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Show f "v. tr:; B Tuesday, Sept. 20, 1994 The Daily Herald RyMng baeks shine as lions flip Cowboys WAC menu is only full once in '94 By DON PIERSON has ever been better, few could Chicago Tribune remember or care "I thought he got more than that," Switzer said. "They came in here to run the ball and did a great job. The quarterback did a great job. They didn't make mistakes. We made too many mistakes, but we fought our guts out. " IRVING, Texas - The running "feud" between Emmitt Smith and FULL FARE It s the first, and only time, it happens in 1994 as this week's schedule features five Western Athletic Conference games, four of which will be televised either locally or regionally. Included is an ABC regional encounter between New Mexico and BYU (1:30 p.m. MDT). Prime Sports will telecast the San Diego State at Colorado in Casper has State, KTWO-Tand KMPH-Tat Utah, Wyoming in Fresno has the Fresno State at Hawaii game. TOUGH LOSSES -- The WAC went 4 in Barry Sanders turned into the best football game of the young NFL season Monday night, a true Throwback Game that elevated running backs to their former place of glory. The Detroit Lions surprised a national audience and upset the world champion Dallas Cowboys field goal by on a Jason Hanson with 2 seconds left in overtime. It was a great victory for the Lions as they showcased 20-1- V V 44-ya- rd 7 new quarterback Scott Mitchell, but it was the kind of contest where winners didn't seem to matter. Sanders bounced and dashed for 4-- 194 yards in a I'JAC 9 Roundup games over the weekend, and three of the losses were particularly tough to take for the the schools involved. New Mexico (at SMU) and UTEP (New Mexico State) each lost on scoring plays which came with three and six seconds remaining in the game respectively, while Air Force dropped a 0 decision to Northwestern in a game in which the Falcons lost two fumbles inside d the Wildcat line, one which was returned 96 yards for a touchdown in the final quarter. 14-1- five-yar- BIG WINS WAC teams scored a sweep of three games against Pacific 10 Conference teams with wins by Fresno State (Oregon State), Hawaii (at California) and Utah (at Oregon). The victories ran the league's record vs. the Pac-- 1 0 this year to a significant improvement from last year's regular season mark of 5-- 2, 8. - 40 car- career-hig- h ries. Smith rocked and rolled for 143 yards in 29 carries in a majestic matchup that didn't want to end. Mitchell outdueled counterpart Troy Aikman to justify the $11.1 million he cost the Lions to make free him this season's highest-pai- d the the outlasted And Lions agent. home to their at Cowboys proud hand new coach Barry Switzer his first loss. Twice in overtime the Cowboys fumbled as the two teams traded possession twice before Hanson's kick. It was set up when linebacker Broderick Thomas sacked Aikman, stripped him of the ball and recovered the fumble, the kind of play nobody saw Thomas make when he played for Tampa Bay. Hanson missed three field goals, getting two blocked by Leon Lett before conone in overtime necting on the winner. The Lions took a 17-- 7 lead early in the third quarter and hung on for stand led by dear life. A goal-lin- e Chris Spielman and Thomas at the end of the third quarter forced the Cowboys to settle for a field goal before Smith tied the score at 17 on a sweep with 4:09 to play. Hanson had a attempt blocked by Lett on the last play of blocked regulation and a 5 by Lett with 9:26 left in overtime. Sanders was magnificent in an obvious effort by the Lions to demonstrate just who the best runner in football is despite Smith's three straight rushing titles. Sanders' 194 yards was short of his career mark of 220, but if he rd Colorado FIRST TIME State's win over BYU carried obvious importance, but it also moved the Ram program into relatively uncharted waters. It was CSU's fourth consecutive WAC road win dating back to last year, a school first. It also gave the Rams a winning streak for the first time since 1955, and they moved into the 25th spot in the six-ga- USA Today-CNpoll. It's the second time in school history and the first time since 1977 that CSU has been ranked. 57-ya- rd Detroit coach Wayne Fontes stayed cool in triumph. "I'm sure if Dallas had won this game, they wouldn't be over in their locker room celebrating, and we're not either," he said. "I do want to say this: This team does not '' get the respect it deserves. "We knew we did not play to our potential last week against Minnesota," Sanders said of the Lions' 10-- 3 loss. "Hopefully, this will not be our biggest win of the year." "If we're going to be a candidate for the Super Bowl, we're going to have to win games like this," Mitchell said. Mitchell was 13 of 27 for 174 yards and touchdown throws of 25 yards to Brett Perriman and 9 yards to Herman Moore. He was poised and overcame a few errant throws of his own, completing a to Perriman to get Hanson into his final field-gorange. Earlier, fade to Mitchell's perfect Moore on fourth and 3 set up the al 25-ya- rd TD pass that made it 17-- 7. Aikman finished 26 of 39 for touch223 yards and a down strike to Alvin Harper on the 17-ya- rd night's opening drive, but he g wasn't as sharp as usual, passes in the flat. On Thomas' sack, he held the ball too under-throwin- long. Smith was heroic, coming back after an ankle sprain in the first half and a "stinger" in the fourth quarter to bring his team back. It was the Cowboys' first loss since their Thanksgiving Day debacle against the Miami Dolphins when Lett was the goat. The game started with the Cowboys conducting business as usual. They drove 80 yards for a touchdown with the opening kickoff. march Aikman guided the with typical precision. It looked too easy, but the Lions 13-pl- AP Photo Detroit running back Barry Sanders (20) escapes the grasp of Dallas defender Charles Haley during had plans of their own. Backed up to their 6, they drove 94 yards to go ahead 10-- 7 on Mitchell's pass to Perriman in the second quarter, with a That drive got jump-starte- d run by Sanders, terrific who must have avoided more than 28-ya- rd the second quarter of Monday's NFL game. Sanders rushed for 194 yards. Detroit won, 20-17- 100 tackles over the course of his 40 rushes. Smith might have matched Sand- ers' yardage had a 41 -- yard run not been nullified by offsetting person- al foul penalties in the third period, That was before Smith was stopped ., line twice by inside the Spielman and Thomas at the end of a grueling drive. Smith came back with a run on third down to set up the 32-ya- rd game-tyin- g score, but it wasn't, enough. ; N PLAYERS OF THE WEEK Offensively, Fresno State's Jerome Oliver turned in the third best single game performance in - school history when he gained 220 yards vs. Oregon State on a school record 37 carries in his first collegiate start. Oliver was playing for Michael Pittman, who was injured one week earlier. Defensively, Colorado State free safety Greg Myers had seven tackles, and two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown. "It's not like we have three or four Heisman Trophy candidates," said CSU coach Sonny Lubick with regard to E.J. Watson, Leonice Brown and Van Ward. But we have some guys who are fairly equal in ability, and we are not hesitatant to use any of them on a regular basis. " PATS One player left off last week's NFL list was Utah's Kurt Haws, who is a regular with the Washington Redskins ...The Air P game in San Antonio is the first neutral site conference Force-UTE- game since Colorado State and BYU met in Australia in 1987. ..Wyoming's Ryan Christopherson and Terry Hendricks each rushed for more than 100 yards vs. Tulsa last week, the first time since 1987 the Cowboys have had two backs do players so....Thirty-fiveofthe6- 1 New Mexico dressed for SMU last week were either freshmen or have sophomores... The Lobos sold a school record 13,117 season tickets. ...Utah's Mike McCoy stands third on the school's all-tipassing list with 5, 114 effort vs. yards.. . .His 309-yar- d of Oregon was his 8th career game second at least 300 passing yards, in school history behind Scott Mitchell's 14.. ..BYU's NCAA record consecutive game streak of scoring in a game stands at 238. ... BYU "s La Veil Ed wards still needs one win to reach 200 for his career. . . Next in line to reach 200 is Fresno State's Jim Joe . Sweeney, who has 9 .. .Only Paterno (332) and Iowa's Haydcn 1 1 in more Fry (365) have coached than Sweeney s326 college games I coaches. Divisnn active among Tennis' last Grand Slam winner says a repeat is unlikely any time soon By TIM WHITMIRE Associated Press Writer It was 25 NEWPORT, R.I. won the Rod that Laver years ago tennis Grand Slam. No man has done it since and, the way Laver sees it, it's unlikely it will happen again soon. "I think Pete Sampras is certainly the odds-o- n choice. He's the one you point to who could do it," Laver said. "It's not to say some other players couldn't hit a bright patch in their careers, but I don't foresee it. "It's harder to do now. I don't think players put emphasis in their lives on being disappointed if they don't win a Grand Slam. A lot of people are just happy to win a Grand Slam tournament." Laver, 56, won Wimbledon and the Australian, French and U.S. Opens as an amateur in 1962, then as a professional in 1969, the first full year of tennis' Open era. In Newport last weekend to play in the Legends of Time exhibition, he and several other players from his era reflected on the silver anniversary of Laver's last Grand Slam. Laver says his toughest test in 1969 came during the Australian Open, when he went five sets with Tony Roche, winning 6-- 3 in the fifth. "This was before tiebreakers, another was and one set was 22-211-- 9 he reand another was calls. "It was in the tropical climate and humidity, and on the grass it was even worse. 0, ," "Tony always gave me fits, mainly because he was a left-hande- He breezed through the French Open, winning the final in straight sets over Ken Rosewall "probably the best match I played on and added the clay," he says third leg of the Grand Slam by winning Wimbledon in four sets over John Newcombe. He finished off his second Grand Slam by winning the U.S. Open, with Roche again giving Laver a toughest test, this time in the final. The final was pushed back a day by rain, and when Laver and Roche took the court at Forest Hills on Monday afternoon, the grass was still damp. Laver lost the first set, then changed into a pair tennis spikes in search of blunt of more traction. "I was still slipping in the spikes," Laver remembers, but he overwhelmed Roche to win the match in four sets. Australian Fred Stolle, who won the U.S. Open in 1966 and toured professionally for three years with Laver, says the man he calls "Rocket" was tough mentally. "Whenever you broke serve and you went up there to try and consolidate that break, he was the best at breaking back right away. I think that was one of his major strengths," Stolle says. "He was an aggressive player, the first guy that really ripped topspin backn hands. There weren't a lot of had Rod and lobs around, top-spi- that." Both men agree the Grand Slam has become considerably harder to win. Stolle and Laver point to the fact that the tournaments are now played on four different surfaces clay, grass, hardcourt and rubberinstead of just grass and ized clay, as in Laver's day. And both say the depth of competition in today's game is greater than anything they faced. "The composite, wide-bod- y rackets have allowed a lot of players to compete and play very good tennis at a very young age," Laver said. "It's possible to become a very good player at a very young age. "(There's also) a great deal of pressure on the players to win the matches. It's tougher all the way through the draw." Stolle agreed. "There's more depth in the business now than there was then. You have somebody in the top 100 that can surprise somebody in the top 10. We never had that." Stolle said Sampras, who has often spoken of his admiration for the Australian players of the 1960s, has the best shot among current players of winning the Slam. But the man who coached Sampras on the 1992 U.S. Davis Cup team disagrees. Tom Gorman, who reached the semifinals of three Grand Slam events in the early 1970s, says he thinks Andre Agassi is the best can- didate among today's players to win a Grand Slam. "Pete hasn't shown he can win on clay. Agassi can win very easily, as we've seen, at (this year's U.S.) Open. He can win at the Australian, which is a similar surface. Clay, he's been to the finals of the French twice. And then he won Wimbledon (in 1992)," Gorman said. "I guess the only thing that negates what I'm saying is that right now Pete's the best player in the world, while Andre's in the process of working his way back up. I think if he gets (his act) together, Andre's a candidate." Pink slips continue to plague baseball employees quences of a very difficult and painful situation," Mets senior vice president Harry O'Shaugh-ness- y said. "It saddens us that the strike has forced us to take this unprecedented action." Among those let go by the Mets were Bob O'Hara, the director of team travel, and Craig Sanders, the team's assistant director of melaid off layoffs, and the Astros e workers, raising dia relations. The Mets previously eight Instead of NEW YORK (AP) watching red hot pennant races, baseball employees are seeing pink slips. The New York Mets and Houston Astros on Monday became the latest clubs to cut staff. The Mets e emgot rid of 28 of 79 and of in mixture a firings ployees full-tim- front-offic- the total to 19. "These are the tragic conse eliminated and part-tim- e 38 jobs. full-tim- e, seasonal In Houston, Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr. said "the cancellation of the season has forced us to make more difficult decisions. " Previous teams to make cuts include Baltimore, California, Cin- cinnati, Los Angeles, Montreal, the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh and San Diego. Last Friday, the Padres got rid of public relations director Jim Ferguson and John "Doc" Mattci, the team's traveling secretary - i t- - - -- r. . i since it began play in 1969. Ferguson's office telephone on Monday gave callers the following sage: mes- "This is Jim Ferguson. Press zero to return to the switchboard. You'll need to talk to somebody else. I don't work here anymore." Meanwhile, the players' union intends to file grievances and default notices for about a dozen players by Wednesday in an effort to force clubs to pay them. receivers aren't scary to opponents BYU By DICK HARMON Daily Herald Sports Editor BYU's receivers may have the respect of opposing defenses because they run nice routes, rarely drop the ball and that sort of stuff but their speed isn't scaring anybody, according to one opposing coach. Well, not in that many words. Sonny Lubick, the coach of the Colorado State team that defeated BYU Saturday, told reporters Monday he fears San Diego State's receivers more than those of the Cougars. "BYU has a real solid guy who will run the precise pattern. These guys (San Diego State) can put four receivers in the game and they can all come off the foot-- ; ball and that makes it tough ' ' to match up against." Lubick said SDSU matches up better against Colorado State than BYU did because of the speed fac-.- " tor. "They have good athletes. They run to the ball. They may have" than BYU. better athletes skill-wis- e ' does. " The Cougars used two hobbled; fori-anybod- receivers Saturday in Tim ke (ankle) and Brvce Doman' (knee) and at times looked :any-- I thing but quick. Doman played his first game of the season, coming back from a three-t- o six week lay-- , : off. With those experienced players; hurt, the Cougar passing game has to find other weapons. "I think Nowatzke is getting' stronger each week. His ankle is" getting better," said BYU coachj. La Veil Edwards. "It was the first-timout for Bryce and I thought he-d- id some good things. But he is not'-u- p to capacity yet as far as running.--' and executing, He tweaked; that; knee again even though he wore at; . brace. And he'll need to weat a brace to play. It may take a whiles before he gets going 100 percent." i Nowatzke led BYU Saturday with 8 catches for 126 yards and one touchdown. e |