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msssasm d Michael brings us Fri another NITRO report. US' Men's soccer hosts the Sunbeam Soccer Classic. Seco staff writer BROCK VEROAKIS What started out as an exciting upset attempt against the 17th-ranked Razorbacks Saturday afternoon ended up as yet another Gamecock defeat, bringing USC's record to 1-6,0-5 in SEC play. Carolina held an 11-point lead at the half, playing some of its best football of the year. However, in the third quarter, Arkansas dominated USC, scoring 24 unanswered points. "We played as good as we could in the first half," said Carolina coach Brad Scott. The second half was a different story though. "We played about as poorly as we can play in the second half. I don't think I've ever experienced two halves so different," Scott said. Carolina encountered difficulties at the outset of the game, but showed composure by overcoming three penalties on their first drive to score on a pass from Anthony Wright to Ben Fleming. It was the first time USC had taken the first lead in a game since they opened against Ball State. Ahead 7-0, Scott decided to pull out his bag of tricks, attempting an onsides kick. HP Jn The fans enjoyed the first half o Arkansas, as the Gamecocks carried Petty shov staff"uritar CHARLIE WALLACE College football is a game of two halv< team can take the lead in a game, but w the game in the second half is the tru It looked as if USC's two-headed mon quarterback, freshman Phil Petty and Anthony Wright, had enough to put Arl away. It was not so. USC tried to combine the two quarte Saturday, but nothing seemed to work, as of consistency proved to be the Gamecock ic flaw. Petty, a 6-foot-3,193-pound redshirt man from Boiling Springs, is the future of football team. And with a record of 1-5 gc to Saturday's game, coach Brad Scott h cided in previous games to use Petty n< in backup roles but in key game situati well. That opportunity arrived for Petty wii left in the second quarter. Arkansas tailback Madre Hill had jus bled untouched 30 yards into the end 2 give the Razorbacks their first lead of the at 10-7. Carolina got the ball back, and after tv ning plays that resulted in a first down threw his first pass of the game ? a com] to sophomore Jermale Kelly for an 18-yai to the Arkansas 34-yard line. Six plays later, he found tight end 1 Matthews wide open in the end zone to the lead for USC, 14-10. A perfect dri chestrated beautifully by the freshman si the Hogs. Arkansas went three plays and out o: subsequent drive and once again Petty mi the Gamecocks down the field. He com a 13-yard pass to Kelly and then a nim pass to running back Troy Hambrick, g the Gamecocks to the Arkansas 10-yard 1 senior wide receiver Zola Davis in the i where Petty rolled to his right and f Davis' awaiting arms. Going into halftime, Petty was 5-of-8 j and 2 TDs ? about as much as you coul man backup. However, as Petty and the whole US football is indeed a game of two halves. Arkansas got the ball to start the sec< after only four plays when quarterback ( pleted a 51-yard bomb to junior wide receiv to close the lead to 21-17. The first series of the second half st ty, but ended disastrously. After a nine-yard scramble and a coi ly for 16 yards, Petty threw into triple day C 12 13 15 13 : 15 15 13 15 na n; "We wanted to give our football team every chance to win this game," Scott said. The attempt failed, however, and gave the Hogs the ball on their 48. Arkansas managed to drive down to the USC 6. A sack on third down forced Arkansas to take a field goal. Leading 7-3 at the end of the quarter, Carolina had controlled the time of possession and held Arkansas' ground game to minus-11 yards. ! In the second quarter, Arkansas temporarily took the lead when Madre Hill went up the middle virtually untouched for a 30- yard touchdown. It would be a sign that UA's running game had finally shown up. The Gamecocks didn't get discouraged, though, and played the rest of the half like true contenders. Switching to redshirt freshman Phil Petty at quarterback, USC drove to the Arkansas 10 before calling a timeout. ^ On the ensuing play, Petty connected with a wide-open Trevon Matthews to retake the lead, 14-10. Good things continued to happen, as the Carolina defense stopped the Hogs deep in their own territory, forcing a punt. Receiving the ball with 2:39 left on the clock, the Gamecocks made K Mill ' W- mm Pip ^H|| jbp*p SEAN RAYFORD Sports Photo Editor f Carolina's football game against a 21-10 lead into the locker room. vs signs of hHHH % *J rrevon f a their Quarterback Phil Petty looks P , one of his two touchdowns aj e-yard getting rover back Zach P; line. He then found Arkansas went on 2nd zone on a play Petty recalled how 1 ired a bullet into to open the second "They dropped i )assing for 60 yards were smaller holes d ask from a fresh- Was something I fo The rest of the >C team found out, as be was sacked Anthony Wright v, md half and scored to find open receive ylint Stoerner com- Petty played so er Michael Williams ter an incompletior was intercepted bj arted well for Pet- score and boost the On his second i nplete pass to Kel- [Green] was runni coverage and UA make a good play." 1 o OPC all dc one final drive to end the half. Petty took the team 46 yards, getting to the Arkansas 10 with time quickly evaporating. With time for one last play, Petty fired a pass to Zola Davis for a touchdown to give USC their biggest lead, 11 points, at the half. During halftime, Arkansas realized it was being humiliated by the unranked Gamecocks and needed to make adjustments. "As a defense we could have done a lot better," said C. J McLean of Arkansas. "Coach told us we needed to make something happen early in the third quarter, and we did," said Arkansas QB Clint Stoerner. Arkansas struck quickly, taking only two minutes off the clock before Stoerner threw a long one to Michael Williams for a 51-yard touchdown. This time the Gamecocks couldn't respond and turned the ball over on a Petty interception, giving the Hogs another scoring opportunity. "I should have never thrown it," Petty said. Once again the Razorbacks didn't waste much time in making the most of a good situation, as they scored in under three minutes in only eight plays when Stoerner found Anthony Lucas in the end zone. On Carolina's next possession, Petty was injured, forcing Scott to replace him with Wright. Wright proceeded tr> naec fnr S1 vnrHs in nnlv twn nlavc vu " j^v,T ^ j On his third snap, the Arkansas defense broke through and forced a sack. Before Wright hit the ground, he fumbled, turning the ball over. Frustrated, the Gamecock defense didn't fare much better than the offense. Six straight running plays later, Arkansas had powered the ball into the end zone. In the minute and 27 seconds they had the ball, USC was called for two penalties. Only down 31-21, Carolina still had an opportunity for a comeback. However, as is the pattern this year, the Gamecocks turned the ball over. On the first play of their next drive, Wright threw an interception to Ontraia Moss, who returned the ball 31 yards before finally being tackled on the Carolina 21. ' brilliance JaB a jus j^m < ,!W SEAN RAYFORD Sports Photo Editor over the defense before throwing gainst the Razorbacks. ainter was there to intercept the pass, to score a touchdown and take the lead. Arkansas changed their defensive scheme half. off a little, and played some zone. There to throw the ball. That first interception reed in there," Petty admitted, game, Petty found himself on his back, three times. When he wasn't playing, ras running around desperately trying ;rs. me in the fourth quarter as well, but afl, he threw a pass down the sideline that j Orlando Green. Arkansas went on to s lead to 41-21. nterception, Petty explained, "The guy ng stride-for-stride and he managed to f ^ JL V JL U >es in "We brought a lot of this on ourselves," Gamecock RB Troy Hambrick said. It wasn't long before the lightning-quick offense of Arkansas struck again. In one minute, they had put three more points on the board to take a 3421 lead. By the end of the third quarter, USC had blown an 11-point lead and found themselves with a 13-point deficit. "It's almost like it wasn't meant to be," said USC's Boo Williams. Running back Boo Williams jukes ti Williams had racked up 31 yards on 24 unans mi/ ililiU UU( staff uriter SHAWM SINQLETON After 30 minutes of football Saturday afternoon, a confident Gamecock team led the 17th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks 21-10 in their homecoming game at Williams-Brice Stadium. Fifteen minutes later, the Gamecocks found themselves on the short end of a 34-21 score on the way to a 41-28 beating. The Razorbacks bolted out of the locker room after halftime, took the second-half kickoff, and raced 68 yards on four plays. The drive was capped by a touchdown pass from Clint Stoerner to Michael Williams to cut the Gamecock lead to four points at 21-17. The Arkansas defense then took over on the Gamecocks' first secondhalf possession, picking off Phil Petty Petty was hit by senior Razorback linebacker Harry Wilson as he threw, leading to the interception. On South Carolina's second possession, Petty was sacked by middle linebacker Jamel Harris, forcing a fumble that center Jamar Nesbit recovered. He was then replaced by Anthony Wright, who promptly fumbled the ball away to the Razorbacks. I don't think it was adjustments on their part. When you look at turnovers and fumbles, that was pressure on our quarterback. The interceptions were good plays on their part, but we underthrew a couple of long balls. I don't know if it was as much as them making plays or us not making plays," said Gamecock coach Brad Scott, talking about the thirdquarter turnovers. Once again, turnovers proved to be the undoing of the Gamecocks, as they committed three of them on three consecutive drives, leading to 17 unanswered Razorback points. Interceptions thrown by both Wright and Petty, along with a Wright fumble, gave Arkansas a relatively short field for their scoring drives. The USC cross country te won the South Carolina St Championships in Rock H: S.C. Joyce Peebles led the way, placing third in the individual results with a tin of 18:19. i Car* In the final quarter, the errors continued to mount. Rotating quarterbacks, Scott put Petty back in. Three plays into the Gamecock's first drive of the quarter, Petty threw an interception. Arkansas fans were sensing victory then, as the infamous chant of "Woo Pig Sooie" echoed in the southeast endzone of a near-deserted Williams-Brice Stadium. The Hogs didn't let their fans down, scoring one more time on a pass from Stoerner. ivo Arkansas defenders early in the 5 rushes. iwered tx irter decii "I thought we came out in the third quarter and played like we were supposed to. I was disappointed at halftime. I tried to send a message in the lockerroom that that's not Razorback defense.' We don't miss tackles. We don't tackle high," said Arkansas coach Houston Nutt about the third quarter. Added Nutt, "The team showed a lot of character, and had a knockout punch early in the third quarter. "When you get turnovers and an offensive line that will come off the ball like we had, and you're healthy, you've got a great mixture and that's what we strive for." The Razorbacks have been a second-half team all season. Going into Saturday's action, they had outscored their opponents 51-9 in the third quarter. Running back Troy Hambrick rus being crushed by the Hogs' defens III ll ? ani Nate says the comite bined record of the ill, Gamecocks and Vanderbilt, who meet this Saturday in ne Nashville, is a stellar 1-12. Dlina The Gamecocks weren't able to perform the miracle necessary to make the comeback, scoring only once more. "We put the defense out there too many times, and that's tough on any program in the country," coach Scott said. Despite his words, the Arkansas defense was actually on the field longer. Arkansas' time of possession was only 25:39, compared to the 34:21 that Carolina held the ball. Corey Atkins summed up the game, saying, Until we go and prove it on defense, people just won't respect us." SEAN RAYFORD Sports Photo Editor game. By the end of the contest, >ints in ie game The Gamecocks scored 21 points in the first half; Arkansas scored 24 in the third quarter alone. The Razorbacks racked up 146 yards of total offense in the third quarter, as opposed to just 108 in the first half. The multi-faceted running attack, led by Chrys Chukwuma and Madre Hill, along with the passing of Clint Stoerner turned the defense"s inspired effort into quick points. Summing up the loss, which dropped the Gamecocks to 1-6, Scott replied, "It was a frustrating loss, a disappointment. "The players came out and played well in the first half, but in the second half, we went back to some of the turnovers. " It's a difficult locker room right now." SEAN RAYFORD Sports Photo Editor hed for 69 yards Saturday, despite e on the above play.