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Show MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2000 UNI VERSITY JOURNAL SPORTS PAGE1 7 'Birds run past St. Mary's BY JASON ERICKSON ASST. SPORTS EDITOR SUU quarterback Matt Cannonrushedfor218 yards and three touchdowns as Southern Utah University defeated St. Mary's College 43-14 Saturday qften:ioon at Eccles Coliseum. Running back Rod Madsen had 134 yards rushing and a touchdown for SUU (4-3), which helped SUU score 43 points against the Gaels. St. Mary's' (4-5) defense gave up 529 total offensive yards and five touchdowns helping SUU cruise to a victory. SUU head coach C. Ray Gregory said he was pleased with his team's performance. ·1 felt our guys played their hearts out today,· · Gregory said. The first score came late in the first quarter after SUU drove down the field 46 yards to set up a David Pretzer field goal. SUU came out strong in the second quarter as Pretzer scored again on a 39-yard field goal. SUU then capitalized on a St. Mary fumble as Madsen took the ball in from six yards out to make the score 13-0. The next SUU possession was more of the same as Cannon drove in the ball from 20 yards for his first touchdown to help SUU go up 20-0. St. Mary's would battle back late in the second quarter, after an SUU fumble St. Mary's scored on a 34-yard touchdown from Gus Papanikolas to Andre Coleman to go into halftime down 20-7. The second quarter was more of the same for the Thunderbirds. SUU scored early in the third quarter after Cannon charged down the field 67 yards to help the 'Birds pull out to a 27-7 lead, leaving SMC watching on the sidelines. "We wore them out today," Cannon said. · we just kept scoring and doing our thing wearing them out.• Cannon once . again rumbled down the field 89 yards to again extend the SUU lead and reach the 200 yard rushing mark for the second straight game. Gregory said he found it hard to find words for Cannon's performance. 'He leaves me speechless because of the amazing things he does for our team,' said SUU head coach C. Ray Gregory about Matt Cannon. SUU wins again in Mid-Con x-country (continued from page 1) "This was a great way for Curtis, Zak and Mark to finish their careers at Southern Utah," Houle said. "To win this title for the fourth straight time is a remarka.ble feat.· "We came in knowing we had a chance," Moore said. · our fourth and fifth runners steeped up. Without them we wouldn't have won.· Sophomore Dustin Hudspeth and senior Adam Brown ran strongly for the 'Birds. Hudspeth finished seventh at 25:30 and Moore was ninth at 25:36. Moore, James, Wright and Hudspeth were placed on the all-Conference fist team while Brown was named to the second team. Houle said that he believed this year's squad is stronger than last year's, which went on to win the Mountain Regional Championships. "If we can have this same performance in two weeks, we may be going back to the National meet," Houle said. The closest school to SUU was UMKC with 68 points. The 46-point margin of victory for the 'Birds was the widest in MidCon history. The.women came into to the · race without a runner in the top- 10, but that changed after the 'Birds crossed the finish line. Senior Teresa Rice paced the 'Birds by finishing second with a season-best time of 17:57 in the 5,000-meter run. Junior Jandee Hood and Kelly Moore also placed in the top-10, with Hood coming in fourth at 18:06 and Moore 10th at 18:18. Hood was running the race ill, due to motion sickness. Junior Robyn Adams crossed the finish line just after Moore, coming in at 18:19 and finishing 11th. Sophomore Kelly Snodgress rounded out the scoring for SUU, coming in 18th at 18:42 . "The women just stepped up huge for us today,· said Houle. "They ran the whole race close as a pack." Oakland sophomore Kristie Kieffer crossed the line in 17:51 , a Mid-Con best this season for a 5000-meter run, to win the women's race. Rice and Hood were named to the all-Conference fist team while Moore and Adams earned second team honors. Rice became only the second women in Mid-Con history to earn all-Conference -honors in all four years of competition. The teams will be in action next at the regionals on Nov. 11 in Ogden. "I love to look out on the field and see number nine,· Gregory said. "He leaves me speechless because of the amazing things he does for our team.· SUU scored twice more on a 25-yard run by Clay Denton and a Pretzer fieldgoal. The 'Birds' defense gave up 308 yard while coming away with six turnovers. Ryan Smith and Clint Brown both made big plays and came away with interceptions. Brown delighted the crowd during his return by putting spinmoves on the Gaels trying to tackle him. St. Mary's runs an option attack similar to SUU's on :;J. offerse, but the 'Birds' ~ defense shut it down. The 5 ~ .~ Gaels gained only 153 yards on the ground, much ~ r 11· fewer than the 'Birds' 461. SUU now looks forward !!! to another home game on ~ Nov. 4 vs. Rocky Mountain ~ ., College, followed by its last Running back Rod Madsen shows his hard-nosed running style as he breaks tackles and protects the home game of the season ball with both hands during a run in Saturday's victory Nov. 11 against Morehead over St. Mary's. St. r i 'Bird fonNards looking strong When men's basketball coach Bill Evans looks - back up role last year after transferring from across the practice floor, he sees four returning UVSC. players and one new addition battling for playing Now, with a year under his belt Chandler should time at forward. , see some improvement this season Evans said. As a unit. the-Thunderbird forwards fit in with the "He is a good athlete,· Evans said. "He rest of the team; they are experienced, and they fit understands the system, and he understands perfectly into the motion offense and match up what I expect out of him.• zone defense. The other returning power forward is Cedar High When talking about the forwards it is difficult not product Aaron Miles. At 6-8 he brings good size to to mention senior small forward the position. Fred House first. He contributed to Along with that size Evans said, the team in every facet of the game "he may be the most skilled last season. He averaged 14.9 ppg, player at that position for us as 5.9 rpg, and he had 92 steals to far as passing, shooting an lead the team in all three dribbling.• categories. Evans also said that Miles has For his work House was named improved his game and he just to the All-Conference and needs some game experience to Newcomer teams. build up his confidence. The scary thing is House is only Ricks College transfer Dan getting better. Beus is the new face at power "I think Fred is a lot better forward for the 'Birds. He nearly basketball player this year,· Evans averaged a double double last said. "He understands our system year at Ricks, picking up 13.7 both offensively and defensively ppg and 9.1 rpg in addition to better. and he has a better shooting 55 percent from the understanding of the game.· field. Sophomore Ross Day will come ·1 have been impressed with off the bench at small forward. His him to this point," Evans said. game is a ~ot different from the high "He has lived up to what I flying athletic moves of House. b!;!lieved he would do for us so Evans said that Day is very hard far." Fred House working, and is ·one of the best • Evans also deemed Beus the shooters on the team." best rebounder on the team, he Day only averaged 2.9 ppg last season in spot said that Beus is poshing Chandler and Miles for action, however, Evans said that he should have the starting slot. an increased role on the team this year. Evans has five forwards that our his type of Returning at power forward is senior BJ players. He calls them tough, hard working, and Chandler. He averaged 2.4 ppg and 1.7 rpg in a he likes what they can do for the team. Editor's note: As the SUU basketball teams prepare for the upcoming season, Joumal Sports Writer Noah Borton will be spotlighting both the men's and women's squads. This, along with the article on the following page, is part two in a four-part series. Next week Borton will preview the SUU centers. I• .' |