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Show 6 Monday October 21, 201 3 SPORTS UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS WEDNESDAY: Men's Basketball Night with the Runnin'Utes (scrimmage) 7:00 p.m. Huntsman Center THURSDAY: Women's Volleyball Utah @ Arizona State 7:30 p.m. Huntsman Center PAC-12 SCORE ROUNDUP Oregon 62 Washington St. 38 UCLA 10 Stanford 24 Washington 24 Arizona St. 53 Oregon St. 49 Cal 17 USC 10 Notre Dame 14 Utah 24 Arizona 35 Colorado 43 Charleston Southern 10 COLUMN Everyone to blame for ugly loss to Wildcats RYAN MCDONALD 0 Sports Editor uch. That one hurts big time for the Utes. After becoming the talk of the country following its upset win over then-No. 5 Stanford a week ago, one of Utah's goals was to put the victory in the rearview mirror and look forward to Saturday's showdown against Arizona in Tucson. The Utes' theme for their first game outside of the state in 2013 was clear. "Heading to the airport to head to Arizona with my team. This is strictly a business trip!!" tweeted running back Bubba Poole on Friday afternoon. Director of player personnel Fred Whittingham Jr., along with players Isaac Asiata and Tyron MorrisEdwards, as well as the official Utah Football Twitter account, all tweeted about a "business trip" too. Except the goal for Utah was to take care of business, not get its business handed to it. The latter is what happened though, and now any momentum the Utes gained seven days ago is virtually gone, and questions abound in its place. Perhaps feeling over confident after "slaying a giant" — to use head coach Kyle Whittingham's words — Utah came out flat from the start Saturday night against the Wildcats, who had lost two consecutive games. Throughout the first quarter, the Utes couldn't get much going offensively and the defense was the most off-balance it had been all year. The contest was tied at seven after 15 minutes, but things got dramatically worse in a hurry. Just 49 seconds into the second frame, Arizona's Marquis Flowers returned a Travis Wilson interception to the house for six points. Two drives later, Wilson threw another pick. In See MCDONALD page 8 www.dailyutahchronicle.corn FOOTBALL Schulz's 'valiant effort' comes up short Austin Heywood STAFF WRITER TUCSON, Ariz.—Riding the high of their huge upset victory over Stanford on Oct. 12, the Utes prepared last week for one challenge they had yet to face all year — a true road game. At the halfway point of the season, Utah had played only one contest outside of Rice-Eccles Stadium, and that was in Provo against BYU. Ready for the challenge on Saturday night were the Arizona Wildcats and, for a multitude of reasons, Utah was downright sloppy in its first half away from the Beehive State in 2013. In particular, quarterback Travis Wilson looked uncharacteristically out of sync. The sophomore missed wide-open receivers on a few occasions and threw two interceptions in the second quarter, one of which was returned 14 yards for a Wildcat touchdown. Then, on a drive late in the frame, he came out of the game with an apparent hand injury and did not play another snap the rest of the night. And so, with the Utes trailing 20-7 with 1:29 left in the second quarter, sophomore Adam Schulz entered the game to play his first minutes of the year. It wasn't exactly an ideal situation for an inexperienced quarterback, but he wasn't thinking about the pressure. "All that was going through my head, really, was make plays and help the team win," Schulz said. In his first two plays, Schulz completed two passes. Those two completions totaled 17 yards, which passed Wilson's is-yard passing total for the game. Schulz then added a 4-yard rush that set up a 42-yard field goal attempt from Andy Phillips. The kick was no good and the Utes entered the break still down by 13. Utah came out in the second half and seemed to have found the fire it so desperately missed in the first, and Schulz provided the offensive spark. Early in the third quarter, Schulz completed a 13-yard pass to Dres Anderson that set up a 1 -yard rushing touchdown from Kelvin York. CHAD ZAVALA/The Daily Utah Chronicle Sophomore quaterback Adam Schulz was thrust into action during the second quarter Saturday night against Arizona after Travis Wilson left the game with a hand injury. On the next Utes' possession, Schulz found an open Sean Fitzgerald deep on a flea flicker and connected with him for a 55-yard touchdown. That score put Utah up by a point going into the final quarter, but Utah's offense stalled in the fourth and ultimately lost 35-24. In the final 15 minutes, Schulz completed seven of 18 pass attempts for 54 yards. He also rushed the ball twice for a combined ti yards. Although the Utes came up short in their comeback attempt, Schulz in the end turned out to be a bright spot in the costly loss. He finished the game having completed 12-of-23 passes for 142 yards and one touchdown. His inexperience showed at times, but he also showed composure and a strong arm. "Adam came in and gave a valiant effort," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "He made a couple of plays, a couple of nice throws, he didn't turn the ball over and took care of the football." Players also expressed confi- SOCCER Cardinal pummels Utes despite battle Ryan Miller STAFF WRITER The No. it Cardinal came into their contest against the Utes looking to snap a three-game losing streak, their first three conference defeats since 2008 and their first losses at home in six years. While Stanford was undoubtedly vulnerable, it was clear from the beginning that the Cardinal were a motivated group. They attacked from the start and beat Utah 1-0 despite a fight from the Utes. "We definitely had momentum during the game and came out ready to play," said Utah goalkeeper Lindsey Luke. "I thought the game could've definitely gone in our favor." After Stanford took the opening kickoff down to the attacking third and got a blast from Courtney Verloo that smashed off the crossbar, the Cardinal's aggressive onslaught was in full swing and they outshot Utah 22-7 for the contest. Though Stanford was able to outshoot the Utes by a large margin, the triggerhappy Cardinal couldn't find the back of the net in the first half and even struggled to find frame. Stanford fired 13 shots in SPENCER SANDSTROM/The Daily Utah Chronicle File Photo the first half but only forced Luke into acLindsey Luke makes a save against tion four times. The second half opened with Utah BYU on Aug 25, 2012 against Stanford last Friday, the Utes gave up just one pushing more on the offensive end. Taylor Slattery, who had a shot pushed away goal despite the Cardinal's offensive onslaught. by Cardinal keeper Jane Campbell in the first half, almost gave the Utes the lead forced a dramatic save out of Campbell. with a try in the 52nd minute. The Stanford keeper finished with eight "I thought collectively we played very saves for the night to earn the shutout. well," Luke said. "Our possession was defAfter getting its first conference road initely fun to watch from my view." win in two years last weekend against Stanford countered the attack-minded Washington State, Utah was hoping to Utes and earned a free kick just outside show that it had fully exorcized its conferthe box in the 67th minute. On the free ence road demons. Instead, the Utes will kick, Cardinal forward Chioma Ubogagu have to wait to prove that they can again tapped the ball to Verloo who blasted a win on the road. So far in Pac-12 play, they shot past Luke into the left back of the net. are 1-2-0 away from Ute Field. It was Verloo's seventh tally of the season. Though Utah lost the match, one bright "The goal was one heck of an indirect spot was that it welcomed back defender kick," Luke said. "We knew those were Monica Okapal. The senior had missed her specialty. Not much else we could do the previous six contests after getting inabout it." jured in a mid-September match against Utah kept pushing in hopes of getting an Weber State. equalizer, and in the 81st minute the Utes The Utes will be back in action on Frialmost found it. Ashton Hall found herself with possession in the penalty box and See SOCCER page 8 dence in Schulz's ability to play and to lead. With Wilson's status uncertain, that confidence will be key as the Utes prepare for another road trip this weekend when they play USC in Los Angeles, Calif. "As an offense, we have all the trust in the world in Adam," Fitzgerald said. "He's a great player and we all know what he can do, what he's capable of... If [Schulz] needs to go next week, then he'll be ready to go, and we'll be ready, too. a.heywood@chronicle.utah.edu CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Chad Mobley ASST. SPORTS EDITOR TUCSON, Ariz.—For the first time in conference play in 2013, Utah didn't have a chance to tie or win in the final seconds Saturday against the Arizona Wildcats. Instead, the wheels of the proverbial bus came off before the clock hit triple zeroes in the Utes' first contest outside of Utah this season. Quarterback Travis Wilson left in the first half with an injury, kicker Andy Phillips missed his first and second field goal attempts of the season and Arizona running back Ka'Deem Carey gouged the Utes' stout run defense for 236 yards as the Wildcats won, 35-24. In response, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said his team came out "flat" at Arizona Stadium versus the Wildcats. "In this conference you cannot come out and not be ready to play," Whittingham said. "You gotta win on the road. You can't just win at home and not come through on the road ... We just didn't play very well." The Utes were down 20-7 at the half thanks to a dominant performance from Carey and Wildcats' quarterback B.J. Denker. The duo accounted for 147 yards on the ground and two scores in the first two quarters. Despite the first half deficiency, Utah backup quarterback Adam Schulz came in after Wilson's injury and helped the Utes get back into the game. Schulz led Utah to two quick scores, going 5-for-5 on pass attempts to open his performance. The Utes got back out on top 21-20 within the first six minutes of the second half, but that was the last time they had the lead. Down 2821 with 3:49 to play, Utah's coaching staff decided to try a field goal instead of going for the first down on fourth-and-five. [Phillips] has been lights out so we thought that was an automatic," Whittingham said. "So that could've gone either way. If there had been 3o, 4o, 5o seconds less in the game, we probably would've gone for it. We thought our best percentage at that time was to try the field goal." Phillips missed the 40yard attempt, his second miss of the contest and of the season. Arizona took over possession and Carey put a 44 yard nail in the coffin as he busted out for a long touchdown with 2:19 remaining. "Ka'Deem Carey really took it to us again for the second year in a row," Whittingham said, referring to the 204 yards the junior racked up a season ago at Rice-Eccles Stadium. With 14 tackles in the game, Utah linebacker Trevor Reilly was able to stop Carey a few times, but it wasn't easy. "You really gotta make sure you wrap and roll with that guy, because he does not go down after first contact," Reilly said. "He's just one of those backs that he's always moving forward." Coming off of one of the biggest upsets in school history after beating thenNo. 5 Stanford a week ago, the Utes took a hard fall Saturday. They came into the game fully expecting to win, Reilly said. "It was ours for the taking," he said. "It stinks pretty bad, I'm not gonna lie. It really stinks that it's a road trip and we gotta get on the bus and get on the plane." Utah will look to get back on the winning track this Saturday against USC in Los Angeles, Calif. c.mobley@chronicle.utah.edu |