CINCINNATI SPORTS LAST WEEK

Brandon Phillips of the Reds was awarded the Gold Glove for second basemen in the National League for his play this past season. He had only seven errors the whole year, has great range and consistently made difficult plays look easy. He should have won this award the year before and will probably win it for years to come.


On Wednesday, Fenwick High girls soccer, who won the district title last weekend, defeated the top rated and previously undefeated Maderia squad 3-1 to go the the state finals. The Lady Falcons went on to win the State Championship on Saturday afternoon, defeating Akron Hoban 1-0. Falcons win! Falcons win! Falcons win!


On Friday night, Xavier played Division II Findlay at Cintas Center in a preseason game. The Muskies looked like they were in mid-season form at first. Findlay is a top team in Division II and fought back to tie the score with a minute left. The Muskies eked out a 79-76 win. The freshman got a lot of playing time and it showed with 28 turn-overs.

Also on Friday night, in State high school football playoff action, Altar advanced by beating Badin 42-7, Winton Woods knocked out Kings 44-9 and Anderson stayed alive with a 31-13 win over Tecumseh. On Saturday night, CHCA was knocked out by West Jefferson in division VI and in division I, Colerain and Elder both won at Nippert Stadium to send those two to the District finals against each other next weekend.

The UC football Bearcats played a wild one in Morgantown on Saturday night...wild and strange and wonderful! It started with a bang. Mardy Gilyard took the opening kickoff and zipped through the West Virginia cover team for a 102 yard touchdown. The Bearcat defense only allowed the number 20 team in the country one drive in the first half and the offense rolled to a 20-7 lead at the break. Just before the end of the half, the Cats missed their first field goal attempt of the year when it hit off of the upright. The second half was dominated by both defenses. The score was still 20-7 with 3 minutes left in the game when Cincinnati made a great goal line stand and sent the home fans to the parking lots. Unable to move the ball away from their end zone, the coaching staff decided to take a safety with 1:11 on the clock. It was now 20-9 and the Bearcats had to kick it to the Mountaineers.

Utilizing a prevent defense, Cincinnati allowed the Big East leaders to march down the field and score with 18 seconds left on the clock. WVU went for two on the extra point and quarterback Pat White made it easily. The score now stood 20-17. West Virginia made the expected on-side kick and was able to recover the ball with 17 seconds remaining. A pass to the sidelines and they were set up for a 52 yard field goal attempt as time ran out. Of course, it was good. To overtime, they went. Cincinnati got a big break by winning the coin flip. The home team was not able to get it past the 10 yard line and settled for the 27 yard field goal. Tony Pike then led the Cats quickly to the 3 yard line with the aid of a penalty. He then faked the run to the left and rolled to the right and threw a floater to tight end Kazeem Alli for the win 26-23. Whew! Visions of a BCS Bowl are alive in Clifton.

The Bengals had a bye. The Eagles are here next week and I'll be there! No word on Carson Palmer as yet.