Hattiesburg American from Hattiesburg, Mississippi • 15

PORTS Sunday, November 14, 1999 Serving South Mississippi since 1897 IB I (5) vc Inguds stoom waoiras Van Arnold I At fpf yl mi JAM v. I 4 A MTV Louisiana-Lafayette quarterback Derek Dyer can't escape the grasp of USM defensive end Cedric BILL DEER Hattiesburg AMERICAN game at Roberts USM cross country team wins regional, makes history (Q)1 Seniors go out in style; record climbs to 7-3 By Tim Doherty AMERICAN Sports Writer One could have forgiven the University of Southern Mississippi for possibly looking past Saturday's game with the University of to its Conference USA showdown with the University of Louisville next week. Instead, the 21st-ranked Golden Eagles had the Ragin! Cajuns locked in their sights from the opening snap and wound up blasting UL-Lafayette 48-0 before a homecoming crowd of 24,133 at Roberts Stadium. The win allowed USM's 18 seniors to finish a season unbeaten at home for the third time in four years. It also gave the Golden Eagles a of steam for Saturday's 2:30 p.m.

game at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, that will decide which team will represent C-USA in the Dec. 31 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. "Coach (Jeff) Bower did a good job of making sure we took our games one at. a time, so it wasn't hard to get ready this week," USM senior linebacker Ty Tra-han said. "We wanted to leave here going out with a big win and build a lot of confidence going into next week." Sophomore quarterback Jeff Kelly and senior See EAGLES, 3B Full page of coverage, 3B team results 1.

Southern Miss 67; 2. Alabama 83; 3. South Florida 91 4. Ten- nessee 1 1 5. Florida 1 36; 6.

South Alabama 171; 7. Tennessee-Chattanooga 221; 8. Georgia 248; 9. Belmont 284; 10. East Tennessee 289.

11. Georgia Georgia State 336; 14. Auburn 340; 15. Florida State 363; 16. Jackson State 390; 17.

Florida' International 419; 18. Miami (Fla.) 438; 19. Bethune-Cookman 463; 20. Austin Peay 623; 21 Vander-bilt 637; 22. Tennessee Tech 643; 23.

Jacksonville State 672. Biloxi's-Yankie Stadium. Other Petal scores came on a 66-yard run by Nick McGill and a 14-yard run by Garrett Drake. Elex Eynon kicked all five extra points, which turned, out to be the difference in the game. Long Beach (6-5) also scored five touchdowns, but failed to convert extra points on three of them.

Long Beach quarterback Micky D'Angelo passed for 301 yards and four touchdowns. In the other Shrimp Bowl game Saturday, Biloxi defeated D'Iberville 35-7. Coach Nevil Barr's Panthers closed out the 1999 football season with an 8-4 record. Coming soon MONDAY: Saints football TUESDAY: High school basketball WEDNESDAY: Prep predictions THURSDAY: Outdoors report FRIDAY: USM football SATURDAY: High school football SUNDAY: College football Let us hear from you To submit items for Sports, call 584-31 1 9 or send them to Van Arnold, Hattiesburg American, P.O. Box 1111, Hattiesburg, MS, 39403; or fax them to 584-3130; or e-mail to Eagles played like darlings against Cajuns I stood on the balcony outside the press box at Roberts Stadium Saturday afternoon watching the USM Golden Eagles annihilate lowly Louisiana-Lafayette and I couldn't get this weird thought out of my mind.

I kept thinking that any one of the Dixie Darlings could have quarterbacked the Golden Eagles to victory against the Ragin' Cajuns. The final score of 48-0 does not illustrate the utter domination USM held over the Louisiana visitors. This isn't meant to demean the efforts of USM starting quarterback Jeff Kelly. The sophomore was superb against a porous Cajun defense, connecting on 12 passes in 14 attempts for 207 yards and three touchdowns. Just like old times Watching him roll out on and hit Todd Pinkston on an improvised pattern that resulted in a 45-yard touchdown play reminded me of Sunday afternoons when I'd be on the receiving end of the same kind of toss from old pal Mike Smith.

But that's a column for another day. Kelly could have thrown left-handed and beat the Cajuns. Derrick Nix could have run backwards and gained yardage on this team. Linebacker T.J. Slaughter could have played with one arm tied behind histmck and stopped the Cajuns' ground attack.

One might have expected a little better showing from the Cajuns after the 554 pasting they suffered at the hands of the Gold- i en Eagles last season. But David can't possibly slay Goliath without some semblance of a slingshot. No need to worry Homecoming opponents are- supposed to be cream puffs, although the outcome doesn't always go according to plan. The 24,000 who showed up for homecoming festivities Saturday had nothing to worry about where this game was concerned. "I would have preferred a little closer game," said Donnell Adams of Hat-tiesburg.

"I think the fans would have participated a little more in what was happening. But it's not USM's fault that Louisiana was so bad." For the record, the Cajuns are now 1-9. Actually, the Golden Eagles needed a breather before next weekend's showdown at Louisville that decides the Conference USA championship. A breather is one thing; a total mismatch is another. At one point every head on press row was turned to watch televised action from the Mississippi State-Alabama game.

Who could blame us? Van Arnold is sports editor at the Hattiesburg American. He can be reached at 584-3119. Scoreboard College scores Alabama ASM 35, Alcorn St. 26 Auburn 38, Georgia 21 East Carolina 48, Cincinnati 34 Florida 20, South Carolina 3 Florida St. 49, Maryland 10 Louisiana Tech 41 UAB 20 Mississippi College 50, Austin 24 Morris Brown 20, MVSU 19 Memphis 14, Army 10 Michigan 31, Penn St.

27 Pittsburgh 37, Notre Dame 27 Illinois 46, Ohio St. 20 Arkansas 28, Tennessee 24 Houston 20, LSU 7 Nebraska 41, Kansas 5 wound up 16th in 30:41 and senior Jaime Arriaga was 27th in 31:07. The first two teams from each of the NCAA's nine regionals automatically qualified for the national meet. Another 13 will be selected at-' large, meaning USM will be among 31 teams competing at the nationals. "We hope this can Jead to bigger and better things, in terms of recognition and recruiting," USM head track and field coach Wayne-Williams said.

everybody ran great." All five Golden Eagle runners wound up among the top 27 in a field of 161 individuals, putting three in the top 11. Dunn said course, which was 2,000 meters longer than the courses the Golden Eagles normally had run through the season, turned out for the best. "We knew what we could run at 8-K (kilometers), but 10-K was a different story," said Dunn, who was named 1999 Conference USA Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year. From Special Reports AUBURN, Ala. The University of Southern Mississippi men's cross country team came home' from the NCAA South Regional Qualifying Meet ing a championship trophy and a pair of milestones in the history of the track and field program.

The Golden Eagles won their first-ever NCAA regional championship, outrunning a field of 22 other teams, and in the process, USM earned a first-ever berth in the NCAA Cross Country Championships set for Mississippi State falls from unbeaten ranks Tapper directs Petal to Shrimp Bowl win Scott on this sack during Saturday's "What that meant was they had to hang in there for another 2-K, and as it turned out, we've probably got better runners than (8-K)." Senior Yoursi El Mejdoubi finished fourth overall, running the course in 29 minutes, 26 seconds. That was 10 seconds behind the winning time of 29:16 by David Kimani of South Alabama. USM junior Paul Kemei, who was battling a sore leg, was ninth in 30:11 and junior Chris Koech finished 11th in 30:25. Junior Samuel Chesari -r-j In history Nov. 14 1943 Sid Luckman of the Chicago Bears becomes the first pro to pass for more than 400 yards as he throws for 433 yards and seven touchdowns in a 56-7 victory over the New York Giants.

1964- Gus Johnson and Walt Bellamy become the first NBA teammates to score 40 points apiece as the Baltimore Bullets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 1 27-1 1 5. Johnson has 41 Bellamy 40. 1965 Gary Cuozzo, subbing for injured Johnny Unitas, throws five touchdown passes to lead the Baltimore Colts to a 41 -21 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. 1966 Muhammad Ali knocks out' Cleveland Williams to retain the world heavyweight boxing title In Houston. 1 ukT Nov.

22 in Bloomington, Ind. The Golden Eagles, who won the Conference USA men's crown two weeks ago, finished with 67 points, followed by Alabama with 83 points and South Florida with 91. This is great," skid assistant coach Dena Dunn, who works with USM's distance runners. "Our first goal was to win the conference, and our second goal was to win this. We weren't sure about what would happen, especially with teams like South Florida, Tennessee and Alabama in the field.

But needed to be won that is physical, the old-fashioned way," Alabama coach Mike DuBose said. "I can't say enough about this football team, especially our senior group, that has given so much." The loss ruined Mississippi State's chances at its first-ever undefeated season and will probably prevent the Bulldogs from a second straight trip to the SEC title game. Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill refused to write off anything. "This one loss doesn't end our season," he said. "In this league, it's not over See STATE, 3B Game summary, 2B Tour Championship, final round, at Las Vegas, ABC.

3 p.m. PGA, Franklin Tempieton Shark Shootout, final round, at Thousand Oaks, CBS. HORSE RACING 11 p.m. "2Day at the Races," quarter horses, races TBA (same-day NFL FOOTBALL Noon Miami at Buffalo, CBS (WHLT-22, cable channel 10). Noon Carolina at St.

Louis, FOX (WXXV-25, cable channel 3). 3 p.m. Green Bay at Dallas, FOX (WXXV-25, cable channel 3). 7:15 p.m. Denver at Seattle, ESPN.

TENNIS Noon WTA, Advanta Championships, title match, ESPN. LI A 53: 'JV --VP The Associated Press Barris Grant's reaction pretty much tells the story of Mississippi State's SEC game against Alabama Saturday. No. 8 State lost its first game of the season, 1 9-7, to the Crimson Tide. Alabama wins 19-7, assumes control of SEC West race TUSCALOOSA, Ala.

(AP) Mississippi State finally ran out of miracles and out of the national title chase. Andrew Zow threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Shamari Buchanan with 6:04 to play Saturday and gave No. 11 Alabama a 19-7 victory over No. 8 Mississippi State. The win gave the Crimson Tide (8-2, 6-1) sole possession of first place in the SEC West and ended a three-game losing streak to the Bulldogs (8-1, 5-1).

"We won the football game the way the game On TV TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS AUTO RACING 11:30 a.m. NASCAR, Winston Cup Series, Pennzoll 400, at Homestead, NBC. 2 p.m. NHRA, Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, first round, at Pomona, ESPN2. 7:30 p.m.

NHRA, Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, final round, at Pomona, Calif, (same-day tape), ESPN2. BOXING 6 p.m. Junior welterweights, John John Molina (48-6-0) vs. Manuel Garnica (19-3-0); heavyweights, Jameel McCline (20-2-1) vs. Jorge Luis Gonzalez (29-5-0), F0XSN.

GOLF 3:00 p.m. LPGA, Pagenet LPGA From Staff Reports BILOXI Quarterback Garrett Tapper passed for 201 yards and three touchdowns to lift the Petal Panthers to a 35-32 victory over Long Beach in the 1999 i Bowl Saturday night. Tapper's touchdown passes were to Melvin Faulk for 79 yards in the first quarter, 6 yards McGill to Charmont Williams in the third quarter and 52 yards to Ryan White in the fourth quarter. The game was played at For assistance USM ticket office 266-5418 New Orleans Saints tickets 504-731-1700 William Carey Athletic Office 582-6111 Hattiesburg Recreation DepL 545-4575 Smokie Harrington Park 582-1934 Hattiesburg High athletics 544- 5749 Oak Grove High athletics 264-7629 Petal High athletics 545- 1438 Presbyterian Christian athletics 268-9824 Mississippi Sea Wolves tickets 228-385-2600 Spotlight Ron Dayne Wisconsin running back Oayne Ron Dayne broke the major-college career rushing record Saturday on a 31 -yard run with 4:32 left in the second quarter of Wisconsin's 41-3 win over Iowa. The run gave Dayne 6,288 rushing yards in his career, breaking the record of 6,279 set just last year by Texas' Ricky Williams.

Dayne finished with 216 yards in the game and 6,397 for his career. Story, page 4B..