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12 THE GAMECOCK* Wednesday, October 15,2003 GAME SCHEDULE \ ^ ■ "V ^ rnr^ { MEN’S SOCCER at Charlotte, 6:30 p.m. I * I 1/ \ m If I 11 1 WOMEN’S SOCCER vs. Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. Friday CONTACT IIS ^v£r, ft_Jm I |_ ft 1 VOLLEYBALL vs. Arkansas, 7 p.m. Friday "T | ■ ■ | ^ | i MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING at Clemson, 5 p.m. Friday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I 1 f I I ft L 1 FOOTBALL vs. LSU, 7:45 p.m. Saturday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com _JL_ B B i Men’s soccer falls to Wake BY WES WOLFE THE (iAMECOCK The USC men’s soccer team (7 5) lost its fifth-straight game Sunday by 4-0 to Wake Forest (7-3) at Eugene E. Stone III Stadium. The Gamecocks were on a tear early in the season but as of late haven’t been able to right the ship. Wake Forest first got on the board with a shot by forward Scott Sealy in the 29th minute. Seven minutes later, Demon Deacon forward Tomy Szczypiorski pushed the lead to 2-0 off an assist from midfielder Ryan Caugherty^The goal was Szczypiorski’s fourth goal this season, and he finished the game with four shots on goal. However, the other three shots were in the second half, and all were saved just in front of the goal by Gamecock goalkeeper Brad Guzon. USC might have been at an even larger deficit at halftime if shots by Sealy and Deacon mid fielder Steven Curfman hadn’t barely missed the goal. Sealy found the goal again late in the second half, knocking in a rebound off the crossbar. With just over a minute left in the match, Wake Forest topped off its dominating performance with a goal by midfielder Adam Hakes. Carolina had a couple of chances to score in the second half, but shots by forward Ayo Akinsete and midfielder Jack Cummings were stopped by Deacon goalkeeper William Hesmer. On a brighter note, Guzon made 10 saves on the day, the only decent mark on the USC stat sheet. In the first half, Wake Forest outshot Carolina 9-1 and 10-6 in the second half. Sealy and Szczypiorski accounted for nine of the Deacons’ 14 shots on goal, with Sealy coming up with five and Szczypiorski with four. The Deacons’ win over the Gamecocks was their largest ever and their first win in Columbia since 1995. The overall series be PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Eton’s Taylor Saxe makes the save as USC’s Ayo Akinsete goes for the ball in last week’s 1-0 loss to the Phoenix. Carolina also lost to Wake Forest on Sunday 4-0, but can get back on track when they take on the Charlotte 49ers on the road tonight. tween the two schools is now tied at 10-10-5. The Gamecocks go up against the Charlotte 49ers next. The 49ers are 4-5-2 on the year and are coming off a double-over time tie with Conference USA opponent UAB. USC and Charlotte have both faced Elon and Wake Forest, with Carolina losing both games. Charlotte tied Elon and lost to Wake Forest, but both games were in exhibition play. USC will look to get a few goals past Charlotte goalkeeper Lucas Mackanos, who has been having a good season. Mackanos performed brilliantly in a 2-1 double-overtime loss to Saint Louis in which he made 10 saves. Mackanos also made 10 saves in the 49ers’ 2-2 deadlock with UAB. On the other side of the coin, the Gamecocks will need to stop 49er midfielder Floyd Franks. Franks leads his team in goals, as sists and points. Franks had three shots and one goal against UAB on Oct. 11. The sophomore from Vestavia, Ala., was an All Conference USA Freshman Team selection last season. Charlotte forward Mira Maupier should also get a close look by Carolina. Maupier was named to the Preseason All Conference USA Team this year. Maupier had four shots and Charlotte’s only two assists in the UAB game. USC steps on the field against Charlotte at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Transamerica Field in Charlotte, N.C. Carolina continues its road trip by going to Furman on Simday and will come back home to play Davidson on Halloween. Comments on this story?E—mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Carolina looks to turn the tables on LSU this season BY BRAD SENKIW THE GAMECOCK It was the straw that broke the camels back last year for the USC football team. The Gamecocks were coming off a big win over Kentucky and only one win away from bowl eligibility. What could have been one of USC head coach Lou Holtz’s biggest road wins since taking over USC quickly be came the turning point for the en tire year. The Gamecocks took a 14-6 lead into the half at Baton Rouge, La., giving LSU all it could handle. Unfortunately for USC, the second half, as well as the sea son, took a drastic turn. The Gamecocks gave up 132 yards and gained only 1 yard of fensively in the third quarter as they watched LSU put up 32 points in the final 30 minutes to dominate USC 38-14. After that, the slide was on and the Gamecocks dropped their last four games to finish with a 5-7 record. “I would hope we learned from last year’s third quarter,” Holtz said. “We never recovered from that.” This season, Carolina has a chance to turn the tables and send LSU down the path of destruction when the Gamecocks face their third top 10 team of the year. And when it comes to closing out and finding a way to win these big games, Holtz isn’t very optimistic. “I just worry because they’ll play a perfect game against us,” Holtz said. “Somehow we’ve got to get over the hump where peo ple have an element of doubt of whether they can beat us or not. Everyone plays a perfect game against us.” The Tigers, coming off a 19-7 loss to unranked Florida last Saturday, are no doubt angry and out for blood in what could be the make or break contest for LSU’s season. : PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK USC’s Marcus Lawrence nails Kentucky’s Jared Lorenzen in Thursday’s win. Carolina will face a tough LSU this Saturday. The Tigers hot start had the Bayou fans thinking SEC title and con tention in the BCS. Now with the upset by the Gators, LSU is just looking to get back on track. “There are three things that we always talk about that kind of de fine our identity as a team,” LSU head coach Nick Saban said. “Immediacy, which is a since of urgency, intensity and intelli gence that you play with. “I don’t think that we played with any of those things, and if we want to be a dominant type team, then it is very important that we get back to playing that way,” Saban said. After the Gamecocks were thrashed at Georgia and losing a ♦ FOOTBALL, SEE PAGE 13 SEC FOOTBALL NEWS AND NOTES Williams honored again this week On Monday, Auburn’s star running back Carnell Williams was selected as an SEC Player of the Week for the second consecutive week. Georgia defensive end David Pollock and Florida kicker Matt Leach also netted Player of the Week honors. Williams proved to be the difference in Auburn’s upset of Arkansas last Saturday, running for 150 yards on 35 carries. Williams also scored the game’s only touchdown. Pollock made life tough for Tennessee quarterback Casey Clausen, sacking Clausen twice. The two sacks are in cluded in Pollock’s three tack les for loss and eight overall tackles on the day. Leach scored seven points, two field goals and an extra point to assist in Florida’s up set of LSU. Leach connected on kicks of 50 and 29 yards. His 50-yarder in the second quarter was a career-long. Croyle awarded for good works Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle was named the SEC Good Works Team Player of the Week for this weekend’s Alabama-Ole Miss game, broadcast by Jefferson-Pilot Sports. Croyle has spent his time at Alabama visiting patients at the Tuscaloosa VA Hospital, delivering food for the W'est Alabama Food Bank and volunteering at a charity golf tournament. This year, Croyle won the Derrick Thomas Community Award for his community service. , f Arkansas, Florida highlight week 8 Six SEC games are sched uled for this weekend, with the marquee matchup being between Florida and No. 11 Arkansas. Florida is 2-2 in the SEC, but is looking good after an upset win over No. 10 LSU in Baton Rouge, La. Arkansas is coming off of the other end of the upset equation, losing to Auburn at home. Florida and Arkansas will kick off at 3:30 p.m. on CBS. LSU will look to bounce back against USC in a na tionally televised contest in Columbia. LSU has a 13-2-1 series lead against Carolina, including winning last year’s game at LSU 38-14. The Gamecock pass defense, cur rently allowing the fewest yards per pass in the SEC, will try and contain LSU quarterback Matt Mauck, who is third in the SEC in pass efficiency. The LSU-USC game will be televised at 7:45 p.m. on ESPN2. ine tirst game to kickott, though, will be a 12:30 p.m. Jefferson-Pilot Sports game between Alabama and Ole Miss. Alabama broke a three game losing streak with a 17 3 win over Southern Miss in Tuscaloosa, Ala., last Saturday. Each of Alabama’s four losses has come from top 25 opponents, including No. 1 Oklahoma. Ole Miss has had a schizophrenic season, los ing to Memphis and Texas , Tech but defeating Florida in Gainesville, Fla. Other games include No. 4 Georgia at Vanderbilt, Mississippi State at No. 19 Auburn and Ohio at Kentucky. f Symons was story of college weekend , * re TYLER JONES | GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Weekend left no time for bathroom breaks. Is it me, or does the world seem to have more problems than it ever has? The chaos in the Middle East, a barbarian bodybuilder as California governor, a leak in thr Bush administration, terrorists.” living next door, Kobe’s adulter ous scandal and — for some rea son — sympathy for a garishly dressed, androgynous tiger trainer who got his throat mauled in Vegas. But Saturday, there were real problems. Big problems with no solutions. It was touch and go there for a while, with the fate of the free world balancing squarely on my shoulders. I had dug myself into a foxhole of cushions on my couch and fought the brave fight to watch as much college football as I could with a remote control that had dy ing batteries. mere was Miami vs. norma State, Clemson vs. Virginia, Syracuse vs. Virginia Tech and Arkansas vs. Auburn all on televi - sion at the same time and these', friends, were only the noon games. There were no bathroom breaks, no pauses for snacks and certainly no time to go all the way to the store to replace batteries. All I had was the lighting-fast remote trig ger-finger and a few open-tongued licks to the batteries to keep them electrically charged. After watching Clemson snake out a victory, I was pleased to see the pro athletes at Miami swim to victory during a wet one in Tallahassee. Then it was on to a Texas vs. Oklahoma matchup that allowed me to empty both bladder and bowels because of the atro cious one-sided smacking that the* Sooners dished out. Unexpectedly, I found myseh with a little time to kill before I pulled for the lesser of two evils in the Georgia vs. Tennessee game. With my David Pollack jersey on as a diaper, I decided to root for Georgia, but not until I did a little research to find out who should wintheHeisman. from a nistorical standpoint, there is usually a front runner for the Heisman by mid-October, but not so in recent times. We have seen mediocre players such as Eric Crouch, Chris Weinke and Carson Palmer pull it out the past few years, largely because no individ ual has raised his game to the me dia spotlight. This year looks to 1^. the same—or does it? Look no further than Bobby Knightville, aka Lubbock, Texas. Down on the Texas plains, there is a quarterback who is quietly putting up ridiculous statistics. His name is B.J. Symons, a 6-foot-2 inch senior who has thrown 27 touchdowns and nearly 3,000 yards in six games. To put these numbers in per spective, Symons threw for 1,166 yards, 14 touchdowns and one in terception in two games against Texas A&M and Mississippi. USC’s Dondrial Pinkins has thrown for just 1,003 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions all year. Sure, there are great players like Larry Fitzgerald of Pittsburgh and Kevin Jones of Virginia Tech, but Symons has the chance at the Cinderella story when his Tex& Tech Red Raiders face off against top-ranked Oklahoma in the school’s season finale Nov. 22 in Lubbock. If Symons slings the pigskin anywhere near his average of 500 yards a game and somehow, some way his team beats Oklahoma, it will be vintage Doug Flutie and a guaranteed victory at the Downtown Athletic Club. Jones is a graduate student in the College of Journalism and Information Studies.