found themselves behind for the first time all season. Off a free kick by C.J. Klass, the Huskies’ Keith Murray drilled a power ful header into the net for a 1-0 lead. It only took Carolina 34 sec onds to respond, however. A cross from USC’s Jack Cummings was deflected into the net by a Washington de fender for an own goal and a tied score. “I think answering so quick ly was absolutely vital,” Berson said. “It speaks vol umes to the character of this group, and I was really pleased with how they sort of took the game over after that.” After the early scare, USC controlled play for the remain der of the game. The Gamecocks outshot the Huskies 21-8, and their speed created problems all day for the Washington defense. The USC defense also put the clamps down oh the Huskies (2-1-2) and kept possession in the Gamecocks’ favor. “We were able to carry the game to them pretty well,” Berson said. USC’s Jordan Quinn gave Carolina the lead in the 56th minute. The senior forward headed in a cross from defend er Robert Rosenberg for his team-leading fifth goal of the season. “Robert served a nice ball in,” said Quinn, who also had the game-winner against New Hampshire. “I just beat my guy, and, fortunately, it went in.” Quinn was named the tour nament’s most valuable player — the second straight week he has earned such an honor. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native also was MVP at the Duke/Adidas Classic in Durham, N.C. ♦ SOCCER, SEE PAGE 9