News and Record from Greensboro, North Carolina • 15

Greensboro News Record Sunday October 11 989 Sports Baseball ootball Outdoors xy tr Blue Jays win clinch AL East crown The Associated Press TORONTO A new manager a new home and a new face gave the Toronto Blue Jays a new image in 1989 winners instead of losers The Blue Jays haunted by ghosts of big game defeats finally played the way everyone expected and won their second American League East championship in five years The frustration ended Saturday when Toronto beat Baltimore 4 3 to eliminate the Orioles always criticized us be cause of the past and they probably had a vaild reason for said Lloyd Moseby who helped set up a three run rally in the eighth Satur day with a sacrifice only way to change that is by The Blue Jays the team that lost the last seven games of the 1987 to lose the division to Detroit and blew a 3 1 lead in the 1985 playoffs did win But they may not have done it without some changes The Blue Jays began the season at windy lifeless Exhibition Stadi um by losing 24 of their first 36 games and it looked like another long year especially after fan favor ite Jesse Barfield was traded to the New York Yankees for promising pitcher Al Leiter who missed most of the season with injuries Manager Jimy Williams who had averaged 90 victories in three sea sons was fired and batting coach Cito Gaston was hired on an interim basis In this case interim was sup posed to mean a few days At the time general manager Pat Gillick said Gaston was not a candi date for the permanent job and be sides Gaston said he want it But the Blue Jays players tired of the tense atmosphere under Wil liams clearly liked the even tem pered Gaston know that if you tell somebody bad long enough start believing Gaston said we talk about choking In fact I believe in calming influence on the club was similar to a move made last season by Boston who replaced an intense John McNamara with Joe Morgan a low key type The Red Sox rallied around their new manag er and won the division George Bell who had feuded with Williams about the designated hit ter role and other issues settled down and wound up being the DH 18 times without any argument The rest of the team also relaxed and began winning Then came the move in June to the $500 million SkyDome with its good luck charm the retractable roof Under Gaston the Blue Jays went 76 48 the best record in base (See Jays B6) Inside Sports i Wake orest 17 Rice 17 B2 Norfolk St 6 NC AftT R4 Index Coll oot B2 5 Racing B7 I Baseball B6 NL B9 Golf B7 Preps B11 TV Highlights a 1 :00 pm NL: Washington New Orleans (257) a 1:00 pm NL: Miami Houston I (101228) a 1:00 pm Auto Racing from North Wilkesboro (ESPN) a 2:15 pm Baseball: Chicago Cubs St Louis (9 C) a 4:00 pm NL: LA Rams San rancisco (257) Blue Devils stun No 7 Clemson W4 llwftvSs i 8BkfSS Mir 1 jAiI ii fl liaLiar Duke's Randy Cuthbert celebrates after scoring TD as Clemson's Vance Hammond (kneeling) Doug Brewster watch By LARRY KEECH Sport: Editor DURHAM Just when football faithful least expected it their beloved Blue Devils succeed ed Saturday in turning the calen dar back to 1959 or maybe even 1939 Staring through rain and fog that lent Wade Stadium an eerie otherworldly appearance approxi mately 20000 of the faithful watched Duke take charge in the second half reward their faith with a 21 17 victory over seventh ranked Clemson Actually it was first win over any team ranked in the Top 20 in 18 years dating back to a 7 3 victory at Stanford in 1971 edition of the Blue Devils however had been only a pale imitation of the Duke teams of 30 50 years ago Saddled with a 1 3 record it was a 17 point un derdog against its unbeaten Atlan tic Coast Conference rival in the stadium thought we had a chance except the guys in this locker said Billy Ray who quarterbacked the Blue Devils to the three second half touchdowns they needed to over come a 14 0 deficit and win the game Ray was but one of a number of players who came up with their best efforts in what was an overall team triumph The Duke faithful also watched an oft maligned Blue Devil de fense shut down power ful ground attack They saw an offensive line that allowed Clem bigger quicker defensive front only one sack of Ray in 44 passing attempts and opened holes that helped account for 157 yards rushing They witnessed the emergence of two sturdy young runners named Randy Cuthbert and Jones and a receiving corps that featured record breaking Clarkston Hines and tight end Dave Colonna upset win was no fluke The better team on this Saturday prevailed as witness the last seven minutes: With that much time remaining and Clemson clinging to a 17 14 lead the Blue Devils took over on downs at their own 27 yard line They had blunted a Tiger drive when sophomore strong safety Derrick Jackson sniffed out a third down option pitchout to All ACC tailback Terry Allen and stuffed him for the second time Then having tightened the Clemson defense with its unex pectedly effective running game Duke drove 73 yards to the win ning touchdown on passing The big plays in the drive in cluded a 16 yarder to Colonna an 18 yarder to Hines a 17 yarder to Colonna and a six yard scoring strike to fullback Chris Brown two catches came on the same said Colonna a senior from High Point was playing with five linebackers and only two defensive backs leaving me open on a 12 15 yard corner Duke coach Steve Spurrier ad libbed the third down play that yielded the touchdown had slipped open be tween their linebackers on the previous Spurrier said we decided to go to him and hope they change Duke completed the winning 11 play 73 yard drive with 3:18 left plenty of time for Clemson to return the favor But the Blue 1 Devil defense capped an inspired 30 minute effort when it again held Allen Co on downs 45 yards from the goal line with only 44 seconds remaining played very well this season but I felt us coming together this said veteran Duke defensive tackle Anthony Allen the second half we started putting more pressure on their running game before they got out of the backfield and dared them to Allen who rushed for 110 yards and both of touchdowns in the first half netted just 40 yards after the intermission As expected the ground game dominated the first half Clemson took a 7 0 lead on a (See Duke B4) Duke manages to work some football magic DURHAM it screamed a woman dressed in blue and with a hairdo that long ago had lost its shape to the steady day long rain than a minute left! lord lord! I believe Clemson still had the ball and a chance to win A long shot of a chance Something like a million to one at this point And when the clock next stopped with 53 seconds to play Joe Henderson a senior tailback who had never before had to endure a thing like this lay in the mud seven yards short even of the line of scrimmage Duke defensive tackle Preston Anderson stood over him stabbing a big fist at the misty air in jubilation OWilt Browning Then Clemson was out of chances altogether The last of the precious seconds blinked this game into history and when it was over the scoreboard told the tale: Duke 21 Clemson 17 And in a rush students descended upon the soggy turf and bent the north goalpost into a pretzel leaving it flattened there across the painted DUKE Clemson coach Danny ord dutifully reaching to congratulate his Duke counterpart Steve Spurrier got caught in the humanity there near where Anderson had moments earlier stood triumphant over the fallen Henderson think won the ACC basketball tournament the way they came onto the Spurrier bubbled later in the jubilant Blue Devil dressing room It was a most improbable outcome of an ACC football game which appeared to be so much a mismatch that Spurrier himself had said less than a week ago that his 1 3 Blue Devils had less than a million to one chance against the seventh ranked undefeated Tigers Improbable enough that Duke could win this game More improbable given the fact that Duke would be intercepted five times count five against one of the stingiest defensive teams But two of those interceptions had turned into returns in which Clemson defensive backs fumbled the ball back to the Blue Devils So improbable that the Blue Devils would spot the Tigers a 14 0 lead and get away with it In the euphoria of the moment Spurrier even would find a reason to laugh about that unflattering statistic (See Browning B4) Scott Hoffmann Newt Record Duke fullback scores winner Chris Brown dives over after catching pass Navy sinks Heels 1 2 7 in wet Kenan By TOM NORTHINGTON SUH Sports Writer CHAPEL HILL Maybe this rainy weekend was just what Navy needed to win its first game of the season as the Middies won both the battle and war against North Caro lina After falling behind 7 0 on the third play of the game the Midship men gradually wore down the Tar Heels and overcame a rash of their own mistakes to triumph 12 7 Before halfback James Bradley sliced his way for 18 yards through tiring defenders to score the go ahead touchdown with 2:34 left Navy had fumbled away two earlier chances in the fourth quar ter The Middies be denied after Scott McAlister had punted the ball 44 yards into the end zone with 4:29 remaining Quar terback Alton Grizzard cranked up Wishbone offense to go 80 yards for the touchdown in less than two minutes While of fense sputtered throughout the day especially in the second half the Middies continually regrouped and attacked Grizzard completed only four of 14 passes One pass went to Caroli na defender Torin Dorn who re turned it 54 yards for the Tar only touchdown Grizzard never lost his poise and with his team trailing (See Heels B4) Top 25 ootball How They ared If 1 A 0 4 jk 4 (SWw 1 Notre Dame 40 Purdue 7 3 Miami 26 Mich St 20 9 Nebraska 35 Oregon St 7 Tenn 21 4 Aubum 14 5 Colorado 45 31 Wash 28 6 Michigan41 Maryland 21 Duke 21 7 Clemson 17 Arkansas 39 UTEP7 Va 31 10 Pitt 31 11 USCI8 It Wash St 17 13 Alabama21 Vandy 14 14 Houston 65 Temple 7 15 NCSU 42 Kent St 22 1 Oklahoma 45 Kansas 6 Oregon 16 17 Arizona 10 IS Syracuse DNP 20411inou DNP 22 Texas 31 Miss 14 Carolina 24 23 Georgia 20 24 Air orce 46 Colo St 2 1 25 HoridaSt DNP Pack snuffs out Golden lashes By GARY McCANN Staff Sports Writer RALEIGH or more than a half Saturday night North Carolina State flirted with disaster against Kent State but as expected the 15th ranked Wolfpack proved too much for the Golden lashes 42 22 The Wolfpack 5 0 for the first time since 1974 used a couple of big defensive plays in the third period to erase a 22 18 deficit and send the lashes to their fifth straight loss or Kent State coach Dick Crum formerly of North Carolina it was the first loss in six games in Cart er inley Stadium Crum whose relationship with the media was strained before he left Chapel Hill did not come out of the dressing room following the game despite the fact his team played hard and well Dick Sheridan in a way spoke for Crum have to tip your hat to Sheridan said is the smartest team played all year That was absolutely the best they have executed all season I knew they come in here and roll over said all along that we are not an oveijfowering team We have to play mistake free to be successful When we vulnerable Maybe this will make us Some oddsmakers had made the Pack as much as a 40 point favorite but for a good part of the evening the lashes made it interesting They made the rain soaked crowd of better than 35000 and Sheridan more than a little nervous And the Pack didn't help itself with poor execution penalties at the wrong time and mental lapses Some of that could be attributed to Kent State The wishbone offense' stretched defense used the whole field and buckle until midway of the second half nerves were especially frazzled with 10:26 to play in the third period when Patrick Young passed two yards to mark Cunningham for a touchdown that gave the lashes a 22 18 lead' Reg gie Cook had set up the TD by blocking Preston punt at the State 21 one of those mistakes the Pack afford And on the next series when Poag shanked a punt out of bounds: at the Pack 45 Sheridan and the Wolfpack faithful were probably wondering if State like Clemson and Carolina in the afternoon would become an upset victim Joe Johnson calmed (See Wolfpack B8).