NATIONAL LEAGUE Pittsburgh 5, St. Louis 0 L.A. Dodgers 10, Colorado 8 Cincinnati 6, Arizona 2 San Diego 8, Atlanta 2 N.Y. Mets 3, Philadelphia 2 Washington 8, Miami 4 Milwaukee 3, Chicago Cubs 1 San Francisco 6, Houston 4 AMERICAN LEAGUE Toronto 8, N.Y. Yankees 5 Chicago White Sox 8, Baltimore 1 Oakland 8, Cleveland 4 Tampa Bay 8, Texas 4 Kansas City 1, Detroit 0 Minnesota 10, Seattle 0 Boston at L.A. Angels (n) SCOREBOARD PRO FOOTBALL NFL to continue with replacements With no agreement in place with the officials union, the NFL will open the regular season next week with replacement officials and said it was prepared to use them “as much ... as necessary” afterward. CONTACT US Page 5B Sports The Paducah Sun | Thursday, August 30, 2012 | paducahsun.com Section B COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater is looking to build on a strong freshman season. | 3B Sports................... 575-8665 [email protected]Joey Fosko ............ 575-8661 [email protected]Dusty Luthy Shull ...575-8662 [email protected]PITTSBURGH — A special sea- son on the verge of collapse, the Pittsburgh Pirates steadied them- selves behind Pedro Alvarez. The third baseman stayed hot, blasting his 26th homer of the season and driving in three runs as the Pirates rolled to a 5-0 vic- tory over St. Louis on Wednesday night. Alvarez’s three-run shot in the third gave him seven home runs and 23 RBI in 15 games against the defending world champions. “I was just out there trying to compete,” Alvarez said. “It’s just one of those things.” The win, coming on the heels of a 9-0 rout over St. Louis on Tuesday, pulled Pittsburgh with one game of the Cardinals for the second NL wild card spot. It also gave them a needed boost as Sep- tember neared. Searching for the first winning season and playoff berth in two decades, the Pirates appeared in trouble after losing six of seven following a 4-3 defeat on Mon- day. Instead, they bounced back with a resiliency that’s been their calling card all year and has them playing important baseball into September for the first time since Barry Bonds was patrolling the outfield at Three Rivers Stadium. “We had to get back on the right track,” said right fielder Garrett Jones. “We were in a little rut there where for whatever reason we couldn’t get back on the win- ning track and things weren’t go- ing our way. We stayed positive, stayed confident and knowing we could turn things around.” Wandy Rodriguez (9-13) worked six tidy innings for Pitts- burgh to pick up his first victory as a starter since being acquired in a trade last month. Rodriguez walked three and struck out three while helping the Pirates shut out Pirates, Alvarez stay hot; Cardinals not BY WILL GRAVES Associated Press MURRAY — After a month’s worth of fall camp, Murray State football players on the of- fensive side of the ball may get what they’ve been asking for as the Racers continue to prepare for Florida State. “We’ve been so, and will continue to be this week, so simple with what we do offensively,” MSU offensive coordinator Mitch Stewart said. “And our kids have been around here so much, they get kind of bored with it and they’ll go, ‘Coach, let’s run something else, let’s run a trick play, let’s do something.’” This is the final week before the first game of the season for the Racers, as they take on the No. 7 Seminoles at 5 p.m. Sat- urday at Doak Campbell Sta- dium in Tallahassee in a game broadcast on ESPN3. This is also the week when the MSU coaching staff scram- bles to fit in the last-minute teachings of things such as vic- tory formations, Hail Mary sit- uations, and maybe even a trick play or two for good measure. “That’s usually what worries me the most is we’ve forgotten something so small, so little, but that can make a huge differ- ence,” Stewart said in Monday’s press conference. The Racers are taking a fairly veteran offense on the road, led by senior quarterback Casey Brockman. Stewart likes the overall depth at the skill posi- tions, but the offensive line is a mix. Junior Harris Bivin returns at center while two-year start- ing seniors Andy Mahoney and Roderick Tomlin anchor the right side. New faces grace left Racers won’t be fancy at FSU BY DUSTY LUTHY SHULL [email protected]The fear that some of the fallout from Hurricane Isaac, which made landfall in Louisi- ana on Wednesday, will send heavy rain to western Ken- tucky on Friday prompted the rescheduling of two area high school football games to to- night. Marshall County will host Lone Oak a day earlier than regularly scheduled, putting the Marshals’ defense even more under the gun to prepare for a Lone Oak spread offense that totes a different look with fresh- man Zayire Hughes filling in for injured starter Cole Ousley. Likewise, Reidland will seek to go 3-0 for the first time in at least three decades against Ful- ton County, a rematch of a 23-0 Greyhounds win at Hickman on opening night. “It’s our last season.” said Re- idland coach Shaun Thomas, referring to next year’s consoli- dation of the three McCracken County schools, “and I don’t want to take a shot at playing Friday, missing out on the op- portunity and not having 10 games in a season. I’d rather play it safe than try to win that coin flip on Friday.” All other games on the slate will be played as scheduled, although Mayfield coach Joe Morris said he might consider moving up the start time for Friday’s contest with longtime rival Paducah Tilghman, de- pending on the weather for- ceast. “We would have to check with Tilghman and see if they could do it,” Morris said. “This game is such an event, and we have so much stuff that goes on around it, that it would be tough to move it up to Thursday.” Lone Oak-Marshall: The un- expected quarterback change at Lone Oak puts a little more pressure on a Marshall County defense that hasn’t fared too Stormy forecast moves games BY JOEY FOSKO [email protected]The six-year streak isn’t un- precedented. Three times in the Paducah Til- ghman-Mayfield football rivalry has one team won six consecutive meetings. The Tornado has done it once, from 1942-47. Mayfield equaled the feat between 1995 and 2000, and the Cardinals’ current winning streak is at six, beginning with an overtime vic- tory in 2006. Friday night’s 99th Tilghman- Mayfield game at War Memo- rial Stadium has a chance to see something unprecedented: May- field’s seventh straight win. “When I started coaching, I just wanted to beat them once,” May- field coach Joe Morris joked. “It’s hard to believe we’ve gotten it to six. We had to beat some really good football teams to get where we are now, and we’re going to have to beat another good one. They’re tough.” If Mayfield prolongs its win- ning streak, this senior class — which includes a four-year starter in all-state linebacker Jonathan Jackson — will be the fourth con- secutive group to graduate from Mayfield without ever losing to Tilghman. The six-game streak has had some tough moments for Tilgh- man. Two of the losses came in overtime, a 14-7 decision in 2006 and a 23-20 result two years ago — both of them on Mayfield’s turf. “I feel like they’ve got a hold on us,” said Tilghman coach Randy Wyatt, who is preparing to face the Cardinals for the fifth time. “It’s time for us to break that. This is the seniors’ last opportu- nity, and we want to get it.” Offensive lineman DeAndre Mayes, who will start his third and final Tilghman-Mayfield clash, senses the urgency. He still believes Tilghman let a win over Tilghman’s mission: Stop Mayfield, streak BY JOEY FOSKO [email protected]Please see GAMES | 3B Stewart Please see RACERS | 5B JOHN PAUL HENRY | The Sun Paducah Tilghman linebacker Derek Overstreet chases a Clarksville (Tenn.) West Creek ballcarrier in Friday’s easy win at Tilghman. Overstreet is a key player for a Tornado squad that hopes to snap a six- game losing streak against Mayfield. Associated Press Travis Snider of the Pittsburgh Pirates slides into second base with a double ahead of the tag by St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Skip Schumaker Wednesday in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh won 5-0. Please see STREAK | 3B Please see CARDINALS | 2B
Transcript
NATIONAL LEAGUEPittsburgh 5, St. Louis 0L.A. Dodgers 10, Colorado 8Cincinnati 6, Arizona 2San Diego 8, Atlanta 2N.Y. Mets 3, Philadelphia 2Washington 8, Miami 4Milwaukee 3, Chicago Cubs 1San Francisco 6, Houston 4
AMERICAN LEAGUEToronto 8, N.Y. Yankees 5Chicago White Sox 8, Baltimore 1Oakland 8, Cleveland 4Tampa Bay 8, Texas 4Kansas City 1, Detroit 0Minnesota 10, Seattle 0Boston at L.A. Angels (n)
SCOREBOARD PRO FOOTBALLNFL to continue with replacements
With no agreement in place with the officials union, the NFL will open the regular season next week with replacement officials and said it was prepared to use them “as much ... as necessary” afterward.
CONTACT US
Page 5B
SportsThe Paducah Sun | Thursday, August 30, 2012 | paducahsun.com Section B
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater is looking to build on a strong freshman season. | 3B
PITTSBURGH — A special sea-son on the verge of collapse, the Pittsburgh Pirates steadied them-selves behind Pedro Alvarez.
The third baseman stayed hot, blasting his 26th homer of the season and driving in three runs as the Pirates rolled to a 5-0 vic-tory over St. Louis on Wednesday night. Alvarez’s three-run shot in the third gave him seven home runs and 23 RBI in 15 games against the defending world champions.
“I was just out there trying to compete,” Alvarez said. “It’s just one of those things.”
The win, coming on the heels of a 9-0 rout over St. Louis on Tuesday, pulled Pittsburgh with one game of the Cardinals for the second NL wild card spot. It also gave them a needed boost as Sep-tember neared.
Searching for the fi rst winning season and playoff berth in two decades, the Pirates appeared in trouble after losing six of seven following a 4-3 defeat on Mon-day.
Instead, they bounced back with a resiliency that’s been their calling card all year and has them playing important baseball into September for the fi rst time since Barry Bonds was patrolling the
outfi eld at Three Rivers Stadium.“We had to get back on the right
track,” said right fi elder Garrett Jones. “We were in a little rut there where for whatever reason we couldn’t get back on the win-ning track and things weren’t go-ing our way. We stayed positive, stayed confi dent and knowing we could turn things around.”
Wandy Rodriguez (9-13) worked six tidy innings for Pitts-burgh to pick up his fi rst victory as a starter since being acquired in a trade last month. Rodriguez walked three and struck out three while helping the Pirates shut out
Pirates, Alvarez stay hot; Cardinals notBY WILL GRAVES
Associated Press
MURRAY — After a month’s worth of fall camp, Murray State football players on the of-fensive side of the ball may get what they’ve been asking for as the Racers continue to prepare for Florida State.
“We’ve been so, and will continue to be this week, so simple with what we do offensively,” MSU offensive coordinator Mitch Stewart said. “And our kids have been
around here so much, they get kind of bored with it and they’ll go, ‘Coach, let’s run something else, let’s run a trick play, let’s do something.’”
This is the fi nal week before the fi rst game of the season for the Racers, as they take on the No. 7 Seminoles at 5 p.m. Sat-urday at Doak Campbell Sta-dium in Tallahassee in a game broadcast on ESPN3.
This is also the week when the MSU coaching staff scram-bles to fi t in the last-minute teachings of things such as vic-tory formations, Hail Mary sit-uations, and maybe even a trick play or two for good measure.
“That’s usually what worries me the most is we’ve forgotten something so small, so little, but that can make a huge differ-ence,” Stewart said in Monday’s press conference.
The Racers are taking a fairly veteran offense on the road, led by senior quarterback Casey Brockman. Stewart likes the overall depth at the skill posi-tions, but the offensive line is a mix.
Junior Harris Bivin returns at center while two-year start-ing seniors Andy Mahoney and Roderick Tomlin anchor the right side. New faces grace left
The fear that some of the fallout from Hurricane Isaac, which made landfall in Louisi-ana on Wednesday, will send heavy rain to western Ken-tucky on Friday prompted the rescheduling of two area high school football games to to-night.
Marshall County will host Lone Oak a day earlier than regularly scheduled, putting the Marshals’ defense even more under the gun to prepare for a Lone Oak spread offense that totes a different look with fresh-man Zayire Hughes fi lling in for injured starter Cole Ousley.
Likewise, Reidland will seek to go 3-0 for the fi rst time in at least three decades against Ful-ton County, a rematch of a 23-0 Greyhounds win at Hickman on opening night.
“It’s our last season.” said Re-idland coach Shaun Thomas, referring to next year’s consoli-dation of the three McCracken County schools, “and I don’t want to take a shot at playing Friday, missing out on the op-portunity and not having 10 games in a season. I’d rather play it safe than try to win that coin fl ip on Friday.”
All other games on the slate will be played as scheduled, although Mayfi eld coach Joe Morris said he might consider moving up the start time for Friday’s contest with longtime rival Paducah Tilghman, de-pending on the weather for-ceast.
“We would have to check with Tilghman and see if they could do it,” Morris said. “This game is such an event, and we have so much stuff that goes on around it, that it would be tough to move it up to Thursday.”
Lone Oak-Marshall: The un-expected quarterback change at Lone Oak puts a little more pressure on a Marshall County defense that hasn’t fared too
Three times in the Paducah Til-ghman-Mayfi eld football rivalry has one team won six consecutive meetings. The Tornado has done it once, from 1942-47. Mayfi eld equaled the feat between 1995 and 2000, and the Cardinals’ current winning streak is at six, beginning with an overtime vic-tory in 2006.
Friday night’s 99th Tilghman-Mayfi eld game at War Memo-rial Stadium has a chance to see something unprecedented: May-fi eld’s seventh straight win.
“When I started coaching, I just wanted to beat them once,” May-fi eld coach Joe Morris joked. “It’s
hard to believe we’ve gotten it to six. We had to beat some really good football teams to get where we are now, and we’re going to have to beat another good one. They’re tough.”
If Mayfi eld prolongs its win-ning streak, this senior class — which includes a four-year starter in all-state linebacker Jonathan Jackson — will be the fourth con-secutive group to graduate from Mayfi eld without ever losing to
Tilghman.The six-game streak has had
some tough moments for Tilgh-man. Two of the losses came in overtime, a 14-7 decision in 2006 and a 23-20 result two years ago — both of them on Mayfi eld’s turf.
“I feel like they’ve got a hold on us,” said Tilghman coach Randy Wyatt, who is preparing to face the Cardinals for the fi fth time. “It’s time for us to break that. This is the seniors’ last opportu-nity, and we want to get it.”
Offensive lineman DeAndre Mayes, who will start his third and fi nal Tilghman-Mayfi eld clash, senses the urgency. He still believes Tilghman let a win over
Paducah Tilghman linebacker Derek Overstreet chases a Clarksville (Tenn.) West Creek ballcarrier in Friday’s easy win at Tilghman. Overstreet is a key player for a Tornado squad that hopes to snap a six-game losing streak against Mayfield.
Associated Press
Travis Snider of the Pittsburgh Pirates slides into second base with a double ahead of the tag by St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Skip Schumaker Wednesday in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh won 5-0.
Please see STREAK | 3B
Please see CARDINALS | 2B
THE FINE PRINT
On televisionTODAY
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL11:30 a.m. – Chi. White Sox at Baltimore
(WGN)6 p.m. – St. Louis at Washington (Com-
cast-17)PRO FOOTBALL
6 p.m. – Exhibition: New Orleans at Ten-nessee (WPSD-6)
6 – Exhibition: Kansas City at Green Bay (NFL)
10 – Exhibition: Denver at Arizona (NFL)COLLEGE FOOTBALL
6 p.m. – South Carolina at Vanderbilt (ESPN)
6:30 – South Carolina State at Georgia State (CSS)
9:15 – Washington State at Brigham Young (ESPN)
TENNISNoon – U.S. Open (ESPN2)6 p.m. – U.S. Open (ESPN2)GOLF7:30 a.m. – European Masters (TGC)2 p.m. – Web.com: Mylan Classic (TGC)
SOCCER2 p.m. – Europa League: Hearts at Liver-
pool (Fox Soccer)7 – CONCACAF: Seattle at Caledonia (Fox
Soccer)9 – CONCACAF: Houston at Olimpia (Fox
Soccer)
Local sportsTHURSDAY
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL – Lone Oak at Marshall County, Fulton County at Reidland.
HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER – Doubleheaders: Heath at Paducah Tilghman, Reidland at St. Mary. Boys: Community Christian at Graves County, Calloway County at Hopkinsville, Ballard Memorial at Massac County, Trigg County at Murray. Girls: Murray at Lone Oak, Lyon County at Calloway County, Dawson Springs at Crittenden County.
HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL – Hickman County at Heath, Carlisle County at Re-idland, Marshall County at Murray, Christian Fellowship at Graves County, Fulton City at Ballard Memorial, Hopkins Central at Caldwell County, Crittenden County at Trigg County.
HIGH SCHOOL GOLF – Carlisle County and Trigg County at Murray, Community Christian at Ballard Memorial, Hickman County and Mayfield at Graves County, Cal-loway County and Massac County boys at Marshall County, Massac County girls vs. Herrin.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL – Southern Illiinois at Eastern Illinois (6:30 p.m.). SEC: South Carolina at Vanderbilt. OVC: Southeast Mis-souri at Central Michigan, Hampton at Ten-nessee Tech.
Coming up
BASKETBALL: Mid-Continent University’s men’s team will take on a group of former University of Kentucky players in an exhibi-tion game at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at Graves County High School’s Eagles’ Nest. Gates will open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale on Sept. 8, with priority given to Graves season ticket holders. Chair seats are $15 and bleacher seats are $10.
BASKETBALL: Registration for the little league program for students in grades 1-6 at Graves County’s Central Elementary is Sept. 4 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the school. For more information, contact Lucas Camp-bell at 804-5010 or via e-mail at [email protected].
The Rules: Please send your submissions for Purchase sidelines to [email protected], or fax to 270-442-7859, or mail to Sports, The Paducah Sun, Box 2300, Paducah, Ky., 42003-2300.
Purchase memos
FOOTBALLSaturday
Florida Stateat Tallahassee,
Fla.Time: 5 p.m.TV: ESPN3
FOOTBALLSunday
Louisvilleat Louisville
Time: 2:30 p.m.TV: ESPN
FOOTBALLSunday
Kentuckyat Louisville
Time: 2:30 p.m.TV: ESPN
FOOTBALLSept. 8
Central Arkansasat Murray
Time: 6 p.m.TV: none
FOOTBALLSept. 8
Kent Stateat Lexington
Time: 6:30 p.m.TV: CSS
FOOTBALLSept. 8
Missouri Stateat Louisville
Time: 2:30 p.m.TV: ESPN
MURRAYSTATE
KENTUCKY
LOUISVILLE
BASEBALLToday
Washingtonat Washington
Time: 6:05 p.m.TV: Comcast-17
BASEBALLFriday
Washingtonat Washington
Time: 6:05 p.m.TV: Comcast-17
2B • Thursday, August 30, 2012 • The Paducah Sun Morning Update paducahsun.com
the Cardinals for the second straight night.
“You go against that offense and you put 18 zeros on the board in 18 innings, I couldn’t be any prouder of them,” man-ager Clint Hurdle said. “Offen-sively we found a way and had some two out big strikes. To fi nish the last 48 hours, we’re going to battle.”
Joe Kelly (4-6) struggled with control problems during fi ve rocky innings, giving up
fi ve runs on eight hits.The victory helped the Pi-
rates take the season series from St. Louis 8-7, not an in-signifi cant number with both teams battling for a postseason berth. If the two clubs are tied for the second wild card spot at the end of the regular season, the Pirates would have host the play-in game.
The playoffs don’t begin for another fi ve weeks. Pittsburgh, however, remains intent on being a factor until the end.
“We can defi nitely use these
two wins as a sparkplug for games to come,” Alvarez said.
Particularly if the former fi rst-round pick continues to develop into the lineup-an-choring power hitter the team envisioned when it drafted him four years ago. Alvarez certainly feasted on St. Louis pitching this season, going 23-for-58 (.396).
He gave Rodriguez all the offense necessary in the third. Coming to the plate with two on and two out, Alvarez drilled an 82 mph curveball from Kel-
ly into the right fi eld seats. The blast gave the Pirates a
4-0 lead and Alvarez made it 5-0 in the fi fth when he dou-bled with two outs and scored on a single by Josh Harrison.
The Cardinals played with-out catcher Yadier Molina, who sat out as a precaution following a brutal collision at home with Harrison on Tues-day night. Molina suffered neck, shoulder and arm sore-ness after Harrison crashed into him trying to score from second.
CARDINALS
CONTINUED FROM 1B
The Southeastern Con-ference appears poised to maintain its reputation as the Sack Exchange Club.
The SEC once again features an array of hard-to-block pass rushers in-cluding the freakishly fast Barkevious Mingo at LSU, South Carolina’s twin tow-ers Jadeveon Clowney and Devin Taylor and Georgia All-American Jarvis Jones.
They bring speed, size and nifty moves to their dogged pursuit of quarterbacks and are a trademark of a league that has won six straight na-tional titles.
“That’s what separates the SEC from every other league is having guys that can put their hand on the ground — not just the front four but the next four on the depth chart — and can get after the quarterback,” said David Pollack, a former Georgia All-American defensive end and current ESPN analyst.
“It’s the great debate, is it that SEC quarterback play isn’t great or is it great defensive lines? It’s tough
for any quarterback in any conference to throw off their back. They’re not going to be very successful.
“That’s why the SEC sepa-rates itself as far as defense.”
F i v e SEC de-f e n d e r s r a n k e d a m o n g the na-
tion’s top 16 in sacks last season, and 10 in the top 50. The league ranked second among the six BCS confer-ences in sacks per pass at-tempt, bringing down quar-terbacks once for every 13.3 passes thrown. The Big East led the way at 11.9 while the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big Ten and Pacif-ic-12 all averaged more than 16 attempts between sacks.
All that was before Texas A&M joined the SEC. The Aggies led the nation with 51 sacks last season, nearly four a game.
to the league 10 years after a stint at Kentucky. The chal-lenge remains the same: Finding ways to block de-fensive lines loaded with top recruits.
“I think even when I wasn’t coaching in the SEC, that has always been the thing in recruiting, that the difference is the kids up front,” said Pease, who coached at Boise State the past six seasons. “They’re bigger, they’re faster, they’re stronger, there’s more of them.”
And when one bunch moves to the NFL, there are blue-chip replacements waiting in the wings.
South Carolina might not miss a step even though de-fensive end Melvin Ingram, who had 10 sacks, became the league’s fi fth defensive lineman in two years select-ed in the NFL draft’s fi rst round. Clowney, a 6-foot-6 sophomore who had eight sacks after arriving as the nation’s top recruit, will re-place him and play along the Gamecocks’ line with the 6-8 Taylor.
Georgia’s Jones, an out-
side linebacker, racked up 13.5 sacks last season. Min-go, a former track star who still runs a 4.5 40, and fel-low end Sam Montgomery collected 17 sacks between them. Auburn end Corey Lemonier and Texas A&M linebacker Sean Porter had 9.5 sacks apiece.
“They all bring some-thing different and they all have different moves,” said Pollack, a three-time All-American who fi nished with 36 career sacks. “I enjoy watching Corey Lemonier a lot, because he’s one of those guys you’ve got to stab to kill. He plays so dadgum hard. He gives a bunch of effort and is just always all over the place.
“Jarvis is extremely quick, a 3-4 outside linebacker that can get up the fi eld. Mingo is a genetic freak that could play safety, probably, in the SEC. Clowney coming off (eight) sacks as a freshman is almost unheard of, es-pecially not even knowing what he’s supposed to do. He didn’t know what the heck’s going on. He’s just like ‘see ball, hit ball.’”
paducahsun.com Sports The Paducah Sun • Thursday, August 30, 2012 • 3B
poorly against the Purple Flash in coach Ron Bar-nard’s two seasons.
“As tough as (Cole) Ousley is, and he’s good, we didn’t have to worry much about the run with him,” Barnard said. “With Zayire (Hughes) ... whew. We have to worry about him, plus (tailback D’juan) Sherrill back there running behind that big of-fensive line. All we had to do was defend the pass the last two years. Not this year.
“That’s why (Lone Oak coach) Jack Haskins has been so successful for so long. Some coaches can’t change. He has the ability to do it, based on his person-
nel.”In the three years since
the Lone Oak-Marshall se-ries’ resumption, the Mar-shals have yet to score an offensive touchdown. In the 29-6 loss to the Flash in 2010, Marshall was held to less than 60 yards in total offense and its lone score came on an interception return by then-sophomore Noah Steele. Last year, in a 25-0 loss, Marshall man-aged just 157 total yards.
“It doesn’t have to be the fi rst drive, but we need to get something done in the fi rst quarter,” Barnard said. “We’re a little more bal-anced, I think, than we have been, and in the last two years, we’ve fallen behind
early and went to the air. Then bad things happened and it snowballed.”
Reidland-Fulton County: Reidland has played varsity football since 1971, but re-cords for some of the early years are sketchy, so no one really knows for sure if the Greyhounds ever started a season with three consecu-tive wins.
“Let’s just say ‘no’ and maybe someone corrects us down the road,” Reidland coach Shaun Thomas said with a laugh. “The records just haven’t been kept here, and I don’t really know much about how (the pro-gram) did in the 1970s.”
That being said, Thomas feels the Reidland com-
munity is positively giddy over the Greyhounds’ 2-0 start, which included last week’s dramatic 37-35 win over county rival Heath. Reidland scored the game-winning touchdown in the fi nal 30 seconds, then held its breath as Heath missed a potential game-winning fi eld goal as time expired.
“Some Reidland teams in the past, when things went bad, wouldn’t have come back like that,” Thomas said. “The response we’ve gotten for the win is as big as any I can remember in a while.”
Call Joey Fosko, a Paducah Sun sports writ-er, at 270-575-8661.
GAMES
CONTINUED FROM 1B
LOUISVILLE — Seeing Louisville’s frantic of-fensive pace belies how slow it’s actually playing out in quarterback Teddy Bridgewater’s mind.
A year ago, he was re-acting to situations and relying on instinct like any freshman. Mistakes were made and lessons learned, but Bridgewater had to digest things by the next series.
It was a season-long process in one sense, which began with the third game of the year at Ken-tucky. Forced into action when injury knocked out starter Will Stein in the second quarter, Bridge-water played the seasoned role by throwing for two touchdowns in a Cardinals victory.
A Big East Conference title and bowl bid fol-lowed, and Bridgewater now starts the season Sunday leading No. 25 Louisville against visiting Kentucky, intent on show-ing the Wildcats how pro-active he has become since then.
“It’s not different at all because last year I still prepared and struggled to prepare as if I was the starter and I was pushing Stein,” said Bridgewater, who threw for 2,129 yards and 14 touchdowns and was named the Big East’s top rookie .
“This year, Stein is push-ing me, so it’s no different. ... The biggest area (of im-provement) is just manag-ing the game. I’m realizing things, looking at the play clock, getting in and out of the huddle, playing at an up tempo.”
A product of Miami’s Northwestern High School, the reserved Bridgewater is also crank-ing it up off the fi eld. A web video of him and team-mates Michaelee Harris and Eli Rogers singing a Temptations tune during karaoke at a campus res-taurant last week has re-vealed an alter ego, though his rhythm and pitch have teammates urging him to stick to football.
There’s nothing to worry about there, as Bridgewa-
ter has immersed himself in the game since Louis-ville fi nished 7-6. Offset-ting impressive statistics such as his 64.5% comple-tion rate and TD totals were 12 interceptions that suggested room for im-provement.
Though pass protection was an issue because of a mostly young offensive line — Bridgewater was sacked 33 times last sea-son — the quarterback ac-knowledged many things he could have done bet-ter. That led him to study lots of game tape and work with coaches this spring and summer to address the problem areas.
Sunday marks the fi rst test as the Cardinals take aim at the outright con-ference title and a Bowl Championship Series game, but coach Charlie Strong sees a more pol-ished quarterback at ease with the system and him-self.
“Now that he knows the offense, he’s more com-fortable with it and becom-ing more of a student of the game,” Strong said. “He’s been more willing to be a voice. Last year, he didn’t say (anything). He makes the checks and that’s good for him because we’re put-ting it on him where he has to do it.”
And that’s mainly be-cause Bridgewater has worked to break the game into smaller parts.
“It’s slowed down a lot,” he said. “It started once I arrived, but being a young guy I just had to let every-thing go and just play ball.”
Bridgewater, whose lon-gest completion was 58 yards in a loss against Cin-cinnati, wouldn’t say if this progression would involve more deep passes. But it’s not out of the question, considering Rogers caught that long ball while Harris had a 44-yarder.
And Kentucky certainly is prepared for anything from Bridgewater after he came in for Stein and didn’t miss a beat last Sep-tember in Lexington. He fi nished 10 of 18 for 106 yards and directed three scoring drives that buff-ered the Wildcats’ come-back attempts.
U of L quarterbacklearning on the run
BY GARY GRAVESAssociated Press
Associated Press
Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater throws on the run against Syracuse on Oct. 29, 2011, in Louis-ville. Bridgewater is looking to build on last season’s success, when he was the Big East’s top rookie.
BOYSat Oak Hill CC (par-36)
HEATH (158) — Chad Behbehani 38, Sean Warren 38, Tyler Thoma-son 40, David Castleman 42,
LONE OAK (161) — Travis Bechtold 37, Zach Roethemeyer 39, Avery Edwards 42, Sean Mur-phy 43.
HICKMAN COUNTY (185) — Clay-ton Bradshaw 36, Ben Wilson 48, Dylan Jewell 48, Noah Cunningham 53.
REIDLAND (NTS) — Tyler Helm 40, Tyler McManus 51.
High school golf
the Cardinals slip from its grasp two years ago, when the Tornado didn’t connect on a fourth-down pass in overtime and was beaten on a fi eld goal.
“We were real close, and we could’ve won that game,” Mayes said. “The coaches don’t have to talk about it because we talk about it ourselves, even when they’re not around. We know this is our last chance.”
Tackle Kendal Calhoun, in his second year as a starter, admits to having plenty of respect for May-fi eld, given the two pro-grams’ longtime status as state powers.
“It’s an old rivalry, a real competitive rivalry,”
Calhoun said. “We’re both really good programs. We won a state title when I was a freshman, and they’re the dominant team in their class.”
Mayes even mentions the unthinkable, that per-haps a win over Mayfi eld is just as important as winning a state champion-ship. Mayes was on a state title team as a freshman, but he’s never been part of a program that beat the Cardinals. He admits that even a second state title wouldn’t erase the sting of four straight losses to May-fi eld.
“I want to win a state championship,” Mayes said, “but I really want to beat them, too. If we don’t beat them, I’ll still feel like that was one thing we
should’ve done.”Tilghman defensive back
Darius Garnett, also a two-year starter, doesn’t quite see it that way.
“The state ring, that’s what we’re all playing for,” Garnett said. “But this is a big game. We’ve just got to go out there and forget about the last few years. If we go out and perform like we can and make big plays, we’ll win it.”
He also relishes the no-tion that Tilghman could end the streak where it be-gan, at Mayfi eld, denying the Cardinals a chance to accomplish something for the fi rst time on their fi eld.
“Yeah, that would be great, not just for the pro-gram, but for the school because it’s been such a long time,” Garnett said.
“Just winning the game would be great.”
Call Joey Fosko, a Paducah Sun sports writ-er, at 270-575-8661.
seeking first-time unemploy-ment benefits has been creeping higher over the past month.
But economists are expecting that the Labor Department will report today that claims dipped last week to 370,000 from 372,000 the previous week.
When jobless claims remain below 375,000, it generally suggests hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate.
Toda
y
Dave & Buster’s earningsRestaurant and arcade chain Dave & Buster’s opened
a flurry of new locations last year and early this year.And the move helped boost the
company’s revenue in its fiscal first quarter by 10 percent, even as sales at locations open at least a year were essentially flat.
Dave & Buster’s, which filed paperwork last summer to become a publicly traded company, reports second-quarter results today.
J. Crew’s 2QPreppy fashion retailer J.
Crew Group reports fiscal second-quarter results today.
The company, which went private last year in a $3 billion deal with private equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners, is coming off a successful first quarter. Revenue jumped 23 percent and sales at stores open at least a year rose 16 percent. Will J. Crew deliver similarly strong results for the May-to-July quarter? Source: FactSet
Initial jobless claimsIn thousands, weekly total
3 10 17 24
August350
360
370est.370
A quiet AugustYou almost expect to see a tumbleweed rolling
down Wall Street.Stock prices are barely moving day to day. Inves-
tors are trading far fewer shares than last summer. The Chicago Board of Options Exchange Volatility index, the VIX, a sort of crystal ball of stock market swings, recently hit a five-year low.
Compare last August when Congress squabbled over the debt ceiling and the U.S. was stripped of its AAA credit rating. On four straight days, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 634 points, rose 429, plunged 519 and shot up 423.
So it’s easy to forget that this is the way it’s supposed to be. The VIX tends to drop most summers as professional money managers retreat to their second homes in the Hamptons.
This summer, stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index have moved up or down each day by an average of 0.67 percent. The average daily stock move since 1928 is 0.75 percent.
There’s still plenty to worry about. After the stock market had one of its quietest days of the year
Aug. 20, David Rosenberg, chief economist at money manager Gluskin Sheff, sent a report to investors noting too few stocks are rising above their 200-day average price, a sign the rally may not have enough breadth to sustain itself.
But Mark Hulbert, editor of Hulbert Financial Digest, has some investing advice: Relax.
“It's dull in the sense there aren’t a lot of fireworks,” he says. “But then you’re addicted to the excitement, and not in it for making money.”
Source: FactSet Data through Aug. 28 Bernard Condon; J. Paschke • AP
1150
1250
1350
1450
August 2012
August 2011
CBOE volatility index S&P 500 index
All’s quiet: A slow August in the stock market raises some concern about whether investors lack conviction.
24 hours ending 2 p.m. yest. .................. 0.00”Month to date ......................................... 2.68”Normal month to date ............................. 2.59”Year to date .......................................... 16.05”Last year to date ................................... 50.21”Normal year to date .............................. 32.44”
High/low .............................................. 92°/62°Normal high/low .................................. 88°/64°Record high .................................. 99° in 2000Record low .................................... 44° in 1986
Kentucky: Partly sunny and hot today; however, sunnier in the north. A thunderstorm in the area tonight.
Illinois: Mostly sunny and hot today. A moonlit sky tonight; a shower or thunderstorm in the south.
Indiana: Mostly sunny and very warm today. Clear tonight. A thunderstorm in the south tomorrow.
Missouri: Plenty of blazing sunshine and hot today, but clouds will increase across the south.
Arkansas: Some rain and wind from Isaac will push across the south today, mainly late.
Tennessee: Clouds and limited sun today. A shower or thunderstorm tonight; partly cloudy in the east.
Today Fri. Today Fri.
Albuquerque 90 63 pc 91 63 tAtlanta 82 70 t 87 72 tBaltimore 86 62 s 93 68 sBillings 84 58 s 89 62 sBoise 88 58 s 87 55 sBoston 84 67 s 93 71 sCharleston, SC 83 71 t 86 70 tCharleston, WV 88 61 pc 91 67 sChicago 93 70 s 93 70 sCleveland 84 65 s 90 70 sDenver 94 58 pc 89 57 sDes Moines 99 66 s 96 68 sDetroit 88 65 s 93 68 sEl Paso 90 67 pc 94 70 sFairbanks 65 43 c 55 42 cHonolulu 88 73 pc 87 75 sHouston 89 77 t 95 77 tIndianapolis 90 67 s 92 71 pcJacksonville 87 71 t 83 69 t
Las Vegas 101 82 s 98 80 sLos Angeles 88 67 s 85 63 pcMiami 91 81 t 91 81 tMilwaukee 90 69 s 93 68 sMinneapolis 96 68 s 91 69 sNew Orleans 81 79 r 89 77 tNew York City 85 70 s 92 72 sOklahoma City 94 71 s 90 72 pcOmaha 99 65 s 91 69 sOrlando 91 75 t 91 74 tPhiladelphia 87 68 s 95 72 sPhoenix 103 82 s 101 82 sPittsburgh 85 60 s 90 67 sSalt Lake City 88 68 t 92 62 tSan Diego 81 69 pc 77 67 pcSan Francisco 67 53 pc 62 54 pcSeattle 67 50 pc 68 52 pcTucson 97 73 t 96 74 tWashington, DC 89 71 s 94 73 s
Today Fri.
Belleville, IL 94 68 s 84 70 tBowling Gn., KY 92 72 s 86 73 tBristol, TN 85 62 pc 89 63 tC. Girardeau, MO 92 73 pc 83 72 tCarbondale, IL 94 70 pc 84 70 tCharleston, WV 88 61 pc 91 67 sChattanooga, TN 86 71 t 89 70 tClarksville, TN 93 71 pc 85 71 tColumbia, MO 92 71 s 87 74 tEvansville, IN 92 68 s 85 71 tFt. Smith, AR 95 76 t 81 75 rHopkinsville, KY 93 71 pc 85 71 tIndianapolis, IN 90 67 s 92 71 pcJackson, KY 85 67 s 88 68 tJackson, TN 88 74 c 87 73 tJoplin, MO 96 73 s 79 73 tKansas City, MO 101 70 s 90 72 cKnoxville, TN 87 68 c 90 70 tLexington, KY 91 66 s 87 70 tLittle Rock, AR 85 74 t 85 73 rLondon, KY 84 65 s 88 68 tLouisville, KY 92 72 s 86 73 tMemphis, TN 86 77 t 87 76 tNashville, TN 90 72 pc 87 72 tPeoria, IL 97 68 s 94 69 pcSt. Louis, MO 92 70 s 83 71 tSpringfi eld, IL 92 67 s 88 70 pcSpringfi eld, MO 94 71 s 81 71 rTerre Haute, IN 90 62 s 89 69 pc
National Summary: Isaac will slowly weaken and drift inland over the South Central states today. In the process, Isaac will bring areas of fl ooding rain, damaging wind gusts and severe thunder-storms. Spotty storms will drench other parts of the South. Heat will build from central Texas to the Northeast. Storms will dot the Upper Midwest and Four Corners.
Lake Barkley 359 357.05 -0.10Kentucky Lake 359 357.10 -0.16
Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
4B • Thursday, August 30, 2012 • The Paducah Sun Sports paducahsun.com
NEW YORK — The NFL will open the regular sea-son next week with re-placement offi cials and said it was prepared to use them “as much ... as neces-sary” afterward.
Replacements will be on the fi eld beginning Wednesday night when the Dallas Cowboys visit the New York Giants in the sea-son opener, league execu-tive Ray Anderson told the 32 teams in a memo. Ne-gotiations are at a standstill between the NFL and the offi cials’ union.
The NFL Referees As-sociation was locked out in early June and talks on a new collective bargaining agreement have gone no-
where. Replacements have been used throughout the preseason, with mixed re-sults.
In 2001, the NFL used replacements for the fi rst week of the regular season before a contract was fi nal-ized. The speed of the game and the amount of time starters are on the fi eld in-crease exponentially for real games, making the re-placements’ task more chal-lenging.
Anderson, the NFL’s ex-ecutive vice president of football operations, told the clubs in a memo Wednes-day that the replacements will work “as much of the regular season as neces-sary,” adding that training with each crew will con-tinue.
The NFL noted it has ex-panded the use of instant replay as an offi ciating tool this year to include all scor-ing plays and turnovers. Of-fi ciating supervisors will be on hand to assist the crews on game administration is-sues.
“We are not surprised, based on Ray Anderson’s statements ... that the NFL was not going to reach out to us,” NFLRA spokes-man Michael Arnold said. “However, this is consistent with the NFL’s negotiating strategy which has been ‘take it or leave it and lock them out.’ It now appears the NFL is willing to forego any attempt to reach a deal in the last seven days before opening night.”
The NFL Players Associa-
tion, which went through a 4½- month lockout last year before settling on a new contract, expressed disap-pointment about the deci-sion to use replacements.
Colts safety Antoine Bethea said there is a feel-ing of solidarity with the of-fi cials.
“They’ve got to do what they’ve got to do, and we were in a similar situation a little while ago,” Bethea said. “So you can’t fault those guys for doing what they have to do.”
Anderson said the sides remain considerably apart on economic issues, includ-ing salary and retirement benefi ts. He also told the teams there is a substantial difference on operational issues.
Ref replacements stay on jobBY BARRY WILNER
Associated Press
Associated Press
San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh argues with an official during the second quarter of a preseason game Sunday in Denver. WIth an agreement with the NFL Referees Association still elusive, the NFL will use re-placement officials, as it has in the preseason, when the season starts next week.
tackle and guard in sopho-mores Drew Kelly and Zach Littlefi eld, respectively.
Head coach Chris Hatcher likes the talent of his linemen, but under-stands the type of challenge they’re going up against in the likes of Florida State’s upperclassmen-led defen-sive line.
“They’re going against
four fi rst-round draft choic-es,” Hatcher said, “and that’s the biggest challenge is in the trenches of being able to compete and being able to move the ball.”
Juniors Duane Brady and Jordan Morrow, a ju-nior college transfer, are at the top of the running back chart. Hatcher expects the NCAA to clear Ohio State transfer running back Jaa-mal Berry to play this week,
though he is a solid third option after arriving at MSU out of shape.
But the big key for the Racers is going to be Brock-man’s ability to orchestrate the offense, something he was unable to do last season as a junior against Football Bowl Subdivision school Louisville. For Hatcher and Stewart, a lot of Saturday’s success will come back to keeping things simple.
“Casey’s got to have some success early,” Hatcher said. “We’ve got to do a good job of getting him some easy completions, getting him in the fl ow of the game, something that we tried against Louisville, but had a diffi cult time do-ing that.”
Call Dusty Luthy Shull, a Paducah Sun sports writer, at 270-575-8662.
RACERS
CONTINUED FROM 1B
NEW YORK — Kim Cli-jsters’ singles career ended where she wanted it to, just not the way she hoped.
The four-time Grand Slam champion lost 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) to 18-year-old Laura Robson of Britain in the second round of the U.S. Open on Wednesday, and will head into retirement after she fi nishes playing in doubles at Flushing Mead-ows.
Clijsters walked away from the sport once before, in May 2007, then returned after a 2 1⁄2-year hiatus. But now 29 and a mother, the Belgian insisted this season that she means it this time, and decided the U.S. Open — and its hard courts that she conquered on the way to three championships — would be her fi nal tourna-ment.
“It’s the place that has inspired me so much to do well and to do great things. It’s hard to explain some-times why,” Clijsters said in an on-court interview, her face fl ushed and her eyes welling with tears.
“This completely feels like the perfect place to re-tire,” Clijsters told the spec-tators at Arthur Ashe Sta-dium, many of whom rose to shower her with a stand-ing ovation. “I just wish it wasn’t today.”
The loss Wednesday ended Clijsters’ 22-match winning streak in New York, encompassing titles in 2005, 2009 and 2010, plus Monday’s fi rst-round victory.
She missed the hard-court major in 2004, 2006-08 and last year, thanks to a combination of injuries and the time she took off while starting a family. Her daughter, Jada, was born in February 2008. By August 2009, Clijsters was back on tour; unseeded and un-ranked, because she only played in two previous tour-naments during her come-back, she won that year’s U.S. Open.
“Since I retired the fi rst time, it’s been a great ad-venture for my team and my family,” said Clijsters, who was 28-0 against play-ers ranked outside the top 10 at the U.S. Open before
Wednesday. “It’s all been worth it. But I do look for-ward to the next part of my life coming up.”
Her previous defeat at Flushing Meadows came against Belgian rival Justine Henin on Sept. 6, 2003, in the tournament fi nal. Rob-son was 9 at the time.
This did have the feel, in some ways, of a changing of the guard.
Clijsters fi nished with a career singles record of 523-127 (a winning per-centage of .805) and 41 titles, including her last major trophy at the 2011 Australian Open. She spent a total of 20 weeks ranked No. 1, as recently as Febru-ary 2011.
Ranked 89th, and with only one prior victory over a top-25 player, Robson has been viewed — particularly back home in Britain — as an up-and-coming player whose smooth left-handed strokes would carry her far.
It could get even wild-er: She next faces Ma-ria Sharapova, a 6-0, 6-1 winner Wednesday night over 78th-ranked Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain.
Earlier at Ashe, the high-est-ranked American man, John Isner, beat Xavier Malisse 6-3, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (9) in the fi rst round.
Clijsters exitsat ‘perfect place’BY HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press
Associated Press
Kim Clijsters waves to the crowd after losing to Laura Robson in the sec-ond round at the U.S. Open tennis tournament Wednesday in New York. Clijsters is retiring after she finishes playing in dou-bles at the tournament.
6B • Thursday, August 30, 2012 • The Paducah Sun paducahsun.com
