PAGE 12
SCOREBOARD
MICHAEL CLARKE
TRADE FODDER
Panthers
not letting
fans down
~jr -r+ien the Carolina
\/\/ Panthers punted the ball
T V with two minutes left in
the fourth quarter of the Sept. 14
game against the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers, a sense of deja vu
and dread came over me.
“Not again,” I groaned. How
many times in the past, with a
lead of a touchdown or less and
the clock running down, had I
seen the Panthers give the ball
back to their opponent needing
only a defensive stop to get the
win and wind up spending the rest
of my Sunday wandering around
confiised and angry, muttering
profanities under my breath?
For example, last season in
back-to-back games versus
Arizona and Dallas, the Panthers
had seen late fourth-quarter
leads evaporate in the face of
comeback drives engineered by
Arizona's Jake Plummer and
Dallas’ Quincy Carter.
Carolina had perfected the art
of losing close games. In 2001,
the Panthers lost nine games by
eight points or less.
So many times, I had seen the
Panthers snatch defeat from the
jaws of almost-certain victory.
The Panther defense, protect
ing a six-point lead against
Tampa Bay, seemed helpless
haunted by the ghosts of innu
merable fourth quarter melt
downs —as Bucs quarterback
Brad Johnson orchestrated an 11-
play, 82-yard drive for the tying
touchdown in 1 minute, 49 sec
onds of game time.
“I knew it!” I shouted. I said to
myself, how could I have expect
ed my lowly Panthers to top the
defending Super Bowl champion
Buccaneers?
And then, the Panthers did
something so un-Panther-like
that I, for once, was at a loss for
words. They made an unbeliev
able play at the end of the game
and didn’t lose.
With :05 left on the game
clock, Tampa Bay kicker Martin
Gramatica lined up to kick the
game-winning extra point. The
ball was snapped, Gramatica
kicked it and his kick was
blocked by mighty Panther
defensive tackle Kris Jenkins,
“Who blocks an extra point?” I
finally croaked after sitting dum
founded for a few seconds trying
to process what had happened.
It didn’t matter. The Panthers
won the game in overtime on a
47-yard John Kasay field goal.
And they haven’t looked back.
The Panthers have already set the
NFL record for most road over
time wins in a season with three.
The other two came against
Indianapolis, who was undefeat
ed at the time, and New Orleans
on the leg of the automatic Kasay,
who hasn’t missed a field goal or
extra point all season.
Despite Sunday’s upset loss to
the Texans, the 2003 Panthers
are anew team from years past.
Instead of finding ways to lose at
the end of games, this season
they are finding ways to win.
This team shouldn’t care about
last season’s eight-game losing
streak or 2001s record-setting
15-game losing streak.
Now, this team is a winner.
True, the Panthers received an
ugly beating at the hands of the
Tennessee Titans on Oct. 19. But
that was a reality check for a
young team that hadn’t experi
enced losing since week 15 of last
year.
With a 6-2 record, Carolina
leads its division by two games
over Tampa Bay, and unless
something drastically unforesee
able happens, the Panthers will
make the playoffs, something
they haven’t done since 19.96.
After suffering through record
setting losing streaks and last
second losses too numerous to
count, it seems that the Panthers
have finally given me something
to cheer about.
Contact Michael Clarke
at mcclarke@email.unc.edu.
Sports Monday
MEN'S SOCCER Clemson 1 UNC 0
UNC lackluster in exhibition
Felton scores 20 , May OK after scare
BY JAMIE AGIN
SENIOR WRITER
It had all the signs of a presea
son split-squad scrimmage.
Errant passes and blown lay
ups. Ambivalent cheerleaders and
overwhelmed towel boys. A dissat
isfied head coach and of course, a
token scare involving a vital play
er.
It seems Dean Smith made the
right move in bolting from his
arena five minutes before tip-off.
For those interested, the White
team, paced by Raymond Felton
and Sean May, downed the Blue
team 77-70 at the Smith Center on
Sunday.
But rather than heaping praise
on anybody, UNC coach Roy
Williams focused on the mistakes
of his team, wfrich is ranked No. 10
in the preseason ESPN-USA
Today coaches’ poll.
“I think, when you put a whole
A GAME TO FORGET
Mcßrien shreds
defense for 6 TDs
BY BRIAN MACPHERSON
SPORTS EDITOR
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - In
retrospect, North Carolina proba
bly should have negotiated a trace
after the first quarter.
Two impressive red-zone stops
and a 96-yard kickoff return for a
touchdown by
freshman Mike
Mason put the
Tar Heels up
14-6 with 3:56
FOOTBALL
UNC
Maryland 59
left in the opening frame and put
them in good position, at the very
least, to make Saturday’s game
competitive.
It didn’t happen.
Scott Mcßrien threw for 349
yards and four touchdowns —and
rushed for two more —as
Maryland dealt the Tar Heels a
humiliating 59-21 defeat at Byrd
Stadium.
“To go out there and play like
that, I know it’s disappointing to
all of us,” said freshman linebacker
Larry Edwards. “Hopefully, in my
time here, we’ll never have a game
like this again.”
The game began with such
promise for the Tar Heels (1-8,0-5
in the ACC). Despite four straight
long runs by Terp tailback Bruce
Perry, a sack by Alden Blizzard
forced Maryland to settle for a
Nick Novak field goal.
Quarterback Darian Durant
then directed a solid opening drive
that culminated in a Chad Scott
touchdown run from three yards
out.
When a perfect Mcßrien pass
once again landed the Terps (6-3,
3-2) in the red zone, the Tar Heels
forced another field goal.
And when Mason fielded
Novak’s ensuing kickoff, faked a
handoff to Derrick Johnson and
outran the Maryland coverage
team for a touchdown and a 14-6
North Carolina lead, the Tar Heels
seemed to have solved the vaunted
Maryland defense.
Even after Mcßrien scrambled
into the end zone for Maryland's
first touchdown of the game and a
14-14 tie, Scott took a Durant
shovel pass for 52 yards and a
touchdown behind terrific down
field blocking by wide receiver
Jarwarski Pollock and tailback
Jacque Lewis.
But that’s when everything fell
apart.
“Momentum,” Pollock said.
“They got momentum, and they
ran with it.”
More specifically, Terp receiver
Steve Suter ran with it. He took
the ensuing kickoff to the UNC 33-
yard line, and Mcßrien completed
the short drive with a lofted pass to
Latrez Harrison for a touchdown.
The game seemed to turn when
the Terrapins forced North
Carolina to punt for the first time
in the game —with 6:54 left in the
second quarter.
“We were watching film all
week, and looking at their games
previously, and we knew it was
going to be a shootout because
their offense is great, but people
SEE FOOTBALL, PAGE 9
www.dailytarheel.com
group of people in the stands, you
tend to have a lot of game slip
page," Williams said. “And the guys
forget the things you work on in
practice.”
One of the team's biggest strug-
gles was pro
tecting the ball.
Despite run
ning a slowed
down version of
Williams’ up-
MEN'S
BASKETBALL
White 77
Blue 70
tempo offense —one that Jackie
Manuel said would be 10 times
faster by the start of the season
the Tar Heels committed 22
turnovers.
“We’ve had 13 practices,”
Williams said. “Needless to say,
we’re not ready to run the ball like
I want to.”
The team also made several
mental lapses. Williams said that
because of the 8,178 in the stands,
he didn’t stop play as often as he
\A\ / m
fm ''O' JB
| |||l, . ■„
DTH/LAURA MORTON
North Carolina wide receiver Jarwarski Pollock (5) secures the ball between Maryland free safety Madieu
Williams (10) and tackle C.J. Feldheim. Pollock led the Tar Heels with 8 catches for 78 yards on Saturday.
BY THE
NUMBERS
612
Maryland's total
offense on
Saturday, a Terp
season high
39
Points scored
by Maryland
in 2nd quarter,
an ACC record
4
Touchdowns for
Terp quarterback
Scott Mcßrien in
2nd quarter
Little sign of progress
for Tar Heels’ defense
Run and pass coverage abysmal in defeat
BY JACOB KARABELL
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The North
Carolina defense’s mantra all season has
been about progress.
But after allowing an ACC-record 39
points in the second quarter of a 59-21
loss, any defensive progress was nonex
istent.
In fact, the end result looked suspi
ciously like last season’s 59-7 loss to the
Terps in Chapel Hill instead of the past
two weeks when the Tar Heel defense
made impressive red-zone stops.
There was one key difference between
the two games, however. Last year,
Maryland scored six of its seven offen
sive touchdowns on runs by its back
field.
Saturday, it was UNC’s secondary
that the Terrapins’ quarterback Scott
Mcßrien exploited for four TDs, and he
FIELD HOCKEY UNC 1 William & Mary 0
would have liked to. But at one
point, he couldn’t resist.
In the second half, the shot
clock expired without the Blue
team taking a shot. A frustrated
Williams immediately called a
timeout.
“If I say ‘Hey Jackie,’ and I
point, I’m not talking about the
blonde in the 17th row,” Williams
joked.
On top of those troubles, the Tar
Heels dodged a bullet involving
May.
With 7:45 to play in the second
half, May was involved in a colli
sion at midcourt. He fell to the
floor and, clutching his calf,
dragged himself off the court. He
spent the rest of the game on the
bench with his leg taped.
“I’m fine," said May, who fin
ished with 13 points and 10
rebounds. “I could have come
back.
“I just didn’t want to get hurt in
SEE BASKETBALL, PAGE 9
VOLLEYBALL Florida State 3 UNC 0
&_ P*"'
DTH,KAT£ BLACKMAN
Junior Jackie Manuel (right) attempts to steal the ball from sophomore
Raymond Felton in Sunday's Blue-White game. Manuel had 26 points.
ran for two more to total six on the after
noon.
Although Maryland didn’t come in
planning to pass instead of run, it knew
one thing it was going to put up a lot
of offense against the porous North
Carolina defense.
“We knew they were giving up 500
yards on offense every game,” said Terp
receiver Latrez Harrison. “We wanted
our share ofsoo yards too, so some way
we had to go in there and get it.”
And get it they did. Maryland ended
up with 612 total yards in the game,
with 360 of them coming through the
air. North Carolina’s defensive backs
slipped, missed tackles and were out
sprinted routinely.
But no area of the defense was
exempt from blame. UNC’s defensive
SEE PROGRESS, PAGE 9
(Eljr Hath} (Ear MM
NOVEMBER 3, 2003
Perfect
season
secured
with win
McDowell scores
lone goal for UNC
BY CHRIS GILFILLAN
ASSISTANT SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR
Although it was Halloween
night, the scariest thing to make
an appearance wasn’t the giant
banana or the dozen witches in the
Fetzer Field crowd on Friday.
Invoking more fear were the
driving free kicks from Catherine
Reddick.
Reddick had
two blasts in
the second half,
although only
one was put in
for a goal by
WOMEN’S
SOCCER
FSU 0
UNC 1
Mary McDowell. McDowell’s goal
was the game-winner in UNC’s 1-
0 win.
“The whole time of a (Reddick)
free kick is terrifying for an oppo
nent,” said UNC coach Anson
Dorrance. “I could feel the tension
from the field on our bench. I’m
sure there’s a ball mark on the girl
that got hit in the wall. Maybe a
lifetime Nike tattoo.”
With just fewer than 23 min
utes left in a scoreless game,
Reddick had a chance to pound a
free kick to the Seminole goal
keeper. The ball went over the
wall to the goalkeeper who
blocked it out to a waiting Lindsay
Tarpley, who immediately passed
it to McDowell for the game-win
ning goal.
“It’s scary, actually,” forward
Alyssa Ramsey said. “Anson’s rule
for Cat in practice is that if any
body gets hits in the wall by Cat,
then they get to leave the wall. I
think that pretty much shows what
the team thinks about Cat.”
Reddick had another booming
free kick about five minutes later,
though the No. 1 Tar Heels (18-0,
7-0 in the ACC) were unable to
convert on it.
It was the strong play of Florida
State goalkeeper Joy McKenzie,
who finished with eight saves, that
prevented UNC from scoring more
than one goal.
The McDowell goal actually
ended McKenzie’s 739-minute
SEE SOCCER, PAGE 9
INSIDE
MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
North Carolina runners finish Bth
at ACC Championships PAGE 7
MEN'S SOCCER
No. 6 Tar Heels lose final home
game to Clemson, 1 -0 PAGE 7
la