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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide for Reeves County, Trans-Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

Sports

Friday, January 2, 1998

Eagle girls begin play in Stockton

PECOS, Jan. 2 -- After finally getting to the .500 mark with a narrow win Tuesday night at Monahans, the Pecos Eagles will try to close out the pre-district portion of their 1997-98 basketball schedule this weekend with a victory at the Fort Stockton Tournament.

The Eagles will face the Fabens Wildcats, along with the host Prowlers and Monahans in the round-robin tournament, which opens today and concludes on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Pecos' boys will be taking the first weekend of 1998 off, after bouncing back from an opening round loss to Wall in the Big Lake Tournament to earn the consolation title with a 55-50 victory over the Greenwood Rangers on Wednesday.

The win avenged a 71-64 loss on Dec. 19 by the Eagles to the Rangers at Greenwood. Jacob Chavez, who was held to only nine points in that game, found the range from the outside and finished with 21 points, while Omar Hinojos earned a spot on the all-tournament team with his 24-point effort, following a 23-point performance in the Eagles' 55-49 win over Iraan in the consolation semifinals.

Greenwood's Andrew Wootan, who burned Pecos for 26 points in the earlier win, managed only 10 points this time around, while James Settles led the Rangers with 16.

The three consolation round wins raised Pecos' season record to 11-7 going into their final two pre-district games. They'll go to Alpine next Tuesday, then host Greenwood a week from today. District 4-4A play opens for the Eagles on Jan. 13 at Andrews.

The Eagles will be back in Fort Stockton for their 4-4A opener on Tuesday, but before then, they'll look for their second win of the season over the Prowlers, as well as their third victory against the Loboettes.

The Eagles had to rally to beat Monahans on Tuesday, 35-33, while Fort Stockton comes in off a 55-29 loss to Crane earlier this week.

Michigan closer to title after Rose Bowl win

By The Associated Press

PASEDENA, Calif., Jan. 2 -- Michigan now needs just one more win - in the polls.

The Wolverines staked claim to their first national championship since 1948 by beating No. 8 Washington State 21-16 Thursday in the Rose Bowl.

Brian Griese threw three touchdown passes, and Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson played his usual tough defense for the No. 1 Wolverines (12-0), who can only watch tonight's Orange Bowl matchup between No. 2 Nebraska and No. 3 Tennessee and await the final rankings.

``I have no doubt that we should be the national champion,'' said Griese. ``We played the toughest schedule in the country by far. To come to the Rose Bowl and play a very tough Washington State team ...

``Is there anything else you want us to do?''

The Associated Press' final poll will be released Saturday morning, after the Orange Bowl.

No team entering a bowl game as the No. 1 team has won the game and not secured the national title.

Entering the game, Michigan had a commanding lead over Nebraska in the AP poll, 69-1 in first-place votes. In the coaches' poll, Michigan led Nebraska in first-place votes 53½-8½.

The Wolverines should stay on top, thanks to Griese. He had TD passes of 53 and 58 yards to Tai Streets, and 23 yards to Jerame Tuman early in the fourth quarter. After throwing an interception on Michigan's first series, the fifth-year walk-on completed 18 of 30 passes for 251 yards.

Woodson helped, too, intercepting a Ryan Leaf pass in the end zone after the Cougars (10-2) were poised to a take a 14-0 second-quarter lead.

``I have one vote in the coaches' poll and the writers will speak with their vote,'' Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. ``It would be tremendously disappointing, but it's not something that's in my control.''

In Thursday's other bowl games, No. 4 Florida State downed No. 9 Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, No. 12 Georgia routed Wisconsin 33-6 in the Outback Bowl, No. 6 Florida defeated No. 11 Penn State 21-6 in the Citrus Bowl, and No. 5 UCLA edged No. 20 Texas A&M 29-23 in the Cotton Bowl.

In today's first game, No. 13 Auburn (9-3) took on Clemson (7-4) in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta.

In Wednesday's games, it was No. 10 Kansas State 35, No. 14 Syracuse 18 in the Fiesta Bowl; No. 16 Arizona State 17, Iowa 7 in the Sun Bowl; and No. 22 Southern Mississippi 41, Pitt 7 in the Liberty Bowl.

Sugar Bowl

No. 4 Florida State 31, No. 9 Ohio State 14

The Seminoles' slim national championship hopes were snuffed out before they trotted on the field. But they didn't let it affect their performance against the Buckeyes.

Thad Busby threw for 334 yards, E.G. Green caught seven passes for 176 yards and All-American end Andre Wadsworth led a swarming defense.

Florida State (11-1) will surely extend its streak of finishing no lower than fourth in the national rankings to 11 consecutive years after beating Ohio State (10-3). They also redeemed themselves for a 52-20 loss to Florida in last year's Sugar Bowl, which cost FSU its second national title of the 1990s.

Florida State, which had won a record 11 straight bowl games before that loss to the Gators, pushed coach Bobby Bowden's postseason record to 16-4-1.

John Cooper saw his bowl record drop to 2-7 in 10 years at Ohio State.

Gator Bowl

No. 7 North Carolina 42, Virginia Tech 3

The Tar Heels put on an impressive show against the Hokies at Jacksonville.

Quarterback Chris Keldorf completed 17 of 28 for 290 yards - 161 in the first quarter - and passed for three touchdowns. Cornerback Dre' Bly blocked one punt and recovered another one for a score, and defensive end Greg Ellis recovered a fumble in the end zone that gave the Tar Heels a 22-0 lead 15:07 into the game.

The victory gave North Carolina its 11th win of the season, just the third time in 107 years the Tar Heels reached that total, and was an impressive debut for coach Carl Torbush, who took over the team three weeks ago, after Mack Brown left for the Texas job.

Outback Bowl

No. 12 Georgia 33, Wisconsin 6

Mike Bobo was nearly perfect with 19 consecutive completions in a 26-for-28 day as the Bulldogs won easily at Tampa. Bobo finished with 235 yards and one TD while Robert Edwards ran for 110 yards and three TDs. Edwards' backup, Olandis Gary, rushed for 61 yards on just four carries and scored once.

Georgia's swarming defense limited Wisconsin's Ron Dayne to 36 yards on 14 carries after the Badger tailback gained 1,421 yards and scored 15 touchdowns in the regular season.

Citrus Bowl

No. 6 Florida 21, No. 11 Penn State 6

The Gators' Fred Taylor pounded undermanned Penn State for a career-high 234 yards on 43 carries, and Jacquez Green caught two touchdown passes from different quarterbacks at Orlando, Fla.

Taylor broke a 35-year-old Citrus Bowl record with the best rushing game in Florida's bowl history. Green caught a 35-yard TD pass from Doug Johnson and a 37-yarder from Jesse Palmer.

Penn State played without suspended All-America running back Curtis Enis and big-play receiver Joe Jurevicius, who had accounted for half of the offense and 60 percent of the touchdowns. The Nittany Lions finished with just 139 yards, their poorest offensive output of the season.

Cotton Bowl

No. 5 UCLA 29, No. 20 Texas A&M 23

In the second-best comeback in Cotton Bowl history, UCLA wiped out a 16-point deficit to overtake Texas A&M at Dallas.

Tight end Ryan Neufeld's 5-yard run with 7:05 left in the game for his first rushing touchdown completed the comeback for the Bruins. Quarterback Cade McNown threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third, and Skip Hicks gained 140 yards on 31 carries for UCLA, which won its 10th straight game.

The comeback was topped only by Notre Dame's rally from 22 points down to beat Houston 35-34 in the 1979 Cotton Bowl.

A&M (9-4) was led by linebacker Dat Nguyen, who intercepted a pass and had 20 tackles, 15 of them solo, in the loss.



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Pecos Enterprise
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