OCR Text |
Show MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2011 7 THE SIGNPOST So ccer continued from page 6 Football continued from page 6 Johnson said. "We made some great passes and we moved the ball well. We just couldn't finish." Despite Saturday's loss, the Wildcats still remain in first place in the Big Sky Conference standings with two games remaining in the season. They are poised to return to the Big Sky Conference championships for the first time since they won the conference title in 2008. On Thursday, the Wildcats will travel to Portland, Ore., where they will play against the Portland State University Vikings. After that game, the Wild- cats will return home against the Sacramento State University Hornets in their final game of the regular season on the following Saturday. The Big Sky Tournament will begin play on Nov. 3. Comment on this story at wsusignpost.com . PHOTO BY BRYAN BUTTERFIELD I THE SIGNPOST Weber State University fans cheer at the homecoming game on Saturday. WSU football won 39-12 to Idaho State University. hano for a 56-yard touchdown pass. Kehano was wide open on the side of the field, and was able to run into the end zone untouched. Hoke said he felt Kehano was so wide open that he felt nervous throwing the pass. "Those throws are scary when they're too wide open," Hoke said. "You don't want to overthrow it or underthrow it, so those ones are tough." Late in the first half, Trevor Pletcher broke through the ISU defense and blocked a punt, which was recovered by WSU on the 16-yard line. Sean McClain kicked a field goal with a minute left in the half to give the Wildcats the 12-6 lead. WSU tacked on three more points before halftime, taking a 15-6 lead into the half. While the first half was close, with ISU fighting to keep it close, the second half was all WSU. OnWSU's first drive of the second half, Hoke found Kehano wide open on the right side of the field again. Keha- no caught the pass in stride and took it down the field for an 83-yard touchdown pass, helping the Wildcats to a 22-6 lead. Kehano said that on both of the passes, Hoke did a great job setting the play up. "It was just a good checkout by Mike," Kehano said. "We'd seen the coverage that we wanted to have, and Mike did a perfect job calling that play, and it worked perfectly . . . I was real surprised. I mean, as soon as the ball was in the air, I was like, 'Touchdown, thank you." Rodrick Rumble tried to get something started for the ISU offense in the third quarter. Rumble caught two passes to lead the Bengals into the red zone. Rumble capped off the drive by pulling down a pass in the corner of the end zone to cut the WSU lead to 10 points. After a fairly quiet first half, Tanner Hinds broke a big run through the middle of the field, taking the ball down to the 10-yard line. The Wildcats extended their lead on a Tyrell Francisco catch in the middle of the end zone. Following Taylor's second punt block of the game, Collins caught an 18-yard pass to increase the WSU lead to 24 points. Rumble caught his 13th pass of the game late in the third quarter, taking the ball down to the 10-yard line. But the Bengals failed to convert a fourth down attempt and turned the ball over. Despite Rumble's best efforts, the Bengals weren't able to make the game close. The final highlight of the night came with less than two minutes left in the game. Jarrett Goodson nearly ran a punt back for a touchdown, breaking free and taking the ball deep into ISU's territory. The Wildcats closed out a 39-12 win over ISU, improving to 3-1 in Big Sky Conference play. WSU will next face off against Southern Utah University next Saturday at Stewart Stadium. Comment on this story at wsusignpost.corn. PHOTO BY AIMEE SMITH I THE SIGNPOST Weber State University defender Mackenzie Day attempts to control a ball during WSU's win over the University of Montana. The Wildcats knocked off UM 1-0, and lost to Eastern Washington University 3-0 over the weekend. P olls continued from page 6 The second one I hear is "Well, so-and-so lost early enough in the season that they can get themselves back into the national championship game." So because a team can work their way up a poll, a team that loses in their conference title game to a better team will get passed up by a team who lost to a lesser opponent because they did so earlier in the season. Makes sense. Maybe I can put it better. For this argument's sake, let's say a team like Oklahoma would have lost to Missouri (an unranked team) in the third game of the season this year, but then won the rest of the games they played this season. Meanwhile, let's say a team like Alabama goes undefeated until the SEC championship game, where they get beat by a top-10 team. If either of these two teams were to get a shot at the national title game, guess who it would be? That's right, Oklahoma. Why? Because they lost earlier in the season. It matters not that the Sooners would have lost to an inferior opponent than the Crimson Tide. They lost earlier, so they would have climbed back into the conversation, while 'Barna would have lost on the last game of the season, so they would drop out of the conversation with no time to climb back into it. If I had every column inch of this newspaper, we could talk more about how ludicrous the poll system is as a means of determining a national champion, but I don't. Maybe we need a playoff or a plus-one system. Who knows, but there has to be some other way to figure this all out other than a popularity contest. Comment on this column at wsusignpost.corn. Say HELLO to us on twitter. NOV. 8 12:00 P.M: WILDCAT THEATER FORMER HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER AND NLF ATHLETE SPEAKING ABOUT HEALTH ISSUES & THE ATHLETES IN 2011 :ON CONVOCATIONS & WSU ATHLETICS S THE 1934 200t WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY |