Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 35

Sunday, November 26, 1989 Spoirftg Coerltlaedl too complete for Tabb Skip Miller A I Vj Columnist Cougars too strong, too quick for Tigers By SONNY DEARTH Staff Writer YORK Some teams use misdirection, some use muscle. Courtland uses both. Tabb's Tigers discovered that Saturday afternoon at Bailey Field, falling victim to the Cougars' power and deception in a 28-7 loss in a state Division 4 football semifinal. Courtland (12-1), the Region II champion, will play for the state title next week on its home field in Spotsylvania County against Blacksburg, which upset Salem 26-14 in Saturday's other semifinal. Tabb, the Region I ti-tleholder, closed its season at 9-4.

"We came further than most people expected us to, but it's still sad losing now," Tabb Coach Charlie Hovis said. "They just whipped our butts." The Cougars, with 17 players of 200 pounds or heavier on their roster including 6-foot- -'M DAVE BOWMANStaft photographer Tabb players celebrate their lone TD. 3, 340-pound All-State tackle John Labossiere, gained 343 yards rushing on 54 carries behind their sleight-of-hand Wing-T offense. "They were tricky," Tabb senior tackle Damon Burrest said. "Sometimes we didn't even know who had the ball.

They would fake Please see Tabb, D9 DAVE BOWMANStaff photographer Tabb's Simeon Tucker runs for yardage against Courtland. Furman runs past Indians Ill i ill Ir '4 T-VW brV lit 1 ir- ZZKIs rvi f.k it i T6 -Vv, A perfect view of a perfect loss GREENVILLE, S.C. Perfection was the last thing William and Mary needed to see Saturday. Playing defending national champion Furman in the first round of the i NCAA Division I-AA playoff was bad enough. Playing Furman at home was worse.

I Having Furman play a perfect game was the berries. The Paladins scored the first two times they had the ball. Perfect. They had two penalties, no fumbles and no interceptions. Perfect.

Nothing fancy, nothing intricate. No trick plays and no bombs-away passing. Just the ability to do what they do per- fectly and then adjust it when so forced. They even lost half of their starting backfield quarterback Frankie De-' Busk and fullback Dwight Sterling and still didn't miss a beat. They sim-, ply changed horses and made it on through the stream.

Perfect. Even the purple paint job on the midfield logo and the end zones was, well, perfect. It is attention to detail that has helped the Paladins win 18 straight games against Division I-AA opponents i and 17 straight games at home. It's DeBusk testing the flanks to see what kind of reaction he would get In the second quarter, he threw a sideline pass to Brad Stephens to the left. On he next play, Sterling went off tackle for 3 yards.

DeBusk followed with a sideline pass to Stephens to the right And noticed something. The William and Mary cornerbacks were playing soft. They weren't charging up on the receiver. They were staying back, protecting the big gains. What if DeBusk rolled to his left on an option.

He looked downfield and the Tribe cornerback froze. He turned and faked to his pitchman, Carl Tremble. Linebacker Kevin Forrester froze. DeBusk then cut upfield, past For-; rester and behind a screen block that got him past the cornerback. Twenty "yards later, he had Furman's second touchdown.

When DeBusk left the game late in the first quarter, with a knee injury, Furman adjusted its offense. It abandoned the option attack that had produced two quick touchdowns and went with a conventional, between-the-' tackles running game, i What started as a rout settled into a trench war. One that fought to a kind of Mexican standoff for three quarters the teams played to a 10-10 tie. "After their initial scores we played pretty well," Tribe Coach Jimmye Lay-i cock said. "We had a legitimate chance 'to win if we converted a few situations." The Tribe converted four of 14 third-down plays and one of those went for the team's lone touchdown Ty-1 rone Shelton scored on a 3-yard run in the second quarter, But the Tribe wasn't perfect and it would take perfect to beat perfect on this gray, cold Saturday.

'5 "They just don't make mistakes," Jsaid rover Greg Kimball. "They're a I fine football team. Very sound funda- mentally. They took advantage of our mistakes. But they didn't make any." And once the Paladins had the lead, and an injured DeBusk was on the side- line, no play even remotely high-risk called.

They made do the gambling. "When you have the lead, you're not going to call flea flickers and reverse passes," Kimball said. "You're going to 'sit on it and make the other team take 'the chances. "Even then, a defense can expect to pick up on a mistake now and then. That didn't happen today.

Not Furman. They do not make mistakes." For Laycock, Saturday carried the potential of one more mistake. One that would be mindless and crushing. His football team had been out-' classed. The score stayed close because Furman lost some of its key players.

It would have been easy to wonder about this team that calls itself the Tribe and hails from Williamsburg. "This game doesn't detract a thing," I he said. "We had a heck of a season. iWe won eight games. The players 'wanted to win just like I did.

We didn't. But this one game doesn't make a season." No, but it does make for a potful of reruns in the mind. Getting beat by perfection is never hard to accept. But it's a devil of a thing to try to forget. 'h' i' DENNIS TENNANTStaH photographer Crabbers dominate postseason awards By SONNY DEARTH Staff Writer It may come as little consolation to Coach Mike Smith and his Crabbers after Friday's 9-7 upset loss to First Colonial in the Division 6 Eastern Region final, but Hampton led the 1989 Daily Press All-Star football team by filling seven of the 25 positions.

Player of the Year Aaron Mundy, one of the nation's top prospects, earned first-team honors at tight end and defensive end. Tackle Rodney Riddick and center Alonzo Cherry, one of only three non-seniors on the squad, were placed on the first team from the Crabbers' offensive line, and Dwayne Murphy the Please see All-Stars, D8 Paladins strike quickly, hold on By SKIP MILLER Staff Writer GREENVILLE, S.C. Defending national champion Furman scored on its first two possessions Saturday and then endured a string of injuries en route to defeating William Mary, 24-10, in the first round of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. The Paladins (11-1) will serve as host to Youngstown State, which defeated Eastern Kentucky 28-24 Saturday night, in next Saturday's quarterfinals. making its second playoff appearance since 1986, ends its season with an 8-3-1 record.

Furman scored its first touchdown on its second offensive play. Quarterback Frankie De-Busk moved to his right, faked an option pitch and cut upfield on a 54-yard scoring run. He also scored the Paladins' second touchdown. This time, he ran the option to the left. He escaped Tribe linebacker Kevin Forrester, picked up a block, and won the footrace to the end zone, 20 yards away.

For DeBusk, the third time was no charm. With 2:51 left in the first quarter, he ran the option to the right. He was 9 yards downfield when Tribe linebacker Mark Hughes caught him. DeBusk twisted his left knee and was helped from the field. In his brief tour of duty, he carried the ball three times for 83 yards and two touchdowns and completed 4-of -5 passes for 39 yards.

"We had to change our assignments after DeBusk's first couple of runs," said rover-back Mike Drake. "We wanted to have a guy unblocked on the quarterback and a guy unblocked on the pitchman. But the guy on the quarterback was getting blocked. Please see D6 'Cane fiiry deposes of Irish reign By DON MARKUS The Baltimore Sun MIAMI There was talk of another unbeaten season, another national championship, another dynasty of Notre Dame football. No more.

The top-ranked Fighting Irish were bodyslammed to earth at the Orange Bowl Saturday night, by a University of Miami team that backed up its big words with big plays and bonecrushing tackles. The seventh-ranked Hurricanes overwhelmed Notre Dame, 27-10, intercepting two Tony Rice passes and limiting the high-powered Irish offense to a meager field goal. The victory for 10-1 Miami played out before a record crowd of 81,634 and a national television audience stopped Notre Dame's longest-ever 23-game winning streak and extended the Hurricanes' own streak here to 32 straight. Please see Irish, D5 Members of the 1989 Daily Press All-Star high school football team are: 1 Billy Johnson, Denbigh. 2 Ramon Williams, Forest Glen.

3 Billy Lyons, Warwick. 4 Aaron Mundy, Hampton. 5 Damon Burrest, Tabb. 6 David Golden, Warwick. 7 Morris Hicks, Phoebus.

8 Alonzo Cherry, Hampton. 9 Rodney Riddick, Hampton. 10 Jeff Edmiston. York. 11 Brian Gerczak, Hampton.

12 Chris Black, Phoebus. 13 Cory Hodge, Bethel. 14 Thomas Bailey, Phoebus. 15 Aaron Matthews, Hampton. 16 Linwood Buford, York.

17 Joe Fluellen, Kecoughtan. 18 Sterling Branch, King William. 19 Dwayne Murphy, Hampton. 20 Chris Dodson, Warwick. Missing from picture: Ricky Carter, Sussex Central; Alvin Hamlin, Smithfield; Andre Savage, Smithfield.

Renovated Cavs, Illini shout We're going to Disney World9 ft Virginia joins NCAA elite with dignity and grace By DAVE JOHNSON Staff Writer CHARLOTTESVILLE Virginia President Robert O'Neil remembers a not-so- Michigan rolls Wolverines earn Rose Bowl trip. D4. 41 Illinois takes care of final detail, stomping Wildcats By DAVE FAIRBANK Staff Writer EVANSTON, 111. Illinois' football team took care of two small details Satur- Bowl outlook Post-season bowl pairings. D6.

day, the second of which was only slightly easier than the first. The Illini spanked winless Northwestern 63-14 to finish as Big Ten Conference runnerup, then raucously accepted a bid to play in the New Year's Day Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando against Atlantic Coast Conference champion Virginia. The Illini (9-2) were fans as well as players at Northwestern's Dyche Stadium, knowing that almost regardless of how they performed, their postseason fate would be decided by a game 5 1-2 hours away Michigan vs. Ohio State at Ann Arbor. "It was extremely difficult preparing for this game," Illinois wide receiver Please see Illini, D6 pleasant time when he visited Cavalier football coach George Welsh.

"It was one of our few less-happy moments in the locker room and there weren't many of them," O'Neil said. "I came up to George. He had sort of a sour expression on his face. "I said, 'George, you look like you swallowed a He said, 'No, it's just that I know we're going to the Citrus Bowl. And George is never wrong, is he?" Not that time, at least.

Shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, the Florida Citrus Bowl told Virginia what it had been expecting to hear for the past week that the Cavaliers will be the host team for the New Year's Day bowl. Please see U.Va., D6 AP Notre Dame's Ricky Watters falls. it i I.