Show The Utah Statesman Monday November 9 1981 Pjgj22 Utah State harriers finish fourth and edge Cougars X by Wendy Hansen When any of Brigham Young University’s teams show up anywhere near the USU campus it seems that people sense that the unexpected will occur Such was the case in the battle of man against himself and the elements in Saturday’s cross country meet The Cougars were highly favored entering the 15th Annual Utah State Invitational Cross Country Meet but the obvious just didn’t happen Instead Boise State from the Big Sky Conference edged out the field at the Logan Golf and Country Club in a close race The Aggies came up with a fourth place finish adding ine sult to the Cougars but bringing a smile to USU Track Coach Ralph Maughan “I felt pleased that they (the Aggies) took fourth place” said Maughan while noting he was also delighted that they had three runners place in the top twenty “The meet was run exceedingly well and it wasn’t so cold or hot that they had any problems with any of the runners becoming ill” affair but only The meet was designed to be a seven-teasix managed to show up Unconcerned with the participants or the predictions Boise State surprised the Cougars and the rest of the field by winning the meet with a score of 41 “Boise has a good squad” said Maughan “and shouldn’t have been taken lightly There was some tough competition in this field” Weber State wasn’t far behind Boise with a score of 56 points The University of Utah scored 64 to claim third place and USU followed with a 78 Then the Cougars showed up with 118 and Idaho State brought up the rear with 123 point! e individual finisher was Boise’s Tom Rothen-burThe with the time of 25: 167 The Aggies placed their first man Bob Hinkley with the time of 26:038 at the 10th position Greg Long then placed ' 12th with the time of 26:089 and Todd Kerr ran a 26:130 e finisher was Aggie to wind up placing 13th The Don Berch with a 26:323 Art Souver Mike Sack and Ken Stuki finished 24th 30th and 34th respectively to complete the Aggie scoring “We’re a very young team that can only improve’’ said Maughan “We have four excellent runners but you need five to have a strong team” The next test for the Aggie harriers will be next weekend’! combined PCAA and District VIII meet in Palo Alto California Maughan hasn’t a clue to how well Utah State will finish there fifth-plac- first-plac- g 17th-plac- Ags opportunistic in 28-- 2 victory over 49ers b Dale Bublit Dallas Cowboy Coach Tom Landry feels when a football game involves two teams of equal ability the one that converts more of the other team’s mistakes into points generally wins USU’s football team adhered to that formula in a 28-- 2 victory at Long Beach State Saturday night “Most of our points came from field position set up by our defense” said USU Coach Bruce Snyder "We have a high priority goal of scoring on situations like these and we were very successful meeting this goal tonight” Four of the five first-hascores were a result of Aggie opportunism On their first possession a facemask penalty on Long Beach State got USU’s Willie Beecher in position for a field goal That boot matched the freshman’s longest of the lf 42-ya- year After both clubs exchanged punts Aggie lineman Coon deflected Doug Disney’s pass attempt and the ball wound up in the hands of Patrick Allen The Aggie cornerback whirled around and followed a convoy of blockers 18 yards into the endzone and the score was 10-- 0 The Aggie offense continued to sputter but the defense wasn’t through providing scoring oppor- - JL pileup and Larry Hogue recovered at the Long Beach 41 USU quarterback Doug Samuels hooked up with Fred Fernandes for a d gain and a Paul Jones reverse setup another Beecher field goal attempt This time the freshman split the uprights from 32 yards out and the Aggie lead was 13-- 0 Before the game special teams coach Terry Shea had assured everyone that the special teams would have a hand in some scoring opportunities as well “We’ve come close all year” he said “and I think this week we 11 make something happen” Shea’s prediction came true The ’49ers were forced to punt and punter Mike Horan never saw USU’s Craig Wattley coming Wattley knocked the ball out of bounds with his midsection and the Aggies were in business at the Long Beach 27 Six later Samuels found Jones from five plays yards out to increase the Aggie lead to 20-- 0 The final score of the half came via a more conventional method Samuels ran a reverse to pick up token yardage but faked the same reverse a play later When he puHed the ball away from Jones he found Eric McPherson behind the ’49er defenders for a scoring strike ’h9T’ To11"6 d‘d n0t imProve e second minutes turned into a defensive — : — r — a-: r 55-ya- hJ“ ' r'-- x Disney took 10 minutes and 37 seconds to reach the Aggie 14 but came away without any points field When Guy Johnson connected on a goal attempt the Aggies were caught offsides ’49er Coach Dave Currey ordered the three points off the board and tried to reach the end zone The Aggies stuffed four running plays and the shutout had been preserved But any hopes of becoming the first Aggie team to shutouts since 1964 ended when post Long Beach blocked a Guy McClure punt McClure fell on the ball in the endzone to complete the scoring for the evening “We were disappointed that we gave up the safbut McClure deserves credit for not allowing the ety play to turn into a touchdown” said Snyder “The defense should still feel a sense of pride that Lxing Beach didn’t score on them” Snyder was generally pleased with the team s f but took great pride in the quick start “We just exploded and it may be signs of things to come” he said overall finish The Aggies who are now their season next Saturday in the Idaho State Minidome ISU has been a surprise contender in tht Big Sky Conference and is coached by former Agg ir — Htst If p(ftKr‘ 32-ya- back-to-ba- first-hal- |