USC silences critics with a blowout of Syracuse

By Gary Montgomery, BVN Staff –

Los Angeles – The Trojans gave its fans what they have been waiting to see this season ─ a complete game. USC finished Saturdays’ game with its offense on the field for a change rather than its defense struggling to come up with a play to preserve the win. A welcomed delight for their 65,873 faithful fans in attendance.

After another week of listening to the grumbling and second guessing, The Trojan offense turned in its most balanced effort in several seasons. The passing attack obviously dominated the action but the balance play calling of their attack was excellent with 39 passes and 33 rushing attempts for the game. Most noticeable was the return of the long pass to the Trojan’s offensive repertoire.

“We had to approach it that way tonight (deep passing attack). They are a strong team against the run so I didn’t want to get caught up in another game where we were running the ball just for the sake of running it. The vertical game is what was open for us and we took it,” said USC second year head coach Lane Kiffin.

And took it they did. Junior quarterback Matt Barkley had a career day throwing the ball 39 times to eight different receivers for a total of 326 passing yards and no interceptions. It was one of his best performances since taking over the quarterback duties as true freshman in the 2009 season.

“It was a different experience tonight than the other five touchdown games I’ve had in the past. I didn’t notice it until I looked up at the board late in the game and I think that was because of how we spread the ball around tonight. We had a full game on offense and everyone pitched in. It feels good and we needed this,” said USC quarterback Matt Barkley.

After beginning the season with back-to-back nail biters against underdog opponents, the Trojan fans were becoming a little concerned about their team’s ability to close out games. Against Minnesota, the Trojans relied on a Torin Harris interception the final drive. And again last week against Utah, the defense had to block a late field goal to preserve the win. If you go back to last season, the Trojans lost 4 games on the opponent’s final posession. So, it makes perfect sense that fans would begin to dread seeing that scenario developing again.

On Saturday there was little doubt that the Orangemen’s first ever game against USC and first trip to the Coliseum since 1924 would be anything but a convincing loss. After Syracuse scored on a 23-yard field goal from Ross Krautman at 6:44 of the first quarter, it was all Trojans from that point on. USC would go on to score 17 unanswered points in the first half and take a 17-3 lead into halftime.

In the second, USC’s Curtis McNeal returned the second half kickoff 17-yards setting the offense up on its own 36 yard line. After 3 plays and a first down, Matt Barkley hit sophomore tight end Randall Telfer from Rancho Cucamonga with a 44-yard touchdown pass to increase the lead to 24-3. Telfer’s touchdown was the first opening second half scoring drive of the season. A significant accomplishment for the young Trojan’s offensive unit and an obvious sign of relief for the Trojan faithful.

Syracuse would go on to score its first touchdown with 10:43 left in the 3rd quarter on a 28-yard pass from Alec Lemon to Van Chew to tighten the score at 24-10 but would never pose a serious threat to the Trojans. USC’s offense never let up and unlike previous games matched the opponent’s scoring to end. Syracuse scored one final touchdown on a 12-yard pass from Ryan Nassib to Alec Lemon. Barkley threw scoring passes of 43-yards and 9-yards to Marquise Lee and Xavier Gimble to reach the final score.

Not only did USC’s win over unrated Syracuse give their fans hope for the season, it also could help give the young Trojan offense a much needed boost of confidence before heading into the more difficult part of the season. The road gets increasingly difficult from here with USC heading into Sun Valley to tangle with the number 22 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils next week. If the young receivers keep improving and contributing as they did on Saturday, The Trojans could be an unexpected force in the first ever Pac-12 title race.

G. Montgomery can be reached at sports@blackvoicenews.com

By Gary Montgomery, BVN Staff –

Commentary – Chargers’ Season Preview

San Diego – The Chargers completed their 2011 preseason campaign with a 2-2 record. If preseason wins over Dallas, Arizona are indicative of things to come then the Chargers should be able to hold their own on and end up atop the AFC West again this season. Then again, if losses to the Seahawks and the 49ers have any ratings value then Bolt Fans should be duly concerned. The point is – preseason games give the Talking Heads a lot to chatter about and fill the airwaves with predictions and guarantees that no one will remember next. But truthfully, preseason contests provide very little tangible information that can be used to predict a team’s regular season success.

Here is the way we see the Chargers 2011 Team:

Offense:

Phillip Rivers has been dubbed an elite quarterback since he took over as the full time starter at the beginning of the 2006 season. His statistics over the past five seasons certainly support any of those adjectives often used to describe great quarterback plays. Suddenly though, those same pundits who dubbed him ‘Elite’ a few seasons ago are now turning on him and hurling the ‘O’ word around.

Rivers is in no way an overrated player but the Chargers’ lack of playoff success and not getting to the Super bowl are being unfairly levied at Rivers. The facts are, Rivers has been forced to do the heavy lifting since the demise and eventual departure of LaDainian Tomlinson. Each year Rivers has increased his personal statistics but the team’s overall performance has been erratic at best. Rivers threw the ball 541 times in 2010, nearly 100 more passes than he threw in the 2006 season when the Chargers won 14 games.

Second year running back Ryan Mathews rushed for 678-yards last season but those numbers don’t paralyze defenses like having a 2,000-yard rushing threat in the backfield. Unlike Brady and Manning who operate with slightly better than average running games, Rivers needs a strong running game behind him.

Lastly, beginning the season with tight end Antonio Gates not a full strength could be a big problem. Gates has consistently been Rivers favorite target and has been the team’s leading receiver in three of the past five years. Gates played in only 10 games last season and missed most of the preseason with injuries.

Defense:

The Chargers defensive issues are simple and very easy to characterize. Every great defensive unit throughout the history of the NFL has had an identity. Usually, a group of guys, sometimes a single individual that filled the role or provided the leadership needed to be a great defensive unit. The Chargers had that in the 2006 season when Shawne Merriman led the team with 17 sacks and popularized his ‘sack dance’.

Since Merriman’s demise and eventual departure, the Chargers defense has not been able to cultivate a new defensive identity.

The Chargers preseason schedule didn’t answer any of these questions. Only time will tell but if any or all of these issues persists it is going to be a long season for Charger Fans.

G. Montgomery can be reached at sports@blackvoicenews.com

By Earl Heath –

The Black Voice News takes you to Loveland,Colorado where its five-thirty a.m. and the breakfast room at the Holiday Inn Express is filled with a group of fourteen year-olds a few parents and coaches. They are team Kolohe. (which means rascals).Their home is Ewa Beach Hawaii located on the island of Oahu. They are part of Triple Crown Sports 160 plus team Jr. Sparkler tournament.

“Its some of the girls first time off the island,” said Dawn Akioa. ”They are all having fun and enjoying themselves.”

A week earlier Kolohe finished ninth in the forty team Colorado Classic; also put on by Triple Crown Sports. They are a team unified as they eat laugh and share their adventure as a whole.

Southern California’s Rynell Thomas swings a mean stick for the Batbusters but her dreams show something different. “I want to get in to Law Enforcement,” said the 12 year old. Softball helps her get her focus on life.

Robert Ferguson drove his Minnesota Renagade team fifteen hours to take part in the tournament. “I never realized how long Nebraska was,“ said Ferguson jokingly.

“We has to gas up there ten times. “

Coach Mike Moore brought his Blue Angel team from North Haven, Mississippi a town a few miles south of West Memphis Arkansas.

Team Pegasus of Salt Lake boasted of the most passionate coaches in the game. The forty something Mary Kay sprinted from the dugout to and from her third base coaches box every inning. Her team would follow with the same type of energy. The Victoria Devils 14U team had a contingent of about twenty- five. They made the trek from Vancouver Island British, Columbia.

They began their preparation in October of 2010.

Practicing indoors due to weather restraints. It was a hard working team that was enthusiastic and also very grateful to be here. It took various fundraising efforts and some willing parents to get the group here.

“They love playing teams from America,” said head coach Brian Wallace. “The teams here are very competitive and challenging.“

The team was impressed with number of fields in the Loveland, Denver area and how well they were kept up. Tourney sites consisted of more than sixty fields.

Mother nature also was a fore-front, temperatures reached 90 plus daily. “We don’t get this much heat at home, The temperature doesn’t get much more than eighty degrees where were from.” July 1st is Canada’s Independence Day. Before their game on this date the players lined up along the first base line and sang O Canada.

The tourney came to an end for the Devils on the final Saturday. Trailing 8-1 in the final frame they rallied back to just fall 8-7. It didn’t appear to harm the spirits. “I’m proud of each and everyone of you,” Wallace told his team after the game.

“You brought something with you. Each and every umpire said it was a pleasure when you were on the field.”

With Triple Crown Sports putting on the regular Sparkler and the having some 400 plus teams in the Denver, Westminster area there were over 560 teams gathered for the week.

From Victoria British Columbia to North Haven, Mississippi, from the woods of Minnesota to the to the plains of Missouri. The Island of Hawaii and from the desert to the sea in Southern California.

We can all learn one thing The ‘softball nation’ is bigger than all of us. Tomorrow’s Kanora Posey’s, Monica Abbots’, Jenny Finches, Natasha Watley’s are beginning to grow. The seeds have been planted. It is truly “one nation under a groove.”

(Reuters) - Olympic double bronze medalist Walter Dix does not buy the talk that America, without Tyson Gay, will have no answer for Jamaica's Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell at next month's world championships.

U.S. championship victories at 100 and 200 meters have convinced the Floridian he can be a shock factor in the short race and medal in the longer run as well at the August 27-September 4 world championships in South Korea.

"I love to prove people wrong," Dix, who will compete in Canada's National Track League meeting in Toronto on Wednesday, told Reuters via telephone.

World record holder Bolt recently said he believed without world silver medalist Gay, who underwent hip surgery last week, his biggest challengers in South Korea would be his Jamaican team mates and fellow Caribbean sprinters.

"I have always had the confidence I can beat those guys," said Dix, who won the U.S. championships in respectable but not Bolt-like times. "I just haven't been able to stay healthy since 2007. This is the first year I am doing that."

The improved health and good results so far have sparked thoughts that Bolt could be beaten in Daegu, which is one reason Dix is competing in Toronto and ran on Sunday in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The American needs to fine-tune his start and the early portions of his 100 meters if he is to have a chance against Bolt in the world championships.

"If I can just come out of the blocks next to him, if I can be with him or a step ahead at 40 meters, I think it is a wrap," Dix said of his plan to dethrone Bolt.

"I don't see myself losing to him. I ran down Asafa a couple of times (in races) and I think Bolt and I have about the same top-end speed ... I don't think he is going to pull away from me too much."

The ever-hopeful Dix may need a refresher course in events of the 2008 Olympics, where the lanky Bolt was untouchable in Beijing once he unfurled his long stride pattern, romping to world records in both the 100 and 200.

EXTREMELY PROUD

Dix claimed bronze in the 100 and was elevated to bronze in the 200 after two athletes who finished ahead of him were disqualified.

Bolt dropped his world records to 9.58 seconds in the 100 and 19.19 seconds in the 200 at the 2009 world championships. Dix has bests of 9.88 (in 2010) and 19.69 (in 2007).

Yet, Dix insisted he could run with Bolt and Powell.

"When I saw 9.5. and 9.6 (for Bolt), I believed I could run 9.7 or 9.6," he said, "and I always thought I was going to run 19.3 (in the 200)."

An extremely proud individual who dominated U.S. collegiate sprinting in the mid 2000s, Dix missed the 2009 world championships with a pulled hamstring.

"That injury really set me back," the 25-year-old said. "It took me out of the picture."

Getting back in has proved difficult even with his U.S. sprint double.

"They (the media) are still saying Usain this and Asafa that," Dix said. "It's everybody under the sun (but me) ... But I appreciate that. It just makes me want to work harder."