Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 57

ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES SECTION College Football4D, 6D Auto Racing7D NFL10D bPORTS Wmml ourtlasfts (Florida State Missed field goal decides showdown Doug Mead sive lineman Kevin Mancini. "This was our year. We should have won this year." Thomas, a walk-on sophomore who had made his three previous field goal tries in the game, walked onto the field with Florida State facing a third-and-nine from the Miami 17. When he kicked the ball, the outcome was in doubt for a few agonizing seconds until the official under the goalposts made the no-good signal. "I thought it was good for a second, then it faded right," said Thomas, who had made eight of nine field goals since winning the job a month ago.

The miss triggered a wild celebration by Miami players, who threw their helmets in the air, ran onto the field and hugged each other for several minutes. The Hurricanes were penalized for the display, but it didn't matter. Quarterback Gino Torretta kneeled down to kill off the final seconds, then threw the ball skyward as See Seminoles on page 6D THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TALLAHASSEE, Fla. After 59 minutes and 35 seconds of sweat, struggle and fierce fighting, the battle between top-ranked Florida State and No. 2 Miami came down to this one foot.

Gerry Thomas' 34-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right by the length of a football with 25 seconds left Saturday, giving Miami a heart-pounding 17-16 victory and a solid shot at its fourth national championship in nine years. "When I saw it go right, I almost fell face first," Miami Coach Dennis Erickson said. "It's the greatest win I've ever been involved in. I'm still shocked. We' were fortunate they missed the field goal." It's the fourth time in the last five years that Miami (9-0) has spoiled the Seminoles' bid for a first national title.

But this may have been the most painful loss of all for Florida State (10-1), which has been No, 1 every week since the start of the season. "I just have an empty feeling inside," said offen THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Miami quwterback Glno Torretta sacked by FSVs Wrk emitters (45). Heels upend use Late Gamecock drives thwarted KNIGHT-RIDDER CHAPEL HILL North Carolina's players called their 21-17 victory against South Carolina Saturday afternoon a turning point for their program. But for the Gamecocks, Saturday's game was just another painful step down a long, dark tunnel of a season. And if one image of this game remains, it is that of South Carolina quarterback Bobby Fuller on his back on the Kenan Stadium turf, buried under wide blue jerseys.

Fuller was sacked seven times by a Tar Heel defense SPORTS EDITOR Catamounts' season wasn't total loss CULLOWHEE-It's been another long football season at Western Carolina. The Catamounts ended up on a disappointing note here Saturday with a 24-14 loss to arch-rival Appalachian State. Western (2-9) has now had five consecutive losing seasons the last two under Coach Steve Hodgin, whose record as a head coach is 5-17. And Hodgin has come in for some criticism this season for the Catamounts' failure to do what coaches are hired to do win. It's no different at Western than it is at Florida State, South Carolina or the New York Giants.

When a team wins, the head coach gets much of the credit When it loses, he gets much of the blame. And Western has done a lot of losing in recent years. But all that is about to change. The Catamounts are headed in the right direction. They are a program on the rise in the Southern Conference.

what? The Cats won three games last season and only two this year. That's Yes and no. Certainly, the record doesn't show any positive signs, but the play of the Cata- mounts on the field definitely does. Hodgin admits it's frustrating that the Cats haven't shown any improvement in the won-loss department But it's there just the same. "We're definitely a better football team than we were a year ago," he said.

the evidence is in games against Tennessee-Chattanooga and Marshall Last year the Cats lost to the Mocs 23-21 and to the Thundering Herd 42-14. Those were WCU's final two games of the 1990 season and the Cats were clearly going downhill at the end of last year. This season the Cats shocked Chattanooga 27-24 and lost to Marshall by an identical score in three overtimes. And the Herd is one of the nation's top I-AA programs. To almost beat Marshall on the road is WCU's biggest accomplishment of the season, even bigger than their two wins against Chattanooga and East Tennessee State.

It's comparable to the woeful Colts or the struggling Falcons taking the powerful Redskins into overtime at RFK Stadium. And while Hodgin does see progress, he has no trouble pinpointing why the Cats have fallen so far in the Southern Conference. It's recruiting. Back in the early to mid-'80s, Western was winning a fair number of those recruiting battles with Furman and Appalachian State. Then the Cats started losing them.

Furman has beaten Western four straight, while WCU's last win against ASU came way back in 1984. "As I look down Appalachian's starting lineup I see all these players we lost In the recruiting battle," said Hodgin. "Name after name after name on their roster that they ended up getting the lifeline of your program is recruiting and we've got to get where we're beating Appalachian on recruits." And according to Hodgin, the Cats are headed in that direction. "We feel like this year's recruiting class is very comparable to Appalachian's recruiting class," he said. "And as long as we can keep going and maybe edge them a little bit, we'll be in good shape." And that's just where the Cats are In good shape, at least for a 2-9 team.

They will return 16 starters next season, 10 of them on de- i See Und on page SO ud iJiiiA utiri ili-Ti in i-i -i-nl ii nmflu rr-fn- Natrons Means LARRY HOFFMANCITIZEN-TIMES Western Carolina tailback Kevin Thlgpen (41) It grabbed from behind by Appalachian State cornerback Mark Mayo (25). ASU pounds out 24-14 win over WCU SOUTHERN CONFERENCE ROUNDUP cr Marshall's Payton throws for 496 yards In 61-0 romp PageBP that had just 14 sacks all season before Saturday. And each time it seemed that he was readying his Gamecocks for a victory, that defense became the hammer to smash those South Carolina hopes. It didn't happen right away, though, it took adjustments. After South Carolina had piled up 188 yards of first-half offense to forge a 14-14 tie at the break, North Carolina's defensive coaches made some adjustments.

"We decided to turn up the heat a little with our blitz," Tar Heels linebacker Eric Gash said. North Carolina did so by abandoning its basic defense in favor of its "Ram" pass defense. Essentially, it replaced a down lineman with another linebacker, and began blitzing a linebacker on almost every down. "We just lay our ears back and go at 'em," said Gash, the former See Heels on page SO ing, giving him 1,154 forthe season. He is the first ASU freshman to rush for more than 1,000 yards.

Kevin Thigpen led WCU (2-5, 2-9) with 124 yards rushing and scored both of the Cats' first-half TDs. Only 22 of his yards came in the second half. "We really felt like we could rush the ball on them and we did," said WCU Coach Steve Hodgin. "They adjusted in the second half and we had to throw the ball more. It was disappointing not to be able to move the ball in the second half.

"Appalachian got very conservative on us in the second half," he added. "And we didn't do a good job of wrapping up and tackling. See Western on page 6D By Doug Mead SPORTS EDITOR CULLOWHEE Appalachian State pounded Western Carolina in more ways than one here Saturday. The Mountaineers used a conservative ground attack and a rugged defense in the second half to whip the Catamounts 24-14 before a crowd of 11,633 at Whitmire Stadium. It was ASU's seventh straight win against WCU in the battle for the Old Mountain Jug, The victory gives Appalachian (6-1, 8-3) the Southern Conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

The Apps scored twice in the second half a 31-yard field goal by Jay MUlson late in the third quarter and a 3-yard touchdown run by tailback Chip Hooks late in the fourth period. The ASU defense kept WCU bottled up the entire second half. In the third and fourth quarters, the Apps dominated the time of possession 22:27 to 7:33. Appalachian finished with 299 yards rushing, with 164 coming in the second half. Western had 128 yards on the ground, with only 11 coming in the second half.

Hooks led the Apps with 158 yards rush If cmrmrPN rrwraAi i ai 32-31 Pack's rally downs WW IIP mtm WHSWWVSMBM Saturday's Garns i N. Carolina 21 ......8. Carolina 1 7 KNIGHT-RIDDER DURHAM On an afternoon that Duke's Brad Breedlove will spend a lifetime trying to forget, N.C. State won a football game it will remember for years. The Wolfpack, which will officially accept a bid to the Peach Bowl Sunday, stunned Duke by scoring 11 points In the final 1:52 Saturday to steal away from Wallace Wade Stadium with a mind-boggling 32-31 victory.

It was a remarkable game that had a glittering finish for the Wolfpack, which got a 1-yard touchdown on fourth down from freshman quarterback Terry Har- until Breedlove made a dreadful mistake midway through the fourth quarter. With Duke leading by 10 points with 9:03 remaining, Breedlove tried to field a bouncing punt at the Duke 5. It bounced off his hands and into the end zone where N.C. State's Lee Knight pounced on it for a touchdown that jolted the Wolfpack to action. Dreaming a hero's dream, Breedlove took N.C.

State's final klckoff with 14 seconds left and ripped through the Wolfpack defense. For a few heart-fluttering seconds, Breedlove seemed on his way to a game-winning touchdown, But Wolfpack kicker Mark Fow-ble, who hadn't expected to be in the game, wrestled Breedlove to the ground at the Wolfpack 16 as time expired, saving the Wolf pack's second magical escape of the season. It was a game that belonged to Duke until the very end. With quarterback Dave Brown playing masterfully in front of 28,975 fans, the Blue Devils had chewed through N.C, State's once-stingy defense. Brown picked his spots and threw for 315 yards and three touchdowns.

But that got lost in what happened See Wolfpack on pa ge SO Miami 17 Florida 8t 16 N.C. State 32 Duke 31 Clemson 40.,., Maryland 7 Ga. Tech 27.. Wake Forest 3 SOUTHERN ASU 24 WCU 14 Furman 24 21 Marshall 61.. VMIO Ga.

Southern 19 Troy 8L 12 Citadel 17..... E. Term. St 7 SEC Tennessee 36 Ole Miss 25 Georgia 37 Auburn 27 Florida 35.... Kentucky 26 Alabama 10 Memphis St 7 Miss.

St. 28 L8U19 Texas 13 Arkansas 3 I SAC Gardner-Webb 42... Mars Hill 18 C'Newman 48 Presbyterian 20 Elon 31 Wlngate21 Catawba 20 L-Rhyne 10 TBI IT1UI 1. UVVV1LUO IVUHWUIQi Harvey then hit Robert Hlnton Anthony Barbour with a short pass for a two-point conversion that ultimately won the game for the Wolfpack. But this was a game that didn't want to die, and Duke's Breedlove was determined to save it.

The Blue Devils (1-4, 4-4-1) Had been in control.