The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 8

(5t lETy 0) 5 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1989 FOOTBALL BASKETBALL SECTION I-AA PAIRINGS rimed for the olavoffi Ow 2 Dec 9 Dec 16 Saturday 1.Ga. Southern 11-0 Mike Hunt 16. Villanova 8-3 10.Mld.Tann.8-3 Furman to play William Mary in 1st round Saturday 3 7. Appalachian 9-2 4. Idaho 8-2 1 1 15.

E. Illinois 8-3 6. Montana 9-2 I 11. Jackson St. 8-3 2.

FURMAN 10-1 10. 8-2-1 By Willie T. Smith III News staff writer Fresh off a 44-9 victory over The Citadel, Furman will host 10th ranked William Mary in the first round of the NCAA I-AA playoffs Saturday at Paladin Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 :30 p.m. The Paladins, who finished with a 10-1 record and second in the final top 20 poll, are the tournament's second seed.

Georgia Southern is the top seed, while Stephen F. Austin is third and Idaho fourth. The NCAA I-AA committee considered four things when they matched the first round opponents and awarded first round home games: The quality and availability of the team's facility; The revenue-making potential; The team's attendance history; The location of the schools involved. If the Paladins manage to defeat the Indians, it would play the winner of the See Furman, Page 5D Final l-AA poll, Page 5D. For there to be a rematch with Georgia Southern, the two would meet in the championship game scheduled for Dec.

16 in the Eagles' home stadium at Statesboro, Ga. Appalachian State was the only other Southern Conference team receiving a bid. The seventh-ranked Mountaineers will travel to Murfrees-boro, to take on Middle Tennessee State, which is tied with William Mary for 10th. 12. E.

Kentucky 9-2 14. Youngstown 8-3 3. S.F. Austin 9-1-1 13. Grambling 9-2 9.

SW Missouri 9-2 8. Maine 9-2 ft Bflfi ip-jSou Cup Earnhardt wins race, but can't catch Rusty Wreck kills Grant Adcox HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) J- NASCAR driver Grant Adcox died Sunday after being injured in a one-car crash during the Atlanta Journal 500 stock car race at Atlanta International Raceway. The 39-year-old driver from Chattanooga, was taken by helicopter to Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta with injuries to his head and upper chest. I See Adcox, Page 5D Winston.

Nv I HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) Dale Earnhardt won the race and finished second. Rusty Wallace finished 15th and won the Winston Cup championship and $1 million. Earnhardt led 294 of 328 laps on the 1.522-mile oval at Atlanta International Raceway Sunday, outclassing the field in the Atlanta Journal 500, a race marred by the death of driver Grant Adcox. Wallace overcame tire problems and lost laps to do just enough for his first NASCAR stock car title.

"This is the biggest highlight of my career," Wallace said. "I don't care how sloppy it looked." The season-ending race was clouded by a one-car crash in which Adcox, a 39-year-old driver from Chattanooga, sustained fatal head and chest injuries. Wallace came into the race vowing to drive hard all the way a reference to his criticism of Bill Elliott a year ago, when Elliott drove to a conservative 11th-place finish here and beat race-winner Wallace for the title by 24 points. "I don't think he came down here to stroke (drive conservatively)," Earnhardt said of Wal- IP'' lace. "Circumstances just got him today, and he some some little problems.

He just didn't have enough problems, I reckon." Wallace won the championship by 12 points. "I wanted to win the championship running hard and winning the race, but that's not the way it happened. Still, I drove my guts See Wallace, Page 4D 4 KM I the associa i tu PHtbb Rusty Wallace celebrates his Winston Cup driving championship Clemson-USC has lost luster Today's answer: designer luggage, sushi, Deion Sanders and any television show that requires the purchase of a vowel. Today's question What on this Earth is more overrated than the South Carolina-Clemson game? More on Mr. Prime Time in a moment.

For now I'd like to address this dirty little war we Carolinians call our own. I just attended my 15th consecutive USC-Clemson game, certainly not enough to make me the defective authority on the subject. I'll acquiesce that distinction to Bob Bradley, Tom Price and the gentleman who was attending No. 70 on Saturday night. However, I would to like to make the following observation about the state of the game: While somehow retaining most of its fanfare, the rivalry has become boring, anticlimat-ic, devoid of meaning and virtually pointless.

Black-market dealings by bowl committees have assured that it will never again assume the significance of the 1977 game. Not until the moment that "Fuller-to-Butler" placed itself firmly into Clemson's heritage were the Tigers assured of an invitation to the Gator Bowl, which in those days was something worth hustling for. In the ensuing dozen years, try and name a USC-Clemson game that is worth committing to memory. OK, 1979 was close and a Greenville resident, Ben Comett, caught his only touchdown of the season. The '84 game was dramatic, won in the final moments by USC, but what did it really prove? The Gamecocks, remember, had their aspirations for greatness torpedoed the week before by Navy.

Ranked second, all USC had to do was beat the Middies to earn the Orange Bowl and the No. 1 ranking, all because Oklahoma had lost earlier in the afternoon. 'Settled' on Gator Blown right out of the Cheas-peake Bay, South Carolina could get nothing more than the Gator Bowl, with which it came to agreement the week before the Clemson game. On the verge of having its sentence lifted, the Tigers wore orange pants and took a big lead. But South Carolina came back in dramatic fashion, and another chapter in the storied series was written.

But after the last motorhome pulled into Swansea, Six Mile and points beyond, the Gamecocks, at 10-1, were still locked into the Gator Bowl, which they lost anyway. It would be too easy to dismiss the significance of the series on the basis of Saturday's 45-0 outcome. However, it continued a trend of relatively unimportant games that would otherwise have been obscured by history had not the "USC-Clemson" tag been applied. Face it. Your average, garden variety USC-Clemson game is a snorefest.

The same has also been said about the Super Bowl, and for good reason. After all the hype, most of it unjustified, the game is a major letdown. I have always suspected that Clemson has covertly de-emphasized the game for at least the better part of the decade. Time was when Clemson played Maryland or North Carolina (imagine that!) for conference pre-eminence and Georgia for national recognition. South Carolina wasn't very good, and did not have a league in which to compete.

The subtle message I detected from Clemson in those days was: The game is more important to South Carolina than it is to Clemson. I submit that a philosophy of de-emphasis on both sides would be healthy. I'm not naive enough to expect that such a policy would result in the elimination of violence between fans, who bear those silly car flags as if preparing to embark upon a crusade. But it sure would be nice if some of the general ugliness went away. But nothing I saw Saturday night was any more ugly than the continued petulance of Deion Sanders.

The guy had two more personal fouls called against him Sunday. That's four cheap shots in two weeks. More disturbing, his childish behavior Is tolerated, and to a certain extent encouraged, by the Falcons. Mr. Prime Time's act is growing thin.

As for me, I'd rather watch 70 more USC-Clemson games than the continued antics of Sanders. Saints ground Falcons again NFL Sunday New England 33, Buffalo 24 Cincinnati 42, Detroit 7 K.C. 10, Cleveland 10, OT Miami 17, Dallas 14 Philadelphia 10, Minnesota 9 mation on third-and-seven, Hebert passed for 44 yards to Brett Perriman, who beat Sanders in one-on-one coverge to the 27-yard line. Five plays later, Bu-ford Jordan's 2-yard touchdown run put the Saints ahead to stay. For insurance, the Saints returned the favor to Atlanta quarterback Chris Miller, who had two touchdown passes against See Falcons, Page 4D 53,173.

Hilliard rushed 29 times for 158 yards, 31 more than Atlanta had accumulated in any one game this season. Hilliard led a comeback that saw the Saints outscore the Falcons 23-7 in the second half. It was just the secod time that Atlanta had led after the first half this season. "We played hard, but we got beat by a good football team that got it cranked up in the second half," Campbell said. "They got it going and we couldn't stop them." And it was a good thing for the Saints that they were able to do" the job over land.

The Falcons intercepted four passes from Bobby Hebert, who called it "the worst game of my career." But with one big play in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, Hebert redeemed himself. Dropping into shotgun for By Mike Hunt News Atlanta bureau ATLANTA The Saints came marching in Sunday, leaving Dal-ton Hilliard's footprints on the chests of the Atlanta Falcons. Throwing just three second-half passes, one of which burned Deion Sanders to set up the go-ahead touchdown, New Orleans trampled the Falcons 26-17 before a largely pro-Saints crowd of New Orleans 26, Atlanta 1 7 Pittsburgh 20, San Diego 1 7 Tampa Bay 32, Chicago 31 LA Rams 37, Phoenix 14 Houston 23, LA Raiders 7 NY Giants 15, Seattle 3 Green Bay 21 San Francisco 1 7 NY Jets at Indianapolis Ex-Clemson star Donald i Igwebuike kicks a last-second field goal to boost Tampa Bay over Chicago; Packers stun the 49ers; stats, Page 2D. I USC beats Wake in NCAA soccer Silver lining, please WW Staff, wire reports WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. South Carolina paid a debt Sunday and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA soccer tournament.

The Gamecocks (17-2-2) beat Wake Forest, 5-1, and will play Virginia in the next round. The Cavaliers beat Philadelphia Textile, 4-1. One of USC's two losses this year came against the Deacons (15-4-2). "Having been in the final eight in the NCAA tournament before, we knew we had to play with a determined attitude to get there again," said USC coach Mark Berson. "We had a sound game plan and executed it to perfection." Jeff Love opened the scoring at 5:16 with a 12-yard strike on a See Gamecocks, Page 40 U.S.

in World Cup finals for first time since 1950 tMt Nl: AS OWI-N BllfV Clemson's John Johnson (12) closes in on Dickie DeMasi Statistically, Tigers reach comfort zone By Charles Bennett News staff writer COLUMBIA Disastrous events can be used as a rallying point, and that's the approach University of South Carolina Coach Sparky Woods Is taking after watching the Gamecocks finish their season by suffering through a 45-0 drubbing Saturday night at the hands of arch-rival Clemson. Woods hopes his team won't forget what happened in a game the Tigers dominated from start to finish. "I told the seniors how sorry I was that they had to go out on such a disappointing game," Woods said Sunday. "The South Carolina-Clemson game is one that lasts you a lifetime. You never forget them, and I certainly won't forget this one.

I don't know if I'll ever remember one as well as I'll remember this one. I told the underclassmen to remember how they feel. I know it doesn't feel good, and we don't want that feeling ever again. I hope we'll use it as See USC, Page 4D Caligiuri, once a standout at UCLA, was the hero, scoring in the 30th minute. "Everything you work for as a child and in your youth and adulthood was on the line in this game," Caligiuri said.

"Today was our destiny, our dream." Trinidad, playing before a boisterous overflow crowd of at National Stadium, needed only a tie to become the smallest nation ever to qualify for the WoHd Cup. Tab Ramos made a throw-in that Brian Bliss picked up Just See Soxcer, Page 4D PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) Nearly 40 years of frustration were ended for American soccer Sunday as a new era, the players said, began. On a tiny island off the coast of Venezuela, the United States beat Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 and advanced to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1950. "This is the greatest thing In the world, the World Cup," said Mike Windischmann, the American captain. "It's bigger than the Super Bowl or the World Series." Not to most of the United States.

But to the players and officials of the team, it Is. Paul By Woody White News staff writer It has been said that statistics are for losers, but like so many bromides, that one won't wash. When the Clemson Tigers completed their third consecutive 9-2 regular season with last Saturday night's 45-0 romp over arch-rival South Carolina, it shed light on some figures that some may consider amazing. In the latest three-year stretch of Danny Ford's program, his teams have demonstrated a marvelous symmetry in the way they play football, with many of the important figures showing no significant change. For example, the Tigers' total offense average for the three years has had a high of 384.6 yards in 1988, a low of 378.5 yards in '87 and 383 yards this See.Tigert, Page 4D 1.