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Show www.dailyutahchronicle.cor ► UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS 5 SPORTS Wednesday October 9, 2013 FOOTBALL TODAY: Women's Tennis Utah @ ITA Regional TBA Las Vegas, Nev. THURSDAY: Softball Utah vs. SLCC 3:30 p.m. Ute Softball Stadium Women's Tennis Utah @ ITA Regional TBA Las Vegas, Nev. Men's Tennis Utah @ Utah Intercollegiate Tournament All Day Salt Lake City, Utah FRIDAY: Soccer Utah @ Washington 8 p.m. Seattle, Wash. PAC-12 STANDINGS FOOTBALL NORTH DIVISION TEAM CONOR BARRY/The Daily Utah Chronicle CONF. OVERALL Stanford 3-0 5-0 Oregon 2-0 5-0 Oregon St. 2-0 4-1 Washington St. 2-1 4-2 Washington 1-1 4-1 Cal 0-2 1-4 UCLA 1-0 4-0 Arizona St. 1-1 3-2 Arizona 0-1 3-1 USC 0-2 3-2 Colorado 0-2 2-2 SOUTH DIVISION Utah After struggling with turnovers in their first two Pac-12 games, Travis Wilson and the Utes will look to bounce back against No. 5 Stanford on Saturday, Oct. 12. Utes battle sickness, injuries Austin Heywood STAFF WRITER There has been plenty of talk about Travis Wilson's six interceptions in last week's loss to UCLA. As Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham pointed out immediately following the game, the cause for the turnovers was not entirely poor decision-making by Wilson. "Give UCLA credit, they made [the interceptions] happen. But they weren't necessarily six bad throws, I can tell you that," Whittingham said. Since the game, additional information has come out regarding SOCCER U defense looking powerful Ryan Miller STAFF WRITER The Utah defense has been solid all year long and has finally gotten some recognition for it. On Tuesday, the Pac-12 named goalkeeper Lindsey Luke its Defensive Player of the Week for her performance against Oregon and Oregon State last weekend. Although the honor was an individual award, it served to highlight the strong play of the Utes' entire defensive unit in 2013. In three matches of Pac-12 play, Utah has yet to surrender a goal, something no other school in the league can claim. This is nothing new, as the Utes' defense has been stingy throughout the season. They didn't allow a goal in the first 395 minutes of the campaign, and only a controversial penalty kick from BYU ended that streak. In 12 matches, Utah has posted eight shutouts and hasn't allowed more than two goals in a single match. A deeper look into the Utes' first Pac-12 games shows how strong their defense is. Utah's fifth shutout of the year came in its conference opener against Cal, a match that ended in a o-o draw. Strong possession in the midfield and on the backline kept the Golden Bears away from the net. The possession-oriented play limited Cal to just two shots on goal in 110 minutes of soccer. In the Bears' other II matches, they have averaged 2.45 goals per game. Yes, goals — not shots. A big part of the backline's strong play can be credited to defender Jenny Hutton. Hutton transitioned to middle back after Monica Okapal See SOCCER page 7 Wilson's physical condition during the contest, which may have impacted his play against the Bruins. On Monday afternoon it was revealed to the media that Wilson was fighting an illness during Thursday night's game and had spent most of his time before kickoff sick in bed. Wilson has since received medical attention and has been placed on an antibiotic treatment. He did not practice with the team on Monday, but returned to practice Tuesday afternoon and seemed to have regained some of his energy. "I feel much better today," Wilson said after practice. "I don't want to use my sickness as an ex- cuse at all. Sick or not, I still made mistakes [against UCLA]. The important thing is that I learn from those mistakes and play better." Wilson said his confidence as the leader of the Utes' offense is unshaken and he is now focused on what lies ahead. In preparing for Stanford this week, Wilson knows he will be facing one of the most physical defensive lines in the conference, and is preparing to meet the challenge. "They are very physical and aggressive so I have to play aggressive right back," Wilson said. "I have to be smart but take what they give me and come at them hard and fast." Utes' starting tight ends will both be out Saturday Junior tight end Jake Murphy underwent surgery on a broken wrist today. The wrist was broken sometime during the UCLA game, but Murphy continued to play through the pain and finished the contest with 27 yards on two catches. After practice on Tuesday Whittingham said that he had not yet been made aware of the surgery's results and that the team would make an official announcement reSee FOOTBALL Page 8 1- THE GREAT DEBATE -1 Does Utah stand a chance against Stanford? Stanford's confidence will best Utes w hen the Stanford Cardinal comes to Salt Lake City this Saturday, there won't be any big surprises. As much as Utah fans hope for an upset, the truth is that these two teams are in very different places in terms of performance. This season has revealed itself as another growing year for the Utes, which is accompanied by growing pains. Although sophomore quarterback Travis Wilson has breathed new life into a Utah offense that struggled last season, his nine interceptions through five games show he still has room to mature. The Utes' offense has certainly shown flashes of greatness thus far, but it lacks consistency. Wilson has had moments where his strength as a runner combined with his precision passing make him almost unstoppable. At other times, however, Utah's offense has stalled for long periods, like in the third quarter against UCLA. Those long offensive droughts have proved to be very costly in both of the Utes' Pac-12 losses thus far and will be costly again on Saturday. A lack of consistency is one problem Stanford doesn't have. While not a high-scoring offensive threat like Oregon, the Cardinal simply don't make mistakes. Stanford isn't particularly impressive in any one offensive stat, but they do have one of the nation's most balanced attacks, averaging 197 yards passing and 210.2 yards on the ground per game. The Cardinal are also plus one in turnover margin and have converted just over 5o percent of their third downs, two areas in which Home field gives Utah advantage T a" *It AUSTIN HEYWOOD ,.1 1114t. StaffWriter Utah has struggled mightily. Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan is completing 62.6 percent of his passes and has found a favorite target in talented wide receiver Ty Montgomery. Hogan and Montgomery will expose the holes in a secondary that has improved during this season, but is still the Utes' biggest liability on defense. Montgomery is also an elusive kick returner. VS See HEYWOOD page 8 his weekend, the big boys are coming to town when Stanford visits Rice-Eccles Stadium for a much anticipated matchup — at least for Utah fans. On paper, this is a pretty easy pick. Stanford is clearly the better team, as they boast the No. 5 ranking in the nation. Quite frankly, this team just does not lose. Every loss they have had in the past 4 years has been to very good teams. So I should be saying that Utah will be suffering another heartbreaking loss to the hands of the • Cardinal, right? Wrong. It seems to be the same story with our Utes. They can never win the big game, or any respectable Pac-12 game for that matter. Last year, it was USC. Utah jumped out on top early NATHAN HOWARD/The Daily Evergreen No. 5 Stanford Cardinal's defense will be a huge challenge for the Utes on Sat, Oct. 12 when the two teams face off. Vote on who won this week GRIFFIN ADAMS StaffWriter then crumbled in the second half. This year it was UCLA. Utah made a furious comeback, only to throw it away in the last minute. There have been a multitude of games in the past where Utah came close but lost in the end. Games such as the matchup with Arizona last year and Oregon State this year. While these are all games that fans wish Utah would've won, there is reason for optimism after these close losses. The first two years in the Pac12, the Utes struggled to compete against the tough matchups in their new conference. They were getting blown out of games and just looked bad. Fast forward to this year. That's no longer the case. Utah welcomed Oregon State to Salt Lake City for their first Pac-12 game of 2013. The game was a thriller. It went into overtime, where the Utes lost 51-48. Despite the loss, though, the team looked good and was primed to win the game. A couple weeks later, against UCLA, Utah had many chances to win the game. The Utes have been competitive in games this year, and I firmly believe they will be competitive in this Stanford game as well. See ADAMS page 8 www.dailyutahchronicle.com |