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Sports 1B Wednesday September 4, 2013 HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PREVIEW | Corning Cardinals Cards enter season with eyes wide open By ANDRE BYIK DN Staff Writer CORNING — Corning High School's football team finished last season unceremoniously. The team that had been a force in the Northern Athletic League completed the 2012 season with one league win to its name and an overall 4-6 record. The Cardinals' traditionally powerful running game fell flat, and Chayce Maday, the junior quarterback at the time, was forced pass the ball with mixed results. Now, Corning coach John Studer expects more, and he's observed a class of seniors who are putting in the work. "For this year's seniors, I think last year was somewhat of an eye-opener," Studer said. "They kind of recognize really what it takes to be successful, and I think because of the lack of success last year the senior class that we have has put a lot more effort into the spring and into the summer." Maday, a 5-foot-11 senior, has especially shown a transformation that's impressed his head coach. Studer said Maday may have felt he had something to prove as a junior starter last year, but the last few months have been different. "I'd say the most important thing that I've seen from him is he's relaxed and he's confident," Studer said, adding, "He's got such a higher confidence level that, you know, there's Chayce Maday nothing to prove. This is his job, he's earned this job and it's his responsibility to kind of lead this team and it's something that you can tell he's embraced." Corning opens its season with a trio of home games against Division I opponents, starting with Las Plumas at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Then it's on to Oroville and the Tehama County Shootout game against Red Bluff. The Cards' only two-game winning streak last Daily News photo by Andre Byik Members of the Corning Cardinals football team practice Tuesday at Corning Union High School. The Cards open their season at home at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Las Plumas. year came against Las Plumas and Oroville, which they easily dispatched. Ideally, Studer said, Corning will play an uptempo and unpredictable game. "We have more overall team speed than we've had in quite a few years," he said. "So, hopefully (people) will see a fast football game, not just our guys running around but our ability to get a play in and run from play to play ... And hopefully we do a better job dispersing the ball a little bit because I think we have enough talented backs in the backfield." 49ERS U.S. OPEN Serena shuts out quarters foe NEW YORK (AP) — From an ace on the first point to a stinging return on the last, Serena Williams was close to perfect in the U.S. Open quarterfinals. The score said it all Tuesday night: 6-0, 6-0. Yes, Williams is looking better and better with each match at the year's last Grand Slam tournament. With two more wins — no matter the exact scores — she'll earn a fifth title at Flushing Meadows and 17th major championship overall. The No. 1-ranked and No. 1-seeded Williams shut out 18th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, the first ''double bagel'' in a quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows since 1989, when 18-time major title winner Martina Navratilova did it to Manuela Maleeva. Williams won 53 of 71 points and dominated pretty much every statistical category. The first set took all of 19 minutes. The second was slower, lasting 33 minutes, but no less lopsided. ''When you play against Serena,'' Suarez Navarro said, ''you know these things can happen.'' In Friday's semifinals, Williams will play 2011 French Open champion Li Na of China. Asked in an on-court interview if her game is peaking, Williams replied: ''No. Not yet. I hope not. I'm just trying to do the best AP photo Serena Williams tosses the ball on a serve to Carla Suarez Navarro, of Spain, during a quarterfinal of the U.S. Open tennis tournament Tuesday in New York. that I can.'' Well, that just happens to be rather good. Through five matches, Williams has dropped a total of 13 games so far. For comparison's sake, know this: Suarez Navarro lost more games than that in her previous match alone, 15, while eliminating No. 8 Angelique Kerber. That victory, and her seeding, should have demonstrated that Suarez Navarro is quite capable of playing well, too. But not on this evening. Not against Williams, who is 65-4 with eight titles in 2013. Going back to the start of Wimbledon last year, the 31-year- Tehama Tracker Today's schedule CROSS COUNTRY Oroville and Paradise at Corning, 3:30 p.m. FIELD HOCKEY Bella Vista at Corning, 3:30 p.m. GOLF Red Bluff at Lengfeld Memorial Tournament at Rocklin, 11 a.m. TENNIS Gridley at Corning, 3:30 p.m. VOLLEYBALL Orland at Corning, 7 p.m. MLB But will that speed, and a relatively inexperienced but intelligent defense, propel Corning to the postseason? "I think talent wise these guys definitely have the ability to be, in my opinion should be, a playoff team," Studer said, adding, "And you know once you get into the playoffs if you get on a little bit of a run, which they have the ability to do, I can see them winning two playoff games and getting into that championship game." Corning last won a Division II title in 2002. Texas at Oakland, 12:35 p.m., CSNC San Francisco at San Diego, 3:40 p.m., CSNB Sports on TV MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 4 p.m. ESPN — Detroit at Boston 7 p.m. ESPN — Tampa Bay at L.A. Angels TENNIS 9 a.m. ESPN2 — U.S. Open, quarterfinals, at New York 4 p.m. ESPN2 — U.S. Open, quarterfinals, at New York old American is 96-5 with 13 trophies, including from three of the past five Grand Slam tournaments plus the London Olympics. ''The conditions were so tough, so it definitely was not her best tennis today,'' Williams said about Suarez Navarro, who was playing in her third career major quarterfinal Tuesday, which happened to be her 25th birthday. Tough conditions, huh? That swirling wind in Arthur Ashe Stadium sure did not appear to bother Williams one bit. She wound up with a 20-3 edge in winners. She made fewer unforced errors, 12-9. She won 23 of 26 points on first serves. ''I've been playing here for, like, 50 years,'' Williams said with a laugh. ''I've kind of gotten used to the conditions. Even though it's difficult to play each year, I'm getting a little bit better with it.'' When Williams did face a break point for the first time, 42 minutes and 11 games into the match, she came up with a big serve and raced forward for a simple putaway that she punctuated with a yell. Moments later came a second break chance, but even with Williams stumbling to the court, Suarez Navarro dumped the ball into the net. It was that kind of night. ''She's the best player in the sport,'' Suarez Navarro said. ''When you look at the draw, you don't want to see Serena there.'' In men's fourth-round action in the afternoon, topseeded Novak Djokovic won 45 of 53 service points while eliminating 43rdranked Marcel Granollers 63, 6-0, 6-0 in a grand total of only 79 minutes. Djokovic, who won the 2011 U.S. Open and lost in last year's final to Andy Murray, reached his 18th consecutive major quarterfinal. Next up is a match against 21st-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who was two points from defeat but came back to edge twotime major champion Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-5. Kyle Williams playing for Arizona State teammate SANTA CLARA (AP) — As Kyle Williams suits up for his first game in more than nine months, he will pull his No. 10 San Francisco 49ers jersey over a new No. 81 tattoo on his inner left forearm honoring a former teammate. Williams added the fresh ink during the offseason as a tribute to an Arizona State teammate, Tyrice Thompson, who died Feb. 2 from injuries suffered when he was stabbed Jan. 27 while working at a popular Scottsdale, Ariz., nightclub. Williams will play in Thompson's honor this year — the fourth-year pro's return from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that required surgery and ended his 2012 season in late November. ''He was family to everybody,'' Williams said. ''He's a guy I played with at ASU, and kind of like a big brother to me. When he was here (alive) he was always looking over me and there for me, always sharing wisdom.'' Now that he is healthy at last, the 25-year-old Williams has a chance to be San Francisco's No. 2 wide receiver opposite Anquan Boldin. Williams also will handle some kick return duties for the NFC champions. Williams, Colin Kaepernick and Co. open the season Sunday at home against Green Bay in a rematch of the NFC divisional playoffs last January at Candlestick Park won 4531 by the 49ers. ''Kyle Williams, we feel like we know what Kyle can do and we've been a little bit cautious there,'' coach Jim Harbaugh said of pushing him too hard early. Hanging up in Williams' locker is a regular reminder of his dear friend — the program from the late 27-year-old's service — Tyrice Allen Thompson. April 2, 1985, to Feb. 2, 2013. The former tight end and wide receiver died a day before Williams and the 49ers lost the Super Bowl to Baltimore in New Orleans. Thompson was stabbed five times in the back, hip and arm after an early morning altercation at Martini Ranch near Scottsdale's hip Old Town neighborhood, and only a few miles from Williams' high school. Ian MacDonald of Tempe is accused in Thompson's killing and faces a charge of second-degree murder. Williams last saw Thompson in the Phoenix area during San Francisco's bye week after the 49ers played at Arizona on Oct. 29. The two played together for the Sun Devils for two years. ''When I saw him he kind of pulled me aside and we talked for about 20 minutes,'' Williams said. ''It was kind of crazy because I told another one of my friends, those two had always been like older brothers to me and watched out for me, I told him, 'It's crazy because whenever I talk to Tyrice he talks to me like it's the last time he's going to see me.' And then that happened. I've always looked at him as somebody who's looked over me. He's always trying to prepare me and always trying to get me ready for what's coming. So, I know he's still got me, he's still looking over me.'' For Williams, this season is one he has been waiting months to begin. He had to sit out the Super Bowl along with fellow injured receiver Mario Manningham — one of the toughest moments in their careers despite their immense pride in San Francisco being back there for the first time in 18 years.