The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 33

Jotrc Damo falls in 07 Air Force triumphs, 20-1 7, at South Bend C-8 'Canes gsi blown avay East Carolina shocks Miami, 31-6 C-10 Do you have a gripe? Try our new call-in line. Details, C-20 Florida 51, Auburn 10 N.E. La. 39, UCF 38 S.C. State 20, B-CC 18 FAMU 47, Delaware St.

2G Ariz. St. 48, USC 35 (2 01) Iowa 21, PennSt. 20 N'western 34, Wisconsin 30 Alabama 37, Mississippi 0 A C07) G72-7ZZ0 The Orlando Sentinel SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1996 Solar Bears, C4 Orlando defeats Grand Rapids Griffins, 5-2, to win 1HL home opener. Auto racing, C-1 8 oris METRO Let It Rip! ft 5 challenges left incomparable UF GAINESVILLE I've seen enough.

Cancel the rest of the season and give Florida the na- tional championship, the SEC, the Pulitzer, the Nobel Prize, the Stanley Cup, (anything they want Give 'em an Emmy. 1 An uscar. The French Foreign Cross. S7l7 And while we're at it, go ahead and give Danny Wuerffel the Heisman. For sure, cancel the Florida-Georgia game.

Give Vandy the afternoon off to study Tolstoy or split the atom or whatever schol Florida goes on tear to rip Auburn, 51-10 By Chris Harry THE SPORTS COLUMN ars do on autumn afternoons. Anyone who would buy tickets to those games would take a front-row seat for a train wreck. Do blindfolds come in Georgia and Vandy colors? OF THE SENTINEL STAFF FRANK RIVERATHE ORLANDO SENTINEL Driven. Tiger Woods gets off a good shot during Disney WorldOldsmobile Classic Saturday. Tiger nipping at leader pack By Jeff Babineau OF THE SENTINEL STAFF 4 LAKE BUENA VISTA Arnold Palmer had his swashbuckling days that inspired generations, and he gave way to a chubby kid with a blond crew cut named Jack Nicklaus, who proceeded to leave Bear tracks all over the game.

Sure it's early, GAINESVILLE Another ranked team, another stat game. The University of Florida is a Southeastern Conference runaway freight train high-balling out of control. 1 Warning: Stay off the tracks. The top-ranked Gators atomized No. 16 Auburn and its diminutive coach, 51-10, Saturday at "The Swamp" before a national television audience and worshiping crowd of 85,697 that made for the second-largest in Florida Field history.

One week removed from a 43-point blowout of previously 12th-ranked and unbeaten Louisiana State, Florida (7-0, 5-0 SEC) put together an even more impressive, more complete devastation of the overwhelmed Tigers (5-2, 3-2), the only conference team to beat UF during its the past four seasons. "This Florida team is by far the best of what we've seen in the four years I've been here and I don't think that can be measured by talent," Auburn coach Terry Bowden said. "They have made a decision to be explosive on both sides of the ball. They have taken their program and said, 'We're going Please see GATORS, C-1 1 Give me the names of those 13 voters (out of 67) who still didn't list Florida No. 1 week.

Take away their ballots. Banish them to basketball. Ohio State struggles for a half with idoormat Purdue and Arizona State has to jdig out an escape from pedestrian USC. (Those teams deserve No. 1 ahead of Florida? Gimme a break, which is what No.

2 Florida State would need a lot of to avoid a i three-touchdown loss if it met UF right FSU will need to get a lot better i between now and Thanksgiving maybe even bring back Charlie Ward and Fred iBiletnikoff to give these Gators a scare, By pillaging Auburn, 51-10, on a magnifi-'cent fall afternoon, the Gators have just i destroyed the two remaining alleged tough i tests (Louisiana State and Auburn) on their conference slate by a combined 107-23. LSU tried bump-and-run and was (bumped Auburn tried a deep zone and was toasted. All that's left is the Ted Wil-jliams Shift, or nets and hidden sinkholes. "We have a play that works against any 'defense," warned Wuerffel "It's just a 'matter of executing." Saturday, against jwhat is considered the most dangerous (secondary the Gators will face in the jleague this year, the relentless Wuerffel threw for 143 yards in quarter, i UFs Robby Stephenson had to punt just (twice, as usual introducing himself to jtearnmates and asking the ref, "Now tell me again how I do this 'punt' thing." Even zebras tried to help stop the Gators. 'Back judge Billy Beckett wiped out Jac-jquez Green on a sure touchdown.

It only stalled the inevitable; two plays later, Taylor Smith 68-68-64200 Lennie Clements 67-67-66200 Jay Haas 65-67-68200 RickFehr 65-65-70200 Mike Sullivan 71-64-66201 Ronnie Black 66-66-69201 Tiger Woods 69-63-6S-201 Payne Stewart 68-63-70201 Joel Edwards 68-69-64201 I Scott Hoch 66-66-71203 Corey Pavln 69-66-71206 Bob Tway 66-72-68206 Bart Bryant 69-69-69207 Central Florida golfers In bold Complete scores, C-6 but golf seems both ready and willing for yet another passing of the torch. At the Walt Disney WorldOldsmobile Golf Classic Saturday, there were Tiger-prints everywhere one looked, from the record galleries that lined the fairways to the now-familiar name on the lea-derboard. Today's final round at Magnolia promises to be quite a shootout, and the young man firing the fastest bullets these days is Tiger Woods, who moved one shot closer to the lead JOHN RAOUXTHE ORLANDO SENTINEL Jump for joy. Tight end Taras Ross after he scores 1 of his 2 touchdowns hoists wide receiver Reidel Anthony in Florida's romp against Auburn. Wuerffel delivered his 93rd career TD pass.

Curiously, UF athletic officials were UCF loss rates high in shock value chewing their fingernails at halftime, one railing it a scary game despite the Ga By Jerry Greene OF THE SENTINEL STAFF time remaining, but Culpepper lost a fumble the Knights' fifth turnover on the Indians' 47-yard line with 55 seconds to play. He had just run for 20 yards but had the ball slapped out of his hand. "I fumbled the ball; it's as simple as that," Culpepper said. "A quarterback Please see KNIGHTS, C-1 2 Florida lost to Northeast Louisiana, 39-38, on what had begun as a beautiful Saturday at the Florida Citrus Bowl and finished as a nightmare for the Knights. Central Florida (2-5) led by 11 with three minutes to play but gave up two touchdowns in less than two minutes, losing possession of an onside kick to set up the deciding score.

The Knights still had time to get close enough for a winning field goal in the by shooting 3-under 69 at the Magnolia Course. A three-putt bogey at his final hole cost Woods a( share of the lead that four players Taylor Smith, Len-f nie Clements, Jay Haas and Rick Fehr share at 16- under 200. But Woods, now Orlando's own, still is the player everybody is watching. Today, autumn's exciting Tigerwatch stretches intof Please see DISNEY, C-6 I 4 "Devastating," said Daunte Culpepper, the quarterback. "Turnovers," said Gene McDowell, the coach.

"Unbelievable" is what they could have said. Somehow the University of Central iters' 21-10 lead. It says something about domination when an 11-point cushion 'now qualifies for high drama and trepida-teon at Florida Field, The look on SEC commish Roy (Kramer's face seemed to suggest he 'might propose UF is ready for another Iconference like the AFC or NFC? "I jmight have to," said Kramer. "They're about as good a team as I've seen." Losing coach and former Gators nem-jesis Terry Bowden echoed the praise. by far the best team I've seen in (my four years at Auburn.

My hat's off to jthem." Added Auburn's respected veteran 'defensive guru, Bill Oliver: 'They're the best football team in the country." There was an erroneous report that Terry called his father, FSU coach Bobby Bowden, for halftime advice, as he did Penny gets hot; Magic burn Nets Orlando, behind Penny Hardaway's 31 points, remained unbeaten during the exhibition season with a 91-77 rout. tduring intermission of Auburn's upset of Not a dry eye in the house. The infield is covered in" an empty Stadium as GameJ 1 of the World Series is postponed by rain jUF here two years ago. There wasn 'anything I could have told him today," Jsaid the elder Bowden from his Tallahas-see home, where he watched on TV. How about "Get on the bus and get out 'while you're only 11 points "A jgood idea," laughed the elder Bowdea I keep referring to UF boss Steve Spur- MM ASSOCIATED PRESS The series All games on Fox (WOFL-Ch.

35) ASSOCIATED pRtSS GAME 1: Atlanta at New York, Tonight, 7:30. Rainout of Game 1 could be just beginning of waterworks GAME 2: Atlanta at New York, Monday, 7:15 p.m. GAME 3: New York at Atlanta, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. 'literal than just alluding to his ego. Each Itime someone comes along with some 'new offensive poison wishbone, veer, whatever other coaches tend to come up with the necessary antidote after a season or two.

But after rumbling rough-shod through the SEC to three consecu-t tive titles, Spurrier seems to be widening the gap with his Fun 'n Gun. Oliver insisted it has more to do with talent than schemes. "Before the game," he said, "Gators receiver Reidel Anthony Jcame by and said, 'Coach, you don't have ithe same players running around out here COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS I GAME 4: New York at Atlanta, Wednesday, 8:18 p.m. EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. After winning his first two preseason games as coach of the New Jersey Nets, first-year coach John Calipari had to be feeling pretty good about his team.

Now he knows there is a downside. The Nets played the Orlando Magic tough for the first half, then did a third-period swoon Saturday to drop a 91-77 decision in their preseason home debut as Penny Hardaway scored all of his 31 points in the first three periods. Schayes finally signs: C-1 6 The Nets (2-1) tied the score at 46 on Jayson Williams' basket to open the third period. But Orlando (4-0) scored the next 23 points to take a 69-46 lead. Dennis Scott, who finished with 15 points, had 11 in the spurt.

"That was one of those quarters you have once in a while," Calipari said. "Let's hope we get it out of our GAME 5: New York at Atlanta, Thursday, 8:15 p.m. Travel schedules ruined. Ticket problems looming. "It's a mess out there now, and it may continue tomorrow today," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

The postponement of the scheduled opener at Yankee Stadium was the first rainout of a World Series game since 1986. As it stands, Game 1 is scheduled for 7:30 tonight, with John Smoltz starting against, Yankees ace Andy Pettitte. Game 2 is now Please see SERIES, C-3 GAME 6: Atlanta at New York, Saturday, Oct. 26, 8 p.m. NEW YORK Welcome to the World Series, New York style.

Game 1 never had a chance Saturday night. The opener between the Yankees and Atlanta Braves was called off at 1 p.m., seven hours before it was supposed to start, because of a storm bringing heavy rain and expected wind gusts of 60 mph. The result? Pitching plans changed. The field sloppy. I GAME 7: Atlanta at New York, Sunday, Oct.

27, 7:35 p.m. if necessary that you used to have, do you? He right. Steve is surrounded by great players." Spurrier agreed that Auburn didn't match up with Florida's wealth of talent The toughest decision Tve got," said Spurrier, "is deciding who all to give game balls to each week." A nice problem. Please see MAGIC, C-1 6.