Yesterday in Sports: New Years

The first ever College Football Playoff semi-final games took place yesterday. Before these games could start there were some other important bowls, They were Cotton, Citrus, and Outback bowls. All three of these bowls featured ranked teams. In the Outback Bowl Wisconsin beat Auburn 34-31. Heisman finalist Melvin Gordon rushed for over 250 yards with 3 TDs. The game would go to OT tied 31-31. Auburn would miss a field goal giving Wisconsin the win.

The Citrus Bowl was a good one...until the fourth quarter. Minnesota trailed 17-19 to Missouri heading into the fourth but failed to score then. Missouri would score two fourth quarter TDs giving them a 33-17 win.

The Cotton Bowl was a thriller. It featured two loss Michigan State and One loss Baylor. The game was tied at 14 after the first quarter but then Baylor went off and took a 41-21 lead heading into the fourth. Michigan State scored twice in the fourth to make it 41-35, however, Baylor had the ball with under 5 minutes left and was lined up to kick a with just over a minute left, but they were blocked giving MSU the ball with 1:05 left. They then had a 81 yard drive for a TD with 17 seconds left giving them a 42-41 lead and winning the game.

Now, onto the semi-finals. The first of the semis was the Rose Bowl where Oregon took on Florida State. Heading into the half Oregon lead FSU 18-13. After exchanging second half TDs ORE then lead 25-20. Oregon then went off scoring 5 straight touchdowns, winning the game 59-20. Oregon then had to wait until the Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Ohio State was over to see who they will play in the National Championship.

The Sugar Bowl was much tighter than the Rose Bowl. Alabama lead 21-20 heading into the half, however OSU was not done. By the end of the third OSU was up 34-28. The two exchanged fourth quarter TDs then Alabama had the ball with a minute and a half left. With no time remaining Bama would be picked off on the hail mary and lose the game 42-35. Ohio State will play Oregon on January 12 for the National Championship.

The 7th annual Winter Classic took place in the NHL yesterday between the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks. The Caps jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead but it was tied 2-2 going into the third. At 19:47 of the third Troy Brouwer scored a goal for Washington to give them their second winter classic victory.

Yesterday in Sports: New Year's Eve

Yesterday there were 3 big College Football bowls, all of which were blowouts. In all 3 games the team who scored first not only won, but lead for the whole game. The Peach Bowl featured TCU and Ole miss, both top 10 teams. The two teams combined for 45 points, however, TCU scored 42 of them. Ole Miss did not score until the fourth quarter and had more turnovers (4) than points (3).

The two teams playing in the Fiesta bowl were Boise State and Arizona. Boise State went into halftime leading 31-17, however they fell apart in the second half. Entering the fourth the score was 38-27 but Boise managed to hold on for a 38-30 win.

In the Orange Bowl Mississippi State took on Georgia Tech. It looked like GT would be winning 21-13 heading into the half but a 42 yard TD pass with no time left made the score 21-20 stating the second half. Unfortunately for MSST they played terrible in the second half and lost 49-34.