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GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Boise State reached into its bag of tricks again and stunned Texas Christian in a Fiesta Bowl duel of unbeaten BCS busters. After the Broncos pulled off a gutsy fake punt at their own 33-yard line, Doug Martin scored the deci- sive touchdown to give No. 6 Boise State a 17-10 victory over third- ranked TCU on Monday night. A 10-10 stalemate came alive when Broncos punter Kyle Brotz- man hit wide-open Kyle Efaw with a 30-yard strike with about 9 minutes to play. Four plays later, Martin dove over a tackler from 2 yards out as the Broncos became the second school ever to go 14-0, joining Ohio State in 2002. The trickery evoked memories of Boise State's BCS debut three years ago, when it pulled out a passel of gadget plays to defeat Oklahoma on the same field. Unlike that thriller, this game offered little drama until Boise State coach Chris Petersen made another surprising call. The Broncos caught the Horned Frogs napping on the fake punt by Brotzman. Kellen Moore then com- pleted three straight passes to advance to the 2, and Martin scored to put Boise State up 17-10 with 7:21 to go. TCU took over at its own 1 with 1:06 remaining and marched to the Boise State 30 before cornerback Brandyn Thompson disrupted a pass by Andy Dalton, and Winston Ven- able picked it off to end the threat. Moore passed for 211 yards. Dal- ton finished with 272 yards and a score through the air, but was inter- cepted three times. Brotzman also made a 40-yard field goal midway through the sec- ond to make it 10-0, putting the Horned Frogs in the biggest hole they had faced all season. Boise State is known for its offense. But its defense did most of the work in this one. Thompson set up the winning drive with its second interception of the game. He returned his first pick 51 yards for the game's first score. Western Athletic Conference champion Boise State earned its sec- ond BCS victory — as many as Michigan, Penn State and Alabama have combined. The Broncos are one of only three remaining unbeatens, along with Texas and Alabama, which will play for the national title on Thursday night. Sports 1B Tuesday January 5, 2009 Tuesday BoysBBall — Chico at Red Bluff, 7:30 p.m. BoysBBall — Los Molinos at Chester, 6:30 p.m. GirlsBBall — Los Molinos at Chester, 5 p.m. GirlsBBall — Red Bluff at Chico, 7:30 p.m. Soccer — L. Christian at Los Molinos, 3:30 p.m. Soccer — Mercy at Biggs, 3:15 p.m. Jackets and jumpers Well the holidays are over, the trees are down and hope- fully so are your neighbor's lights. It's the start of something fresh, something new — no, not the year — the league bas- ketball season begins today. As uneasy as I was watch- ing Ryan Seacrest trying on Dick Clark's suit before he could be buried in it Thursday, I'm equally excited for the start of league play. Maybe it's not even so much league play as it is just having our local teams — well, local. After a month of tournaments stretching across the state and into Oregon, there's been relatively few chances to pop into a gym to see our local round ballers. For the most part I've been in the same boat as read- ers, hearing about the teams second-hand, outside of the tournaments in Los Molinos and the Holiday Clas- sic in Red Bluff. But those two events have me excited. Those Spartans sure were fun to watch. In those three tournament games you could see first-hand how all of that experience they gained last season is making them a more confidence bunch. Something I learned just from the box scores that also has me excited to see the Spartans play is their depth. Coach Stan Twitchell said at the start of the season this would be a more balanced scoring attack and he's been right. Six different Spartans have led the team in scoring this season — Grant Blaser, Carlos Tapia, Devin Shoop, John John Velasco and Miller. Seeing that scoring coming from so many places is going to be fun for the fans, but not so much for oppos- ing teams, especially with another two months under their belt. It might take more than two months for the Lady Spartans to become a factor in the EAL, but when this team gels their is no question they will be a force. It will be worth seeing these ladies play this season so you won't have to hop on the bandwagon next sea- son and you can say you saw Lily Brose as a fresh- man. I don't want to throw any unneeded pressure on a freshman, but Brose is special and you can just tell by watching her play. It's not just Brose however that has hopes high for what the Lady Spartans will eventually become. Lottie Jones, Alana Hinkston and Roxanne Lup- pino can all play as well and none of them are seniors either. There's been plenty of reason to get excited about basketball in Corning the past couple of years. This season there was a bit of nervousness mixed in as well, as both the boys and girls try to get back to the state playoffs, but after having been moved up a divi- sion. The boys are off to a 7-4 start and have found scor- ing with Luis Piseno, Milo Martinovich and Cameron Nye all averaging double-digits. Piseno is also pulling down 8.9 boards per game as that nervousness is fading. It may seem as if the Lady Cardinals are having a rougher start, what with their 7-7 record and all, but delve into those losses. Two came to Paradise, perhaps the best team in the section and three came against high quality state oppo- nents in Colfax, Clayton Valley and especially Dublin. That leaves losses to Willows and Gridley as the only games the Lady Cardinals should have won and Corning did avenge the Willows loss already. The brutal preseason schedule will be beneficial in the long run. Did someone say run? That's what makes the Los Molinos Bulldogs fun to watch as the Conrad brothers and Eric Blanchard can get up and down the court with the best of them. The Bulldogs average more points per game than any other Tehama County team. It's a fun style, in a fun little gym. Much like their county rivals at Mercy — another team that likes to get up and down the floor inside their cozy little gym. The Warriors have also seen some strong post play this season out of Jeremie Jones and Michael Wang. While both boys teams are trying to leave everyone in the dust, the girls teams are showing some marked improvement. The Lady Bulldogs are led by shooter Samantha Andrews and speedster Carolyna Salazar. Both seem to do a bit of everything for their team. Meanwhile the Lady Warriors are a month into A.A.W. time. (Post Allison Wong). And if it wasn't for those pesky Lady Bulldogs top- ping them by two points, the Lady Warriors might have finished their last tournament at Liberty Christian with a winning mark. Still, the Lady Warriors are showing there is life post-Wong. Julene Stokes is averaging double-digits and Natasha Czjaka and Benicia Grace are controlling the boards. So it's January now — it's time for jackets and jumpers. I'm excited. Daily News Sports Editor Rich Greene is equally excited about wrestling and soccer, but he only has so much space every week. What he is not excited about is spending New Year's Eve with Ryan Seacrest for the next 50 years. You can reach him — Rich not Seacrest — at 527-2151 ext. 109 or by e-mail at sports@redbluffdailynews.com. Rich Greene Boise State leaps past Frogs SANTA CLARA AP) — In 10 games as San Fran- cisco's starting quarterback this season, Alex Smith earned himself the job going forward for the 49ers. Coach Mike Singletary, speaking Monday on the heels of a disappointing 8-8 finish, said he saw ''steady progress'' from Smith and that he would remain the starter heading into the off- season. Yet Singletary didn't rule out signing another quarterback, either. Singletary also gave a vote of confidence to Jimmy Raye, the team's seventh offensive coordinator in as many years. Singletary said Raye made the necessary adjustments after Smith, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2005 out of Utah, took over for Shaun Hill at halftime Oct. 25 at Houston. ''I don't think it's a mat- ter of another coordinator,'' Singletary said. ''I think it's a matter of putting the pieces together, identifying exactly the offense that you're going to run, identifying the kind of offensive line that you need in order to run that. I think we have a lot of pieces in place. I just think it's a matter of getting all the pieces in the right places.'' Singletary does have some concerns with offen- sive execution and the team's ability to convert big plays on third down. He will sit down with Raye and the other coaches this week as part of the evaluation process. Smith threw for 2,350 yards and 18 touchdowns with 12 interceptions and was sacked 22 times. He completed 225 of his 372 passes. ''Alex Smith is the start- ing quarterback right now. If we sign a quarterback this offseason, we'll see where it goes,'' Singletary said. ''But I don't want to get into, 'Well, we could sign a veter- an quarterback who could become our No. 1,' I don't want to get into all of that.'' Smith is looking forward to getting back to work now that he's comfortable in San Francisco's system. Players will be due to return to team headquarters sometime in mid-March for organized team activities. Smith missed all of the 2008 campaign after re- injuring his surgically repaired throwing shoulder two days before the season opener. ''You have more famil- iarity. You're not starting with cadence and terminol- ogy, you're ahead of that,'' Smith said. ''You get to more details that you can't get to in year one and you can jump straight into throwing routes and work- ing on things that we can add into this offense. This offseason will be big because we're not starting from square one. I think there's a sense of urgency to take advantage of the time. A fundamental part is everyone being here and getting all that throwing in and taking advantage of that time.'' Smith will remain at quarterback MCT photo Alex Smith did enough as the 49ers starting quarterback in 2009 to earn the job in 2010. MCT photo Boise State safety Jeron Johnson leaps over Texas Christian quarterback Andy Dalton after an errant snap in the first half of Monday's Fiesta Bowl.