| OCR Text |
Show Sports The Daily Utah Chronicle - Page Twelve Utes. claim. WACky Monday, November 13, 1989 grid' victory over Lobos 41-3-9 Reserve quarterback Mike Richmond, By Dirk the holder for Ute kicker Wayne Lammle, added a two-poiconversion on a miscued snap to put Facer Chronicle Sports Editor nt Utah ahead Talk about a role reversal-Saturday- 's football game between the Utes and New Mexico, put Hollywood productions like Freaky Friday and lice Versa to shame. And fortunately for the Ute gridders, the change put them on top 9 in the Western Athletic Conference clash. It was more than a year ago, Oct. 15 to be exact, when Ute quarterback Scott Mitchell racked up an NCAA record 631 yards passing against Air Force en route to leading Utah to 49 41-3- points in the game. But sadly it .wasn't enough as the Falcons "defeated the Utes On 56-4- 9. Saturday, New Mexico quarterback Jeremy Leach nearly bested Mitchell's effort by amassing 622 yards passing. In addition, he completed 41 of 68 passes in the rocess. But like Mitchell learned ast season, sometimes your best just isn't good enough. The loss dropped Leach and the Lobos to 7 in WAC on the year. Utah play and meanwhile, improved to 6 overall and 4 in conference action. "My success today has a lot to do with the offensive line. I didn't feel pressure at all today. The line did a 0-- 1-- 10 4-- 2-- good job in giving me time and making me feel comfortable. I felt good today, but I am sick of losing," Leach said. "I came into this game determined that this wasn't going to be a loss. I wanted to put a game together where I played well for four quarters. I couldn't have thrown for so many yards without the protection I had. Credit the execution of the entire offense and not just me. It's a " good personal accomplishment, but r it doesn't erase the loss." The Lobos jumped out to an early 0 lead as kicker David Margolis booted field goals from 33 and 49 yards out. The first score came with 10:56 remaining in the first quarter, and the second kick came exactly three minutes later. In between the successful kicks, Lobo cornerback Jimmy Marshall intercepted a Mitchell aerial to stall the Ute's opening possession. 6-- However,. Utah was able to respond to the deficit at the 6:20 mark when Mitchell found paydirt from four yards out on a keeper. 8-- 6. On New Mexico's next series, the Ute defensive back Sean Knox picked off a Leach pass and bolted 32 yards down field to the Lobo line. However, the Utes were, unable n and settled for to obtain a field goal by Lammle. The a first stanza ended with Utah grasping an 11-- 6 advantage. The second quarter was a defensive battle until the last four minutes when Utah recorded a pair TlTjp l 'KT Kv Lid? - 34-ya- rd ? W ' -- first-dow- 52-ya- rd of touchdowns and New Mexico added another. The Lobos broke the ice first when Leach connected with freshman Kano Brown on a scoring strike with 3:58 left in the half. Running back Dion Morrow notched conversion to make it 1 a for the visitors. The Utes bounced back quickly, 30-ya- two-poi- rd 14-1- nt when Steve Abrams dashed 35 yards for a touchdown 38 seconds later. The play capped a. drive that involved only two plays from scrimmage. Utah garnered great field position after a poor kickoff by the Lobos was aided by a 15-ya- penalty for failing to honor Steve h signal. Sigloch's After containing the Lobos fair-catc- on the ensuing series, the Utes once again found the end zone. The five play scoring drive culminated when Mitchell connected with tight end Dennis Smith for a All-WA- C 34-ya- rd with 42 seconds touchdown remaining. 4 lead into the Utah took the intermission.. The Utes' continued scoring burst 25-1- early in the second half when Mitchell teamed with Dennis Smith touchdown pass just 36 on a seconds into the third quarter. New Mexico bounced back on its next possession as Leach completed a candidate pass to 37-ya- rd All-Americ- an Terance Mathis, who bolted 73 yards The to close the Utah lead to 32-2- Lobos extra-poi- 0. attempt for two nt Chronicle Hholo by Knstan Jacobsen rd failed. vThe scoring binge quieted down a bit as place kickers Lammle and Margolis each added field goals to make it 35-2- 3 entering the final quarter. ' In the fourth quarter, New Mexico . Utah running back Steve Abrams rushed for 107 yards on 14 carries to help lead the Utes over New Mexico touchdown gallop. Saturday at Rice Stadium. The freshman runner's efforts also included a 35-ya- made a furious rally behind the talented play of Leach and Mathis. The duo combined for fourth-quartaerial scores from 26 and 14 yards out to put the Lobos ahead 36-3- 5 with 5:30 left in the game. The crowd of 21,025 no doubt got a kick out of the rest of the game, as both squads exchanged the lead with field goals. Utah went first and regained the lead after Lammle completed field goal attempt with 3:59 a er 38-3- 45-ya- 6, rd on the clock. The Lobos took command again with 1:55 left, when Margolis connected from 26 yards out to make it 39-3Unfortunately for the Lobos, the Utes still had at least one good kick left. And after Utah's Lammle nailed the game winner from 48 yards out with 12 seconds left, the Utes had 8. secured shootout. a A victory in this wild h effort by the Lobos failed on ended the as guests two final pass attempts to end the last-ditc- 41-3- 9 rd 21. game. "Just another day at the office. I don't know how long I'll last trying to do it this way," Utah Coach Jim Fassel said. "(Leach) had a great game. We tried to play him up and mix some things up on him defensively. But not only do they have Mathis, they also have some other receivers, who can do some things real well." Although eight different receivers caught passes, it was Mathis who led the way. He finished the contest with 16 receptions for 252 yards. ; "He's a great receiver. He's gonna play some ball on Sunday," Utah's Sean Knox said. "Their quarterback is a young guy, but he's got a helluva arm. Speaking of quarterbacks, Scott , Mitchell entered the Utah record books again by tossing his 31st touchdown pass of the season. He also kept his streak of consecutive games with a scoring strike alive at Another bright spot for the Utes was Abrams, Utah's freshman running back, who rushed for a personal best 107 yards. "It felt good to run the ball. We wanted to come out and run the ball a lot and it felt really good," Abrams said. "The likes to run the ball as much as we do. And they were opening up some real big holes." But it was Lammle, who tied a school-recor- d with four field goals in O-li- ne the game, who literally stole the Show. ,'...,.::. '', ; "It feels good to help the team out in any way," Lammle said. "I knew (the last kick) was good. I wasn't proud of it. It wasn't end over end, but it went in and that's what counts. It wasn't picture perfect." Frustrated Ute fans will no doubt dispute that remark. After all, a win is a win. The Utes hope to continue the trend Saturday in Provo against BYU. ' New Mexico pair would give it all up for a .'.win By Jim Burton Chronicle Sports Writer Stadium on a crisp fall afternoon, watching a great quarterback pile up some great statistics. And that's what they saw Saturday, a typical Utah game. For four quarters, it was pass, pass, pass and pass again. And following Utah's narrow 9 victory over New Mexico the Ute faithful were jumping around and celebrating as though they'd just seen another Scott Mitchell miracle. But they hadn't. What the crazed fans really saw Utes dodge a was the Mitchell-le- d silver bullet. (red and) On one end of that bullet was a 215 pound, baby-facebig all american type 41-3- x jii!SS5i!5!iiSiM 1-- 10 J ... d, quarterback (sound familiar) I I Chronicle Hholo by Kristan Juvolwen named Jeremy Leach; on the other end was a little 160 pound from Stone Mountain, speedster Ga. named Terance Mathis. In what will seem like an ironic twist to most Utah fans, the Lobos won the statistical battle despite losing the gridiron war. e Mathis, already the NCAA's receiving yards leader, caught 16 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns. all-tim- New Mexico quarterback Jeremy Leach had a career day against the Utes, but was unable to pull off the win. Despite his near record 622 Utes. yards passing, the Lobos lost to the victory of the year, the more questions he answered about his losing effort. "I know exactly how he feels," Mitchell said. "It's so frustrating to do so well offensively and put up those kinds of numbers and not .win the ball game. If I could, I'd just tell him to hang in there, that some days you lose like that and some days you win." In the past, when Mitchell has been in Leach's shoes, completing a high number of passes for a huge number of yards, only to lose the ball game, he has taken little if any solace in lofty statistics. Again, in this situation, the two quarterbacks are similar in attitude as well as ability. If Leach knew he was close to the record during the game, he wasn't admitting it. "I had no idea, "he said. "And even if I di'd, I wouldn't have second guessed any of Coach (Mike) Sheppard's calls. There were some situations in the game where we ran the ball rather than throwing it and they worked, I stand behind the play calling 100 percent." It was obvious after the game that the narrow loss bothered the young sophomore. Not only did he want to get the Lobos their second always get more yards than I do," Leach said, staring at his feet. "I have to face the fact that I'm in a conference that passes the ball a lot and that there's going to be better quarterbacks than I am. But I'll tell you something, I've watched films of Mitchell all year long because I want to learn from him and if I can come close to anything he's done, I'm pleased." net-yar- Utah football fans know there's nothing quite like sitting in Rice illllSilltlllSillll Leach threw a WAC-recor- d 68 passes, completing 41 of them for 622 yards and four TDs. That figure was just nine yards day shy of Mitchell's record-settin- g against Air Force last season, which, like Leach's, came in ds a statistics, the more he realized how close he came to an NCAA record. "I'm not in the f eme category as Mitchell or (BYU's Ty) Detmer. Those guys are great and they Mathis shared Leach's humble sentiment, "It's the same old story with us," he said. "We play hard; we're intense, but it just doesn't work out. I guess that's the way the ball bounces, but it just doesn't ever seem to bounce our way. It's funny but I really thought we could win today and I think we had a chance to give them a Tyson punch, but we couldn't do it. I'd give up all the catches and all the stats for a win today. The numbers don't mean much after a loss like this." Lobo Coach Mike Sheppard said after the game that he believed in his two stars. "I know that both Terance and Jeremy would give up all the stats for a 0 win." Just another Saturday afternoon at Rice Stadium. 3-- |
