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2B ♦ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2006 Georgia Tech defense did its job By DONALD HEATH Morris News Service ATLANTA - Emotion car ried Georgia Tech’s defense only so far Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Yellow Jackets need ed to be perfect to stop a high-powered Notre Dame offense. They came close. Georgia Tech surrendered two 14-play touchdown drives in the 14-10 loss. “Somehow, they dug down deeper than us,” Yellow Jacket linebacker Phillip Wheeler said. Second-ranked Notre Dame went 80 yards for a touchdown to end the first half, then marched 64 yards for the game-winning score to begin the third quarter. That was it against the Jackets’ defense. But that was enough. “I felt we could win with (holding the Irish to) 14 points, but 14 points still can get you beat,” lineback er Gary Guyton said. “It was a big night for the team and the program and we were ready. Who wouldn’t want to Penalty leaves Jackets steamed By ADAM VAN BRIMMER Morris News Service ATLANTA - Two banging heads left Georgia Tech’s players and coaches look ing for walls to bang their noggins against following Saturday’s 14-10 loss to No. 2 Notre Dame. Yellow Jacket lineback er Philip Wheeler drew a personal foul penalty for a vicious tackle of Irish quarterback Brady Quinn in the third quarter. The flag-throwing official judged Wheeler led with his helmet and hit Quinn in the helmet, a taboo tackling method. Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey and most of the defenders protested the call as did the Bobby Dodd Stadium crowd by raining cups and plastic bottles onto the field. “I saw both guys inbounds and one guy trying to make a tackle,” Gailey said follow ing the game. “If you call helmet-to-helmet every time two helmets hit, you’ll call it every time. It’s the game of football.” The penalty changed Saturday’s game. Georgia Tech led 10-7 at the time. Wheeler knocked Quinn out of bounds well short of the first down on the third-down play. Without the flag, Notre Dame kicker Carl Gioia likely would have attempted a game-tying 31-yard field goal. And Gioia had already missed two earlier field CLEATS r \ THINK IP I'VE REALLY GOOP J you PLAY FREEWAY AT MAFCAR / MANIAC //-YOU'LL v «— -T BE LUCKY TO EVB? GET PRIVER'S LICENSE. / I'VE CAREFULLY FOLLOWEP \ I THE “ULTIMATE POTATO SALAP" 1 RECIPE I POWNLOAPEP FROM I 1 A TAILGATING WEB SITE, / 1 BUT IT'S JUST NOT RIGHT. / EiL IT'S MINING SOMETHING./ uV^j i c=z gg ... BMU. G.I will. . JACK Bpj CAPACITY. 91 C 2006 by lOng Fcmhict Symhcatc Inc Worid ngbu rcsavod open with Notre Dame?” But few for the unranked Yellow Jackets were happy with a moral victory. In front of a highly charged crowd and a national televi sion audience, Georgia Tech came within a few plays of beating Notre Dame. Irish quarterback Brady Quinn made the deciding plays, though. His quarter back draw for a touchdown from the Georgia Tech 5-yard line with 11 seconds and no timeouts left broke the spell the Yellow Jacket defense had conjured for much of the first half. Instead of trail ing 10-0 at halftime, Notre Dame was down just three points. “Don’t make me look stu pid, but if you get the look, you run the ball,” Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said he told Quinn in a time out prior to the play. The Irish had six posses sions in the first half but managed to cross Georgia Tech’s 40-yard line only twice. Before the half-clos ing scoring drive, the Irish had been held to 54 yards goals, the first from 42 yards and the second from 36. The penalty gave the Irish a first down instead, and tail back Darius Walker scored the eventual game-winning touchdown three plays later. “I didn’t lead with my head,” said Wheeler, who finished with a game-high 13 tackles, including two for loss. “I don’t think that should have been a penal ty.” A day’s perspective didn’t quell tempers any either. Gailey watched tape of the play Sunday afternoon and stood behind his postgame statements. Asked if one penalty can alter a game’s outcome, Gailey said it could. “There are normally four or five playsHn any ball game that can swing the game, in a big ball game like that,” Gailey said. “Can a big call or a non-call be one of those factors? It certainly can be.” The personal foul penalty far from doomed Georgia Tech’s upset bid even so. The Yellow Jacket offense undercut their chances, par ticularly in the second half. The Jackets managed just 71 yards on four posses sions after halftime against a defense that looked porous early in the game. Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson had five catches for 95 yards in the first half, and tailback Tashard Choice had 44 yards on 10 carries against an Irish defense that allowed 397 yards a game last season. J I PON'T THINK \ / it's NOT LIKE \ / ANP MY PARENTS \ I YOU NEEP A U. THEY'RE OUT ) ( CAN GIVE ME A RIPE ) I LICENSE FOR rt ON POAPS J l TO THE RACETRACKS. J <C. \NA OCAR J V \w_ .!✓ • 7 3oLlUaft-i^ (c) 2u06 Bill Hinds. Dist by Universal Press Syndicate I ll l—“vi “ AHH-A / MORE LIKE A MISTAKE 0-f POlAloes, j / COOKIE \ / MAPE BY A WAIK-oN WHO I OF TRWJJ6 CftMP -q u uru —: 1 (c) 2006 Bill Hinds. Dist by Universal Press Syndicate It. HAITI ’SP" t ;r~n 1 and just five first downs. Those numbers from an offense that averaged 36.7 points and 477.3 yards a game last season. Notre Dame’s lowest first-half scor ing total a year ago was 12 points against Washington. The Irish offense rallied in the second half. They out gained Georgia Tech, 250 yards to 71, and held the ball for nearly 19 of the 30 second-half minutes. “Long drives for a defense can get you winded,” Guyton said. “Anytime you have an opportunity to get a team off the field, you need to.” Quinn kept Georgia Tech’s defense working in the clos ing minutes. He converted a fourth-and-short play near midfield with 1 minute, 10 seconds left to seal the vic tory. “We had a situation where our offensive line had con trol of the game and we only had a half yard to go,” Weis said. “I wanted the players to know you have confidence in them to get a half a yard when the game is on the line.” Notre Dame altered its scheme at halftime, though, dropping extra defenders into coverage. The Irish doubled Johnson the rest of the game, even shifting three defenders onto him in obvious passing situations. Johnson had just two catch es in the final two quarters - and that constituted half of the Jackets’ second-half receptions. Quarterback Reggie Ball took advantage of the Irish strategy. He rushed six times for 57 yards on designed runs in the second half. Every Jacket drive stalled out, however. * The Irish snuffed out a third-down screen play on the first drive of the second half. * Notre Dame stuffed Choice on a up-the-middle run on a third-and-short on the next possession. * A replay review over turned an apparent Johnson diving catch on the Jackets’, third drive of the half, forc ing a punt. * And on Georgia Tech’s final possession, Notre Dame sacked Ball on back-to-back plays after the Tech quar terback had moved his team into Irish territory. “I expected the defense to hold them to 14 points, and I take total blame for us scoring no more than 10,” said Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Patrick Nix, who debuted as the team’s play-caller in the game.. “It’s our job to score more than that.” SPORTS Georgia preps for South Carolina By MARC WEISZER Morris News Service As much as Georgia fans might still love to hate Steve Spurrier, he doesn’t see much ill-will in the current SEC border rivalry that he’s now a part of in his second season at South Carolina. “I don’t know if it’s the same as the Florida-Georgia because it seemed like there’s a lot of despising each other that goes on with those two schools and those two teams,” Spurrier said Sunday, a day after attend ing a 10-year reunion of the 1996 Gators national title team in Gainesville. “I think South Carolina- Georgia always has pretty good, healthy competition with each other. I sort of see it like that.” Georgia has won four straight in the series, including 17-15 last year in Athens, just the Bulldogs’ second win against Spurrier-coached teams in 13 meetings. The No. 15 Bulldogs (1-0, 0-0 SEC) and Gamecocks (1- 0, 1-0) meet at 7:45 p.m. in a game televised nationally on ESPN. Doubleheaders force Cox's hand Playing four games in 48 hours creates the need for some creativity on the part of a major league manager. tos* l NOTEBOOK R. TRAVIS HANEY Morris News Service spiraled out of hand in a 16- 4 loss in Saturday’s second game, Cox had five players that spent most of the sea son at Class AAA Richmond on the field. Thank goodness for the Sept. 1 roster expansion, huh? “It’s the only way you can do it,” Cox said before Sunday’s first game. “You can imagine what would have happened last night.” Hard to picture anything much more drastic than the reality before every one’s eyes. For instance, how about Brayan Pena’s appearance at third base from the sixth inning on? The last time the catcher by trade played third? “With Tony Pena on Playstation,” he said, point ing to his nearby teammate. “You can play your guy any where. And (catcher Brian) McCann’s too good of a hit ter to take him out.” OK, how about on the field? “I would say 15 years ago,” said the native of Cuba. “When I was like really little.” Pena had played first base some in high school and in Dominican leagues, but not third. But he said that third was always his dream position. Hence, the fe;i y * ■’iMß i£iE|l Fifth-year senior quarter back Joe Tereshsinski will start again for Georgia and freshman Matthew Stafford and redshirt freshman Joe Cox will compete this week for the No. 2 job. Coach Mark Richt said Sunday he probably won’t name the backup before Saturday. “I don’t know if we need to name it,” Richt said. “We probably won’t, but we’ll know who No. 2 is going in.” Stafford put a charge into the Sanford Stadium crowd in the fourth quarter Saturday, completing 3 of 5 passes for 40 yards and a touchdown in a 48-12 win over Western Kentucky. Of his two incompletions, Richt faulted only a deep ball that he said was “poorly thrown.” He said a pass that hit Demiko Goodman’s hands was “very catchable.” Richt said Tereshinski, who was 7 of 17 for 90 yards and a touchdown, had his share of passes that misfired but he got hurt by at least three dropped balls. The backup quarterback Playstation move. “I never expected ever, in my entire life, that I would ever play there,” Pena said. “Sometimes dreams come true, even ones from Playstation games.” Cox said he didn’t hesi tate to insert Pena at the hot corner because of his “quick feet.” “I have confidence in him,” Cox said. Pena recorded one putout when he threw out catcher Carlos Ruiz, who was pinch hitting in the eighth. Pena was very deliberate in get ting the ball across the dia mond to Adam Laßoche. “Everyone was laughing,” he said, “but it worked.” CHIPPER’S SIDE: After play ing in most of Saturday’s doubleheader, Chipper Jones’ still-ailing left side wasn’t up to another twin bill Sunday. Jones was a late scratch for Game 1, with Willy Aybar taking his place at third base and third in the lineup. He did play in the second game, going l-for-3 with a walk until the side flared on him and he had Atlanta’s Bobby Cox seemed up for the task during the Braves’ twin doublehead ers Saturday and Sunday here against the Phillies. As things SUGARLOAF A lovely Sidewalk Community In Perry These Homes are quality built all brick homes. We have 3 & 4 bedroom homes starting at 131,900 Homes have features such as custom cabinets, fireplace, sod, sprinkler system. Builder is giving a $5,000 bonus if you contract on one of our last 2 completed homes and close within 30 days We have a new loan program available to use that is a 100% loan with no PMI. Information Center open daily Mon, Thur, Fri 12-6 weekdays, Sat 11-5 Sun 1-5. Stop by and visit with Karen or give her a call at 954-HOME (4663) Located on the Perry Partway right across from the new Court House. 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He may. He ran the ball the best.” South Carolina has won six straight SEC games, includ ing 15-0 over Mississippi State on Thursday night. Georgia’s two-point win last year was typical of recent Georgia-South Carolina clashes. Four of the last five games in the series with Richt at Georgia have been decided by six or less points. “We play them early in the season,” Spurrier said. “I’ve got to believe Georgia’s our biggest conference rival. Now I know we’re not their biggest conference rival. They’ve got Tennessee and Florida way ahead of us down the road there.” to leave in the ninth. He might be out a week or more with the same oblique strain that cost him a cou ple of weeks in late July and early August. GILES BPDITE: Second base man Marcus Giles flew back to Atlanta on Sunday to undergo tests for a pos sible heart defect. The Braves were still uncertain when he would be able to see Dr. John Cantwell, a cardiologist. Doctors here thought Giles might have an improper ly functioning heart valve that would need to be sta pled shut. Giles, 28, was assured that that particular pro cedure wasn’t considered drastic and the recovery time would even give him a shot to play again this season. Prime Rib Seasoned to Perfection mn ah MfvMf 8M l’7sCKi«ltt‘WMt77 00037813