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Wednesday, October 16, 2002

By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

One look was all it took for Daryl Moore to figure he was in the wrong place. Too many trees. Too many cows. Too many rolling fields. Too many farms.

Moore was ready to get back in his car and make the 90-minute drive down I-79 South from Greenville to his home in Pittsburgh. He was convinced that Thiel College was not for him.

But when he walked around campus and talked to the students and professors, Thiel became more attractive.

"At first, I didn't think I was going to fit in," said Moore, a sophomore quarterback from Westinghouse High School. "I'm still a little surprised I'm at Thiel, and I'm amazed I'm getting this kind of chance to change Thiel in athletics and get a good education."

Moore, a 6-foot, 165-pounder who was known more for his running than his passing when he operated Westinghouse's wing-T attack, is the offensive player of the week in the Presidents' Athletic Conference after throwing for 237 yards and three touchdowns in a 21-13 victory against Waynesburg. He is leading a resurgence at Thiel, which is 3-3 and in second place at 2-1 in the PAC heading into a home game Saturday against Westminster (3-2, 1-1).

Since going 5-4 in 1991, Thiel has won as many as three games in a season only once - 3-7 in 1999. The Tomcats are 13-85 the past decade, including a 22-game losing streak from 1993 through 1995. They last won a PAC championship in 1972, when Coach Jack Leipheimer was a tight end for the Tomcats.

"When I learned of their history, I thought maybe I could try to start something," Moore said. "Last year, they wanted to convert me to wide receiver, but I told them I'm going to be a quarterback. I started at eighth-string, but, after three games, I was second-string.

"I proved to them I was going to be a quarterback."

Moore, whose first love in sports is basketball, was talking to colleges about playing basketball rather than football. But he didn't score well on his SATs, and the schools recruiting him for basketball backed away. That's when Westinghouse football coach George Webb and Athletic Director Lance Carter suggested he check out Thiel.

"They both graduated from Thiel," Moore said. "I didn't have any idea what they were talking about. Where's Thiel? I never heard of Thiel."

Leipheimer, the new football coach at Thiel, knew about Moore because he had tried to recruit him to Allegheny College when he was an assistant coach for the Gators.

"He continued to recruit me when he went to Thiel," Moore said. "Thiel definitely was a different environment than I was used to."

In addition to Moore, the Thiel roster is stocked with players from other City League schools such as Allderdice, Peabody, Brashear, Oliver and Perry Traditional Academy.

"The city guys got to stick together," Moore said with a laugh. "It's a way better place now than when I came here. It's becoming more comfortable for everybody. We helped change the face of Thiel."

After football season, Moore will join the basketball team. He averaged 6.7 points per game as a reserve guard last season.

"I love basketball, that's in my heart," said Moore, who is working on a double major in business and plans to become either a tax lawyer or financial analyst after graduation. "I'm beginning to love football better than I would have imagined."

Dukes get noticed

Duquesne (6-0), the consensus No. 1 in NCAA Division I-AA Mid-Major and along with Bethune-Cookman (7-0) and Montana (6-0) the only undefeated teams in all of I-AA, received votes for the first time in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll and The Sports Network I-AA poll. The Dukes, the only Mid-Major team to receive votes, is 34th in ESPN's poll and 38th in Sports Network poll. The polls go a long way in determining the eight teams that will receive at-large bids to the 16-team I-AA playoff that includes scholarship, partial scholarship and non-scholarship programs. Duquesne is non-scholarship.

The big game

California (5-1, 1-1) at IUP (6-1, 2-0), 1:30 p.m. -- A showdown in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West between perennial contender IUP and surprising challenger California.