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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, October 3, 2009

St. Thomas Aquinas still No. 1 in football


Advertiser News Services

Another mythical high school national championship seems like a very real possibility for Florida power St. Thomas Aquinas.

Standing on the Aquinas sideline, Urban Meyer had to be impressed.

With the Florida coach among the 20,000 or so who came to see a much-hyped matchup of the two teams generally considered the nation's best, No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas of Fort Lauderdale knocked off No. 2 Byrnes High of Duncan, S.C., 42-34, last night at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Junior quarterback Jacob Rudock threw for 196 yards and four touchdowns for St. Thomas Aquinas (4-0), the two-time defending Florida Class 5A champions and the team voted atop most of last season's national polls. Lamarcus Joyner ran a kickoff back 93 yards for a fourth-quarter TD for Aquinas, now winners of 28 straight.

"I don't know if you can say anybody's the best team in the country," Aquinas coach George Smith said. "Who knows? That's not what's important and what I take away from tonight. We played a team that is one of the better teams we played in the history of this school and we won the game."

Rutgers commitment Chas Dodd threw for 416 yards and three touchdowns for Byrnes (5-1). Marcus Lattimore, the most sought-after running back in 2010 recruiting class, had two rushing touchdowns for the Rebels, who had scored at least 52 points in each of its past four games, including 85 two weeks ago.

LAW AND ORDER

ARREST MADE IN NUDE VIDEOS OF REPORTER

A Chicago-area man accused of taking surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in a hotel room was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport last night, the FBI said in a statement.

Michael David Barrett, 48, faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, posting the videos online and trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ.com, the FBI said. He's scheduled to make an initial court appearance this morning in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The charges were filed in Los Angeles, where TMZ.com is based. Andrews is identified in the federal complaint as E.A.

Barrett, of Westmont, Ill., was arrested after returning from a trip to Buffalo, N.Y., authorities said.

Seven of the eight videos posted online were taken through a modified door peephole while Andrews was alone and undressed in hotel rooms in Nashville, Tenn., in September 2008. Investigators believe the eighth video was taken in a hotel in Milwaukee in July 2008.

AUTO RACING

MARTIN GAINS POLE FOR THIRD CHASE RACE

Mark Martin has another pole in his race to win the Chase.

Martin turned a lap of 175.758 mph on a cool, windy Friday on the 1.5-mile oval at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., earning his seventh pole of the season.

The 50-year-old will start on the front row with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in tomorrow's Price Chopper 400, the third of 10 races in the Chase for the championship.

Martin has won five times this season and holds a 10-point lead over three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who qualified 11th.

Earnhardt, who hasn't won since Michigan last year, gets his best starting position this season.

SAILING

ORACLE OBJECTS TO SITE OF AMERICA'S CUP

Citing "grave safety concerns" for its U.S.-based crew that would be sailing a massive trimaran named USA within miles of Iran, challenger BMW Oracle Racing yesterday asked a New York court to reject Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, as the port for the 33rd America's Cup.

BMW Oracle Racing filed a motion with the Supreme Court of the State of New York asking that the Persian Gulf port be replaced with Valencia, Spain, as the site for the best-of-3 showdown against bitter rival and two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland for the oldest trophy in international sports.

Ras al-Khaimah, or RAK, is on the southern end of the Persian Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from Iran.

BMW Oracle Racing is owned by software tycoon and sailor Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp. Ellison himself raised safety concerns a few days after Alinghi announced RAK as the venue in early August.

Racing is scheduled to begin on Feb. 8.