Pensacola News Journal from Pensacola, Florida • 31

SECTION NHL NBA Preseason N.Y. Islanders 5, Philadelphia 1 New Jersey 108, Charlotte 105 Pittsburgh 3, Ottawa 2 Milwaukee 109, San Antonio 102 Detroit 6, Buffalo 1 Indiana 93 Dallas 72 Montreal 5, N.Y. Rangers 2 Houston 113, Boston 97 Dallas 4, New Jersey 2 PGA Senior Tour Los Angeles 4, Washington 3 Florida 6, Hartford 0 Bobby Stroble 68-67135 Tampa Bay 7, Toronto 4 Tommy Aaron 67-69136 Anaheim at Phoenix (n) Dave Stockton 70-67137 St. Louis at Vancouver (n) Vicente Fernandez 72-66138 Boston at San Jose (n) TomWeiskopf 71-67138 PNJ SCORELINE Dial 469-8290 Press Code 3001 Final results of major national and local sporting events Updated throughout the day starting at 4 p.m. Call every day, 24 hours a day.

XTT 1 iws journal a J)(U)F Pensacola, Florida TO REPORT A SPORTS STORY (AFTER 4 P.M.): 435-8521 Sunday, October 13, 1996 ALCS js-y SATURDAY: New Ml gi Graft wswm DOffi Skills) Yankees lead Vfc5T7 series 3-1 TODAY: New York at Baltimore, 3:07 p.m., WPMI-NBC 4. NLCS SX. SATURDAY: St. k3SU Louis 3, Atlanta 2, Cardinals lead serjes 2-1 TODAY: Atlanta at St. Louis, 6:30 p.m., WALA-Fox FSU defense blanks Miami in 2nd half ByBillVilona News Journal staff writer MIAMI No more trail of tears for Florida State against Miami in the Orange Bowl.

The Seminoles shattered their past with grit, dramatics and brute force in a 34-16 (u: I More baseball3C i i i It MM! Gant's HRs sink Braves victory over the Hurricanes on Saturday that left them beyond words, rather than beyond hope. "I don't know 1 1 1 now to ieei. 1 re- FSU.8 Warrlck ally dont know Dunn ran 22 what to say be- times for 163 cause its been yardsanda JonS touchdown. ume, saia ixacn -44, By Ben Walker Associated Press ST. LOUIS Just a few days ago, Ron Gant was saying he gets no special pleasure out of beating the Atlanta Braves.

Yeah, right. Gant hit two long home runs against the team that abruptly dumped him two years ago because of a broken leg, leading the St. Louis Cardinals past the Braves 3-2 Saturday for a surprising 2-1 lead in the NL Champi 1 Bobby Bowden, whose team won at Miami for the first time in 12 broke tradition," said Florida State's Thad Busby of Pace, who broke a string of first-year starting quarterbacks unable to steer victory against Miami in the Orange Bowl. "We knew we had to do it. I don't think anybody is going to say we can't win in Miami anymore." Not after silencing Miami and its See SEMINOLES.

5C 4', -1 S'. onship series. Before this round of playoffs began, Gant insisted over and over that he viewed the Braves as merely another opponent. Those two homers, however, seemed to INSIDE Wisconsin puts scare into Ohio State. Top 254C Summaries, scores4C How the local players fared4C Tide holds off N.C.

State5C Auburn clowns MSU. SEC5C More on LSU-Florida, FSU-Miami5C 1 Gant Associated Press Seminole defender Reinard Wilson drags down Miami quarterback Ryan Clement in the fourth quarter Saturday at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The Noles beat the Hurricanes 34-1 6. The FSU defense held Miami to 42 yards rushing. Gaiors thump No.

11 uues-13 Florida. Field, they got more than they bargained for. Florida got its 16th homecoming win in 17 games and Florida had two' it "nTa 100-yard rush-wnen it ran its 4.t home record to XAst "We've got to get it out of our system and try to get ready for Auburn now." Florida is 6-0 for the second time in 27 years, 4-0 in the SEC. The SEC's other top-20 Tigers from Auburn visit Florida next Saturday. But for a night, Spurrier had Elenty of reasons to be pinching imself and smiling.

Gators quarterback Danny Wuerffel of Fort Walton Beach had three touchdown passes to move into second place on the NCAA career list (92). His career efficiency rating of 181.27 remains the best in college history. Ike Hilliard, a Louisiana native, caught two of those scoring tosses while looking across the line at See GATORS, 5C By David Jones Gannett News Service GAINESVILLE This home-, coming game was supposed to be a little different. Forget the seniors' traditional ride on the parade float. Forget the Friday night spent soaking up fans' cheers at Gator Growl.

After all, this wasn't against a team with Northern, Southeastern or Central in front of it. This one was against Louisiana State, ranked 11th in the national and coming into the Sunshine State with its first 4-0 start since 1978. And LSU wasn't about to play the homecoming target practice victim. But the Florida Gators not only won 56-13 Saturday before a homecoming record crowd of 85,567 at 7 22-1 in Florida Williams at 109 Field in the "90s yards and Fred ar7s an.ur: against SEC op- Taylor with 107. The victory over a top foe had even Gators coach Steve Spurrier a little giddy.

"It's one of the best games we've ever played here," Spurrier said. Associated Press Florida's Jevon Kearse (42) jars the ball loose from LSU quarterback Herb Tyler in the second quarter Saturday. change his mind. "It's a great feeling," Gant said. "I had a lot of things happen to me in my career with Atlanta, a lot of good and a lot of bad.

There's a lot of emotion going through me when I play them. "Yeah, it is sweet because it's against Atlanta, but if it was against the Dodgers, it would be just as sweet." Gant launched a two-run homer into the Cardinal bullpen in the first inning, then hit a solo shot off former teammate Tom Glavine into the shrubs in center field in sixth. Helped by the homers, outstanding pitching from winner Donovan Osborne and the bullpen and the largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in the state of Missouri, the Cardinals were able to beat Atlanta at Busch Stadium for the first time in seven games this year. rThe Braves have had great pitching for five years, but we've got pretty good pitching, too," Osborne said. "The" Cardinals also won their team-record eighth straight postseason game at home, a string that began in 1987.

The. loss left the Braves in an unfamiliar position trailing in October. The defending World Series champions waltzed through their, previous five postseason series, but fell victim to another strong pitching performance by St, Louis and Gant's home runs. "Ronnie can get hot," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "He can get as hot as anybody." Game 4 is tonight, with Andy Benes starting for St.

Louis and Denny Neagle for Atlanta. The Braves traded for the former All-Star in late August, but he has pitched only one inning in the 1 Tiger Sharks hand Ice Pilots 11-4 whipping ken nose) and Iannique Renaud (hip flexor) were hurt Saturday. Shayne Stevenson (back spasms) and Martin Lachaine (groin) also are out The team, practicing only once a day at Mobile because the ice rink isn't ready in Pensacola, looked slower than Tallahassee. "We know what we have to work on," forward Derek Crimin said. "We're pretty sloppy with passing.

There was a lot of miscommunica-tion. We don't have much time." It took all of 42 seconds for Pensacola to fall behind. Trzinski took a nice pass from Gary Gruber and had a clean look at goaltender Craig Brown. Trzinski was up to the task. Tallahassee dominated the rest of the period, taking a 4-0 lead on power-play goals by Matt Johnson and Rob Dumas, and another even-strength score by Trzinski.

There's a little rust showing," Tallahassee star forward Cal In-graham said of Pensacola. "With some work and playing together, I'm sure they'll be a solid team." Pensacola made a stronger showing in the second period. This time the Ice Pilots were fastest to score, as Kevin McKinnon worked his way to the goal and beat Mark Richards 1:23 into the period. The Ice Pilots later got goals from Tom Costa, Iannique Renaud and Tony Frenette. man Chris Byrne, who was involved in two fights in a penalty-laden first period.

"Top to bottom, goalies, defensemen, forwards, nobody played well." The team's only exhibition game, before 4,561 at the Leon County Civic Center, was supposed to bring out the best in the players. The squad of 28 will be cut to 18-20 after Monday morning's practice. That was the plan, anyway. "For some players, thank God there's another game Sunday," Ped-ersen said of today's 6:30 p.m. match Mobile, closed to the public.

"It's tough to make decisions with guys injured and two games." Two players, Kevin McKinnon (bro By Nathan Dominitz News Journal staff writer TALLAHASSEE Just remember Ice Pilots fans: It's only an exhibition game. What the Pensacola Ice Pilots exhibited Saturday night in an 11-4 loss to the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks, however, may be hard to forget. "Welcome to the league. It doesn't get much worse than that," said Pen-sacola's first-year coach, Al Peder-sen. "I saw a lot of surprises.

Unfortunately, not many were positive." The Ice Pilots did have more shots on goal, 35-32. But then, the Tiger Sharks had more goals, including a hat trick by Jason Trzinski. "It's a poor effort," said defense- OPENER Vs. sissippi Sea Wolves 7:05 p.m. Friday At Biloxi THE NFL '93 Week 7 DIRTY DOZEN The Associated Press' top six and bottom six based on current play: 1 Green Bay (5-1 25.

N. Orleans (1 -5) 26. Miami (3-2) 2. Pittsburgh (4-1) II 'jrr. 27.

St. Louis (1-4) 28. Atlanta (0-5) 29. NY Jets (0-5) 30. Tampa Bay (0-5) 3.

Denver (5-1) 4. San Fran. (4-1) 5. Indianapolis (4-1) 6. Buffalo (4-1) CRYSTAL BALL ON NFC TITLE GAME? The 49ers (4-1) lead the all-time series 25-22-1 against the Packers (5-1 who beat S.F.

27-1 7 in the playoffs last year. Ex-Dolphin Terry Kirby may be emerging as the 49ers' top run threat at just the right time. Steve Young is questionable for Monday night's game, so Elvis Grbac may start. The Packers counter with the league's No. 2 rushing defense, which allows 2.9 yards a carry.

'We take the running game very personal," safety Leroy Butler said. Since '81, the 49ers are 23-9-1 in games started by backup QBs. The Packers are on pace to score 544 points, which would break the NFL record (541, Washington, '83). TODAY'S GAMES Noon Miami at Buffalo (WPMI-NBC) Chicago at New Orleans New York Jets at Jacksonville Minnesota at Tampa Bay Arizona at Dallas Houston at Atlanta Cincinnati at Pittsburgh Washington at New England fWALA-Fox) St. Louis at Carolina 3 p.m.

Philadelphia at New York Giants' (WALA-Fox) Detroit at Oakland 7 p.m. Baltimore at Indianapolis (TNT) MONDAY'S GAME San Francisco at Green Bay 8 p.m. (WEAR-ABC) I OPEN DATES: Denver, Kansas City, San Dieno. Seattle TAKING NOTE His five-game suspension over, Cowboys WR Michael Irvin finally gets to play in his first game today. After Thursday's practice, Coach Barry Switzer said, "Michael Irvin caught a lot of balls, looked like the Michael Irvin Show out there today." After reporting two weeks ago, rookie RG Jeff Hartings, the last first-round pick to sign, may start today for the banged-up Lions.

Bengals DT Dan Wilkinson, with five sacks, is on target to break the team's record of sacks by an interior lineman (13, Mike Reid, 73). WEB SITE OF THE WEEK For game updates, then complete stats when they're over, check out: http:sports.yahoo.com.nfl BEST BET Miami's Jimmy Johnson rides into Buffalo with the chamber half-empty. His fastest bullet, Dan Marino's arm, will be missing, and Rich Stadium isn't the place for the 6-point underdog Dolphins to bring an undermanned attack. They've lost 10 of the last 12 in Buffalo, including the playoff debacle last season. The fans won't have Bryan Cox to torment any more, but so what.

Buffalo 24, Miami 10 INSIDE Preview capsules, 2C NFL notebook, 8C Associated Press HERMAN'S MONSTER YEAR: Lion WR Herman Mcwre leads the league with 45 receptions and 614 yards, but one of his closest pursuers is Tim Brown of the Raiders. They'll be on the samejield today in Oakland..