The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 21, 2002, Page 9, Image 9
THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, October 21, 2002 Q
t _
GAME SCHEDULE
CONTACT TIvS ■ J m I ■ j I MEN’S SOCCER at College of Charleston, 6 p.m. Wednesday
lnu I ■ ■ | X ■ . MEN’S TENNIS at ITA Fall Regionals in Chapel Hill, N.C., Thursday
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I \ 111 WOMEN’S TENNIS at Rolex Regional in Winston-Salem, N.C.,
E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com —I— V/ I _JL_ S Thursday-Friday
f*
Blowout in the Bayou
LSU SCORES 32 SECOND-HALF POINTS, DEVASTATES GAMECOCKS IN BATON ROUGE
<J}BY MARY FOSTER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BATON ROUGE, LA. - LSU faced
a big problem going into its game
against USC, and it wasn’t the loss
of their starting quarterback.
Coming off their first victory
over Florida in five years, the
14th-ranked Tigers trailed the
Gamecocks 14-6 at halftime be
fore roaring back for a 38-14 vic
tory.
“We didn’t handle success very
well in the first half, I thought,”
said LSU coach Nick Saban, who
had cautioned against a letdown
all week.
JCjven muugxx wc nay* liigix eii
ergy in pregame, I don’t think we
_ had the kind of focus that we need
™ed. Maybe toughness. I don’t know
what it was, but there was some
thing missing out there in the first
half, especially on defense.”
Marcus Randall, replacing
Matt Mauck, who was injured in
the Florida game, ran and passed
for 219 yards and rallied the
Tigers (6-1, 3-0 SEC) with a 25
point third quarter in his first col
lege start.
“I might have had a little jit
ters,” Randall said. “But football
is football. There was no pressure
on me.”
The pressure was on the LSU
defense, ranked No. 1 in the na
tion.
The Tigers allowed Carolina (5
3, 3-2) to score on the opening
drive, and they allowed more
#
♦ FOOTBALL, SEE PAGE 10
PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN/THE GAMECOCK
USC senior spur Rashad Faison tries to bring down LSU’s Joseph Addai during Saturday’s game at Tiger Stadium. The Gamecocks
had trouble containing Addai and the LSU offense, which ran roughshod over USC in the third quarter. The Tigers scored 25 points
in the quarter and took control of the game. LSU has now won six straight games since losing its opener to Virginia Tech. Carolina
had a four-game winning streak snapped and will probably have to win out to have any chance of winning the SEC East.
GAME 8
eusc 14
(5-3,3-2 SEC)
LSU 38
“The third quarter,
what happened? I do
not know.”
COREY JENKINS
use QUARTERBACK '
Matthew Thomas’ roughing the
kicker penalty in the third quarter
gave LSU an automatic first down
and the ball on the USC 13-yard
line. Tigers running back Shyrone
Carey ran the ball in on the next
play to give LSU a 24-14 lead.
Corey Jenkins completed only five
passes for 65 yards in the game.
One of the passes was a 60-yard
touchdown strike to Troy
Williamson, meaningJenkinsonly
completed four more passes in
the game - for a total of 5 yards.
Third quarter leaves USC shellshocked
BY KYLE ALMOND
THE GAMECOCK
USC’s football team couldn’t
have asked for much more at LSU
than a 14-6 halftime lead in rau
cous Tiger Stadium. After scor
ing on the game’s opening drive,
the Gamecocks controlled play
and had the 14th-ranked Tigers
•4 on the ropes.
But when the second half start
ed, Carolina crumbled. In a grue
some third quarter that saw USC
gain only 1 yard from scrimmage,
LSU racked up 25 unanswered
points within an eight-minute
span and left the Gamecocks
scratching their heads.
“The third quarter, what hap
pened?” quarterback Corey
Jenkins asked after the game. “I
do not know. This place got crazy,
and momentum changed, and it
was 30-14.”
Nose tackle Langston Moore
said the team was confident going
into the second half.
“Everyone was excited,” he
said. “Everybody thought that we
would not have to pour it on
them. But this is the defending
SEC champion, and they poured
it back on us.”
LSU’s rally started on the half s
opening drive. The Tigers, aided
by a 15-yard pass interference
penalty, drove 58 yards on 10 plays,
and quarterback Marcus Randall
ran for a 12-yard touchdown.
Randall then connected with
Michael Clayton on the two-point
conversion, tying the game at 14.
When Carolina got the ball, it
turned it over on the first play.
Jenkins’ bomb was picked off by
LSU cornerback Demetrius
Hookfin, and the Tigers capital
ized on the miscue, driving 60
yards and taking the lead on a
field goal by John Corbello.
USC didn’t do much better on
its second possession of the sec
ond half, going three and out.
Corbello hit another field goal
for LSU, giving the Tigers a 20-14
lead. But USC’s Matthew Thomas
was called for roughing the kick
er, and LSU head coach Nick
Saban decided to take the penal
ty, erasing the three points and
continuing the drive.
It was the right move to make.
On the next play, Shyrone Carey
scored on a 13-yard touchdown run
nand gave the Tigers
a commanding 24
14 lead.
“A couple of
key plays really
got us off our rock
er,” Moore said.
“We came out and
stopped them on
Moore second and third
down, and we got
a pass interference and gave them
some momentum back. Then we
ran into the kicker, and instead
of giving them three points, we
gave them six. That really got the
crowd and the momentum behind
them, and they just got going.”
Moore said he was held on
Carey’s touchdown run.
“We had a blitz going our way,
and he shot right pass me and
there was no hold call,” Moore
said. “I couldn’t get off, and I just
knew the momentum was theirs.
“I knew the game was lost. All
you could do was keep fighting
and try to hold the score down.”
As devastating as Carey’s
touchdown was, USC’s nightmare
still wasn’t over yet.
On Carolina’s next play from
scrimmage, Jenkins floated a
screen pass too high, and Hookfin
snatched it out of the air and ran
the return back for a touchdown
and a 30-14 lead.
“I read the receiver when he
was going to crack the lineback
er,” Hookfin said. “I saw the tail
back staying in the backfield, so
I just read it and picked it off.”
If Carey’s touchdown didn’t fin
r'
ish the Gamecocks, Hookfin’s
sure did. In just less than 13 min
utes, Carolina had run only five
offensive plays and was outscored
25-0.
Saban called the third-quarter
performance one of the best he
had ever seen.
“I think it is a real tribute to
our players because we didn’t
♦ THIRD, SEEPAGE 10
I
Standings
EASTERN CONF. OVERALL
Georgia4-07-0
use 3-2 5-3
Florida 3-25-3
Kentucky*1-25-2
Tennessee 1-24-2
Vanderbilt 0-4 1-6
WESTERN CONR OVERALL
LSU 3-0 6-1
Alabama* 2-1 5-2
OleMiss 2-1 5-2
Auburn 2-2 4-3
Arkansas 1-33-3
Mississippi St. 0-3 3-4
* Under postseason ban - cannot
compete in SEC title game
PHOTO BY AARON HARK/THE GAMECOCK
Senior Melinda Carter assisted on USC’s only score Sunday.
Camille Toney’s goal held up for a 1-1 tie with Tennessee.
Women’s soccer ties No. 13 Tennessee
T Tennessee i
(10-5-1,3-2-1 SEC)
SUSC 1
(10-5-1,3-3-1)
BY MATT ROTHENBERG
THE GAMECOCK
In an ironic twist on Sunday’s
Senior Day at the Graveyard, it
was a freshman that provided the
major offensive lift for the USC
women’s soccer team.
Freshman Camille Toney’s goal
at 74:31 tied the match, and a
stingy Carolina defense kept the
13th-ranked Tennessee Lady
Volunteers from victory. The
Gamecocks, trying to recover
from their 2-1 overtime loss to
Georgia on Friday, held
Tennessee through two overtimes
to a 1-1 draw.
It was the third time in four
games that USC had a 1-1 game go
into overtime. The previous two
times, Carolina lost.
Both teams played a fairly even
first half, each getting solid offen
sive attack going. Tennessee held
a 5-3 edge on shots at halftime, but
the Gamecocks still had numerous
chances. Neither squad converted
on its opportunities, though, and
USC goalkeeper Elise Matthews
kept three shots out of the net. The
Lady Vols’ Ellen Dean had a rela
tively easy time, only stopping one
shot on goal in the first half.
USC (10-5-1,3-3-1 SEC) found its
offensive stride in the second half,
constantly putting pressure on
Dean and the Tennessee defense.
Melinda Carter got a pair of shots
off, only to be denied each time, and
sophomore Ashley Williams had a
couple of her shots hit the crossbar.
Yet the Lady Vols (10-5-1,3-2-1),
behind Sue Flamini’s three sec
ond-half shots, managed to keep
their attack going, outshooting the
Gamecocks again. At 70:22, Kayla
Lockaby found Rhian Wilkinson
from 8 yards out, and Wilkinson
put home the go-ahead goal, her
fifth of the season.
But four minutes later, Carter
took a pass from Amanda Thurber
and knocked it ahead to Toney,
who split the defense to bang in
her third goal of the year from 8
yards up the middle.
Toney knew it was just a matter
of time before USC got on the board.
“If you noticed, ‘Bullet passed
the ball,” she said, referring to
Carter. “We’re all in it, we just
needed to get on it, and it just hap
pened to be me. I was in. the right
place at the right time, and it was
awesome that Bullet passed it and
we got on it.”
It was quite a physical game, es
pecially in the first half, as 13 fouls
were called. The Gamecocks’ de
fense fought its way to the ball,
stopping the Lady Vols repeatedly
in the defensive zone and bringing
the ball out to the forwards.
USC head coach Shelley Smith
praised her starting defensive
corps of Becky Leeper, Kanika
McAlpine, Sarah Lentz and Alison
Jarrow.
“The back four, we like to keep
them in there,” she said. “They
are in sync, and they play well to
gether. They’ve done a great job
to play together well, and they
know how each
other plays. That’s
been a key in shut
ting down oppo
nents.”
Carolina with
stood even more
pressure from
Tennessee through
Toney the two overtime
periods, but
Matthews remained unfazed, stop
ping five shots in the match to se
cure the tie.
“I think Elise did a great job to
day,” Toney said. “She ca^e out
and helped us out a lot. We need
ed her to pull through, and she def
initely did that today.”
The draw was the first-ever for
the Gamecocks against the Lady
Vols—the last SEC team Carolina
has yet to beat. USC won their first
games against Kentucky and
Florida earlier this season.
“Today, we had no doubts,”
Toney said. “We went in there
without any doubts, knowing that
we were going to try to put this .
game away and not let (the se
niors) be on the losing end of it.”
Tying the Lady Vols gives
Carolina positive feelings as it pre
pares for its final SEC games this
weekend — road contests against
Alabama and Auburn. Everyone
contributed Sunday, and that’s
what Smith likes to see.
“We’re very happy with the ef
fort today. The team is proud of
what we did,” she said. “It’s al
ways disappointing not to finish
when you have good chances. To
play a team like Tennessee, that’s
a very good team, and to get out of
here with a point in SEC play
against a top team in the country
is definitely an accomplishment
for us. I’m very proud of the entire
team effort.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocksports@hotmail.com