The Greenwood Commonwealth from Greenwood, Mississippi • Page 9

TlIK CiHKHNVWWH) Commonvcalth Prep Action See 1 0A Army as Sherrod Gideon had 140 yards receiving in a 37-13 win for the Eagles. See 11A USM corralled u- jJ' Greenwood 36 J.Z. George Horn Lake 14 McAdams Carroll 25 Leflore Starkville 22 St. Joe Yazoo County 26 Heritage i f7 7 A LfU 52 24 46 0 49 Elzy 22 Cruger 0 OCTOBER 18, 1998 PAGE 9A ose long Ml to win amtoes '4 i NEW YORK (AP) Botched-Play Boys, all is forgiven. Tino Martinez hit a grand slam and Chuck Knoblauch hit a three-run homer in a seven-run seventh Saturday night that rescued the New York Yankees, giving them a 9-6 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the World Series.

Knoblauch and Martinez, infamous for the blown bunt that cost them Game 2 of the AL championship series against Cleveland, surely redeemed themselves this time. Two home runs by Greg Vaughn and a two-run shot by Tony Gwynn sent San Diego ahead 5-2. But with the underdog Padres heading toward a startling win and the sellout crowd of 56,712 sitting quietly, the Yankees rallied. What was supposed to be a pitching long, loud standing ovation that he acknowledged with a curtain call. Martinez hit the 17th slam in Series history, and the first since Lonnie Smith did it for Atlanta in 1992.

It was the Yankees' first Series slam since Joe Pepitone connected in 1964. Down 9-5, the Padres tried to come back in the eighth. Gwynn led off with his third hit of the night and, with two outs, Knoblauch made an error on Wally Joyner's grounder to second and a run scored. Steve Finley stepped up as the potential tying run, but Mariano Rivera got him on an easy grounder to end the inning and the Padres' last chance. Rivera finished up for a save and Wells wound up with the victory.

The ALCS MVP improved to 4-0 in this postseason and 8-1 overall. duel between aces Kevin Brown and David Wells instead turned into a game of home-run derby. And it was Martinez and Knoblauch, both slumping below .200 in this postseason, who won it. Game 2 will be Sunday night, with Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez starting for the Yankees against Andy Ashby. Brown took a three-run lead into the seventh and looked in control when he retired leadoff man Scott Brosius on an easy grounder.

Then the Yankees broke loose, as they did all season in setting an AL record with 114 wins. Jorge Posada singled and rookie Ricky Ledee, who hit a two-run double and a single in his first two at-bats, drew a walk. San Diego manager Bruce Bochy decided Brown was done. A few batters later, the Padres were done, too. Donne Wall relieved and Knoblauch lofted the third pitch high into the left-field stands for a home run that made it 5-all.

Derek Jeter followed with a single, and it was Mark Langston's turn to relieve. But this was not the kind of outing Langston was hoping for in his first Series appearance in a 15-year career. After getting the second out, Langston threw a wild pitch and then intentionally walked Bernie Williams. Chili Davis also walked to load the bases, and up stepped Martinez. An All-Star who has had a history of postseason failure, he atoned in a big way with a grand slam into the upper deck in right.

The fans who had blamed him and Knoblauch for the bone-headed play 10 days ago rewarded Martinez with a No repeat for Trojans in North MOORHEAD Mississippi Delta Community College will have to turn over its North Division crown. That honor this season will likely go to Northwest Mississippi, which pulled away from the Trojans in the second half for a 45-28 win here Saturday afternoon. Northwest improved to 7-0 overall, 4-0 in the North. Defending North champ Delta dropped to 5-2, 2-2. Despite repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot, the Trojans stayed with the Rangers for three quarters before finally giving in.

Delta turned the ball over five times, and three of those miscues were turned into touchdowns by Ya III i 't i 7 'w I' n. i -pi JSiik 'mmM fit mf 'iiiiii N'WEST Bobby Thompson Mississippi Valley State tailback Heroert Fry looks for running room. Earlier in the week, Fry guaranteed a Valley win against Division II member Albany State. Fry had to eat those words as the Golden Rams ran all over the Delta Devils for a 37-9 win. Valley hits rock bottom with 0-7 mark By BILL BURRUS Sports Editor The hot seat just got a lot hotter for Mississippi Valley State coach Larry Dorsey.

Things have apparently hit rock bottom at Valley as the Division I-AA Delta Devils were blown out of their own stadium on homecoming by Division II member Albany State 37-9 Saturday afternoon in Itta Bena. The homecoming crowd of 6,297 watched the Delta Devils stumble, bumble and fumble their pass to 0-7 on the season. If the worst start at Valley in recent history. "We're down right now, but the main thing is to try and remain positive," said Dorsey, who has one year left on his contract after this season and is struggling to keep his job. must be the most positive person in the world because I feel like we can win our last four games, all of which are SWAC games.

We can still finish third or fourth in the SWAC." Chuck Prophet, the Valley athletic director, said this is about as low as the football program has been a long ALBANY ST. while. "We are all disappointed," Prophet said. "Dorsey is probably more disappointed than anyone." MVSU When asked about Dorses future, Prophet said, "At the end of the sea-son, we will sit down and evaluate a where we need to go with our program." Just how bad was it against Albany State? Valley managed just 76 total yards and was sacked for minus-2 rushing yards. The Delta Devils had just seven first downs and were l-of-14 on third down conversions.

The Valley offense didn't score a point. The team's lone touchdown came on a 90-yard kickoff return by Kwanza Golden in the second quarter. The special teams scored the only other points on a safety following a blocked punt in the third quarter. Offensive woes like these are nothing new for the Delta Devils, who came into the game averaging just 15.3 points per game and have not scored more than 13 points in their last four games. Valley played the Golden Rams tough in the first half and trailed 15-7 at the intermission, but with the offense finding all kinds of ways to misfire, the Delta Devil defense finally wore down against Albany State's strong option attack.

The Golden Rams rolled up 296 yards on the ground. Robert Cumming led the way with 186 yards on 14 carries. Late in third quarter, Valley was down 15-9 and on the verge of scoring a game-tying touchdown. On second and 10 at the Albany State 19-yard line, Melvin Williams' pass was intercepted by. Eugene Dorsey, who returned it to his own 42.

Two plays later, quarterback Jamal Robinson hit Driefus Kent of Indianola with a 54-yard scoring strike. Northwest. The Trojans were also hurt by penalties as they were flagged for 115 yards The Rangers had 116 rushing yards and 227 yards through the air MISS. DELTA and four interceptions, three by Eugene Liger. The Trojans racked up 296 yards on the ground, but they had just 51 yards via the pass and three interceptions.

1 Northwest jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but Delta cut it to 14-6 on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Rob Chapman to Anthony Scott. Delta's second touchdown came when Sherrod Dickson recovered Chapman's fumble in the end zone. Chapman hit Dickson with the two-point pass to tie the game at 14-14. Northwest then went up 21-14 with a 65-yard interception return for a touchdown, but the Trojans came right back with a 71-yard touchdown drive. Jones Jones capped things off on a 4-yard run.

The Rangers opened the second half with 10 points and led 31-21, but Delta got right back in it when Smith broke loose for a 36-yard TD scamper. Smith's run capped off a 5-play, 60-yard scoring drive. In the fourth quarter, the Rangers went up 38-28 on a 34-yard scoring strike from John Holmes to Andre Heard. It was the second time the two hooked for a touchdown pass. The Rangers then put the Trojans away on a 5-yard touchdown run by Willy Anderson.

The Trojans host East Central Thursday night in Moorhead. V- -It i -urn -A David Fairish Mississippi Delta Community College running back Sherrod Dickson is wrapped up from behind by a Northwest Mississippi defender as Trojan lineman Mike Kuhn (63) looks on. The loss kills Delta's chances of repeating as North champs. Bulldogs bassh Buccaneers for homecoming now plays five straight SEC games, beginning next week at No. 21 LSU.

This was a good win for our program and we are 5-1 through six games," said State coach Jackie Sherrill. "We are at the midpoint of the season and every game is crucial from here on. We now line up and play them one at a time." Madkin's 6-yard TD pass to Kevin Cooper ended State's second possession, but the Bulldogs didn't put the game out of reach until scoring two TDs in the final minute of the first half After Kenzaki Jones blocked a punt, the Bulldogs took over at the ETSU 31. Five plays later, Madkin found Kevin Prentiss for a 9-yard TD with 42 seconds left. On East Tennessee State's first play after the kickoff, the bandoffexchange popped up into the air.

Eugene Clinton grabbed the ball and raced 20 yards to give Mississippi State a 29-3 halftime lead and its third straight game with a fumble return for a touchdown. "We had a gameplan and executed it The end of the first half was not what we wanted," said East Tennessee State coach Paul Hamiltoa "It may have been a tough day, but our team fought their hearts out The Buccaneers played a ball-control offense, including 12 straight running plays over eight minutes to take the lead on the opening drive. ETSU had the ball for more than 35 minutes, 11 more than Mississippi State. But the Bulldogs still had a 427-142 advantage in total offense. After the two teams traded field goals to start the third quarter, Madkin threw a 41-yard TD pass to Kelvin Love, who made a juggling, diving catch with a defender on his back.

Backup running backs Chris Rainey and Dicenzo Miller had TD runs in the fourth quarter for the Bulldogs. 0 when Jerry Chapman kicked a 42-yard field goal on the opening drive of the game. The lead was brief Johnson got 35 of his 137 rushing yards on State's first drive, including an 8-yard TD run. He carried 21 times for his eighth 100-yard rushing game in his last 11. Madkin was just 10-of-25 for 115 yards in his first two starts both Southeastern Conference victories.

He completed 4-of-5 on the opening drive against ETSU, including a 7-yard completion to Reginald Kelly to convert a third-and-6 just before Johnson scored. Tve still got a lot more to work on. I'm not satisfied and I think this offense has better capabilities than we showed," said Madkin. "All we can do is build on this. We are now in the meat of the season, and we have to go out there and prepare for those games." Mississippi State, 3-0 in the Southeast-em Conference for the first time since 1981, STARKVILLE (AP) Mississippi State's plan was to allow freshman quarterback Wayne Madkin to work out some kinks and improve on his passing game.

In what more resembled a glorified scrimmage Saturday, Madkin did just that The young quarterback hit 13-of-18 passes for 194 yards and three touchdowns Saturday as the Bulldogs (5-1) won 53-6 over East Tennessee State, a I-AA team. "Wayne is improving game to game. We wanted to come in and work on the passing game and get more balanced on offense, instead of running the ball all of the time," said James Johnson, who still had his fifth 100-yard rushing game of the season. "We accomplished what we wanted to." The Bulldogs, 5-1 for the first time since 1986, scored on three of their four first-half possessions and missed a field goal on the other. East Tennessee State (1-5) went ahead 3- AP Mississippi State's James Johnson breaks loose for a touchdown run..