Messenger-Inquirer from Owensboro, Kentucky • 13

COLLEGE SCORES Oklahoma 29 Oklahoma 10 Page 4 Florida St 34 Auburn 6 Page 4 Alabama 22 LSU 10 Page 4 Miami, Fla 54 Miami, Ohio 3 Page 4 Nebraska 43 Iowa St 3 Page 4 Tennessee 41 Louisville 10 Page 5 SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8, 1987 PREP COLLEGE PRO AMATEUR MESSENGER-INQUIRER 1 raf Jones leads Commodores past Wildcats Vanderbilt quarterback totals 345 yards against Kentucky VI I GENE ABELL Sports Editor to go. It's going to take a UK upset for the Cats to even finish with a winning season. And if UK can't beat Vandy, who's to believe it can beat Florida or Tennessee. "We have a heck of a football team but we have yet to prove it," said cornerback David Johnson. "This gives everybody one more mm .7 I Vanderbilt's David Wurm, left, has his hands full while Kentucky's Mark Higgs charges around the end with the ball in the first half Saturday.

Vandy snaps losing streak, UK's bowl hopes By Skip Latt Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. Vanderbilt coach Watson Brown says his patience is beginning to pay dividends after watching his Commodores snap an 11-game Southeastern Conference losing streak Saturday with a 38-29 victory over Kentucky. "We played good solid football out there. Our blocking and tackling was good and we gave ourselves a chance to win," said Brown, who is in the second year of rebuilding the Commodore football program. Vandy rode the passing and running of junior quarterback Eric Jones, who threw for 244 yards and four touchdowns and also rushed for 101 yards.

"If there's a better player in the country than Eric, I haven't seen him," Brown said. "He is phenomenal. There isn't a better quarterback around." Brown said there was nothing special about breaking the SEC losing streak, however. "I didn't know there was an 11-game (SEC) losing streak. It was just another game.

We're getting better and we're playing good football." Kentucky coach Jerry Claiborne said his Wildcats just could not find a way to stop a Vanderbilt offense that compiled a total of 521 yards. "They didn't do anything differently that we didn't expect. We just didn't execute well. We have to get our heads up for our final two games (against Florida and Tennessee), knowing that a winning season and a possible bowl berth are still within reach," Claiborne said. The Commodores, 3-6 overall and 1-4 in the league, last won a SEC contest when they downed Kentucky 31-24 in 1985.

The loss dropped Kentucky to 5-4 overall and 1-3 in the SEC. Mark Higgs gained 133 yards on 16 carries Saturday, giving him 1.095 yards for the year and 2.709 yards in his career. Higgs passed George Adams Saturday for second place among UK's all-time leading rushers. Sonny Collins is first with 3.835 yards. Nally edges DCs Stuart in state meet By Brian Rickerd Special to the Messenger-Inquirer LEXINGTON Both Mark Stuart of Daviess County and Damian Nally of Lexington Lafayette gave it all they had, but Nally had a little more as he edged Stuart for first place in Class 3A Saturday at the state cross country meet at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Nally caught Stuart and a rapidly fading Carl Dillard of Christian County with about a quarter-mile to go in the race and held on. Those three had battled on the lead throughout the race. Nally clocked 16:05.60, to Stuart's 16:07.50. Dillard wound up seventh. The Apollo boys were the top team finisher from the area, running fifth, while Daviess County was seventh.

Senior Victor Sheriff finished eighth in 16:43.90 to lead Apollo. The Daviess County girls, meanwhile, ran third, trailing only pre-race favorite Pulaski County in first and runner-up Oldham County. Sophomore Angie Rohrscheib led the DC girls, finishing eighth in 11:42.90 in the and freshman So- See STUART 8B VANDY 38 KENTUCKY 29 KMtek! II 11 VartwMt 14 UH-fO Woy It VU-Pa diss Ho Jtm iC i UK-0 Sr a iWiyo umi oass torn joots iCtf ei VU-Jorvsor 2 oass to Jones ki UK fow 13 un ihss VJ-f ante 7 oass fom Joots 'Ca cti UK-fwrmgsjr 46 oass F' iWoney Cl UK-Hue 12 mass VU-Oaoe 1 jp tC kick) VU-FGCWH26 A-4C852 UK VU 14 27 34 206 61-277 126 244 44 49 19-30-1 Flit WW fcsnes-rtJds Passn Return varus Como-AjHni PuMS Furtxs-losi Penarts-Vffjs 2-31 3-35 M0 39 55 3-1 6-50 2005 INWVIOUU STATISTICS Higos 16-133 Mum 6-42 Van-oew -Jtm5 20-101 15-81 PSSiNG-Kemuy Fot 4-19-1-79 Doom 3-3-0-49 Vaooetjit Jotw 19-30-1-244 RECEiviNG-Keptucv-Oamn9ion2-35 0 Smith 2-31 Varaeiori Par 6-169 Oaioio 6-50 "It would've felt better if we had won," Higgs said. Higgs' 1,095 yards is the third best single season total ever at UK, with two games to play. Collins gained 1.213 yards in 1973 and 1,150 yards in 1975.

Higgs needs 119 yards to top Collins' best year. "Higgs ran exceptionally well," Claiborne said Saturday. Brown said, "He (Higgs) is a competitor. We hit him hard a couple of times and he got right back up and wanted the ball. He's got that look in his eyes, he's a good football player." Jones rallied the Commodores to 10 fourth-quarter points after the Wildcats had overcome a 28-16 Vanderbilt lead to hold a 29-28 edge going into the final 15 minutes.

Vandy got the lead back for good at 35-29 with 11:38 left to play when tailback Everett Crawford capped a 14-play, 72-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge. Kentucky drove to the Vandy 15-yard line midway through the fourth quarter, but two penalties brought about a fourth-and-20 situation the Wildcats failed to convert. Mark Stuart of Daviess County Saturday. 1 Jim Baumgarten, Messenger-Inquirer The Commodores run plays with three backs, they run plays with no backs. It's an offense with more imagination than a Steven Spielberg movie.

Often, the Vandy coaching staff sends in a play to Jones after the Commodores go to the line of scrimmage and see the detense. "You could look at a computer printout, and it would have no idea what we're going to do," said receiver Carl Parker, who burned UK for eight catches for 169 yards and two scores, "we nave no tenaen cies." Jones is the catalyst. Brown said See ABELL8B cently voted 228-33 to waive the National Federation rule that forced basketball coaches to remain seated during play the past two years. The regulation, called the "seat belt rule" by coaches, was opposed by most, but few so vehemently as Hopper, who considered a lawsuit against the KHSAA. "It took away my style of coaching," Hopper said.

"I'm a very emo- See RULE 8B reason to say we can't win in the SEC." Vandy fans had been saying just that for two years. The Commodores had lost 11 straight SEC games. Their last SEC win was here against UK. The Cats, meanwhile, have lost eight straight road games and nine straight SEC road games going back to a win at Tennessee in 1984. Kentucky knew Vandy would move the ball.

After all, Vandy, 3-6, had scored 23 points against Alabama, 15 against Auburn and 24 against Georgia. Commodore coach Watson Brown employs every formation known to offensive coordinators. volves a couple of harmless stripes painted on the floor. Are the coaches thrilled? Ask them. "Hallelujah, brother.

Free at last," Central City High School boys basketball coach Tony Hopper said. "It feels so good right now. I tried it out the other night during a scrimmage just to see how it felt. It felt so good, maybe I can just focus out the officials." Member schools of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association re Area coaches say basketball 'seat belt rule cramped styles Thank goodness for University of Kentucky fans, basketball season is just around the corner because the chances for a successful football season may have ended Saturday in Nashville, Tenn. What started as such a promising football season for the Cats hit a sour note in Music City.

In a game UK needed to maintain its bowl hopes, the Cats once again were left frustrated. The Commodores and quarterback Eric Jones picked apart UK's defense, winning 38-29. Now Kentucky, once 4-1, finds itself 5-4 with Florida and Tennessee T-' Photo by Clay Owen runs for the finish in the state meet but bitterness remains By Mathew Graf Messenger-Inquirer Kentucky high school basketball coaches are free to unbuckle their imaginary seat belts. Starting this season they'll be allowed not only to stand, but to stalk the sidelines in imaginary boxes. Sound a little cagey? Perhaps.

But rather than metal bars, guards who rap their knuckles and bad food, the only imprisonment prep coaches face during the 1987-88 season in Strike over, By Barry Wilner Associated Press The strike is over. It ended Oct. 15. For some, it may never be over. The NFL players who crossed teammates' picket lines have met with varying reactions since their comrades returned.

In New Orleans, quarterback Bobby Hebert threatened never to throw another pass to strike-breaker Eric Martin. Mark Gastineau, who had the strikers spit at him and pound on his car, gets icy stares from a few of the New York Jets. threat to leave and they won't miss him. Not that everyone who crossed the line has struggled. San Francisco's Joe Montana, Roger Craig and Dwight Clark performed well before, during and after the strike.

Ed "Too Tall" Jones had one of the best games of his 13-year career in Dallas' upset of the New York Giants last Monday. John Stallworth and Steve Largent, two of the NFL's all-time best receivers, have been as See STRIKE 8B I NFL preview7B The fans haven't always been enamored with the performances of the regulars who spent nearly a month on strike. In Washington, the Redskins were greeted with loud, frequent boos as they stumbled to a sloppy victory over the Jets. The St. Louis fans, all 24,586 of them, chanted derogatorily in a loss to Philadelphia, telling owner Bill Bidwell he can make good on his rt L.a it 1 i I il i "I ml wt pa rf.ii i i ill.