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Show !THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1000 Gridders start final home streach down and to minus-four yards of offense in the quarter. Southern Utah hosts the first of three consecutive home "Saint Mary's is definitely much better than they were last games Saturday when the Thunderbirds welcome Saint year. We won't have it as easy as we did [in 1999],• SUU Mary's to Eccles Coliseum for a 1p.m. game. head coach C. Ray Gregory said. The 'Birds (3-4) are coming off the best offensive effort in The last time the teams met in Cedar City, Rod Madsen the history of the school, a 736-yard effort at Idaho State in which T-Bird rushers ran for 679 yards, a school record and a rushed for a then-career-high 175 yards and three TDs as total which is just two yards shy of the I-AA record mark of the 'Birds snapped a three-game losing streak to the Gaels. 681 yards by Southwest Missouri State in 1988 vs Missouri SUU rushed for 447 yards in the 49-0 win while holding SMC Southern. The Thunderbirds will be trying to win back-to-back to minus-29 yards on the ground. SUU gave up five fumbles, but got five back as well as games fro the first time this five interceptions on the season. ' · day as the teams combined Saint Mary's (4-4) has for 15 turnovers. won two straight, a 71-34 Like SUU, the Gaels run romp past Menlo College a variation of the spread and last week's 37-20 win at Colgate. option offense and they Saturday's game will be have been successful with the 12th meeting between it, averaging 309.3 yards the two schools, the sixth in per game, the fourth-best Cedar City. SUU has won rushing average in I-AA. two straight in the series, Quarterback Gus both by comfortable Papanikolas, who prepped . margins, a 49-0 win in 1998 at Salt Lake City's Skyline and a 57-22 verdict last HS, leads the team with year, and has won fou'r of 627 rushing yards (74.3 the five previous games at ypg). Eccles Coliseum. Papanikolas has Last year, the comple.ted 61 of 118 Thunderbirds finished with passes for 856 yards and The 'Birds will be looking to Brandon Hampton (63) and the rest 734 yards of total offense, nine TDs with six 523 on the ground and 211 of the offensive line to continue clearing the way for the SUU interceptions. through the air. It was their running game Saturday against St. Mary's. "Offensively they're second straight game with similar to us, but we both 734 yards of offense, the same figure they put up against have our own variations of the spread. They'll line their slots Idaho State, Oct. 23, 1999. Matt Cannon rushed for 146 up differently and use a tight end, but basically it's the same yards, giving him his third straight 1,000-yard rushing offense," Gregory said. season, and passed for 194 more to lead the 'Birds to the Defensively, SMC has been led by linebacker David Taylor. win. Cannon had 87 rushing yards at the end of the first who boasts team highs in tackles (48) and interceptions period and Madsen had 95. The two were both over 100 (four). The Gaels have got to the opponents' quarterback 25 yards at halftime, with 128 and 125 yards, respectively. times for sacks. with Travis White responsible for 10 of tho.se. Madsen finished with 135 yards on the ground. Southern and Taylor notching five more. "Defensively we're not sure what they'll do. They've lined Utah scored 28 points and piled up 335 total yards in the first quarter. The offensive success in the first period correlated up four different ways this season and they haven't played with a defensive effort which held the Gaels without a first anyone like us, so we'll see what they do,· Gregory said. Harriers. look to vvin c:onf~rence again SUU's men's and women's cross country teams travel to Macomb, Ill.. this Saturday for the Mid-Continent Conference Championships, hosted by Western lllinois.' The women's 5-kilometer race will begin at 9:15 a.m. (MST), while the men's 8-k run will follow at 10 a.m. (MST), at Spring Lake Park. . The Thunderbird men enter Saturday's championship as the three-time defending conference champions, having won every title since joining the Mid-Con in 1997, while the women's team has won the last two Mid-Con titles after taking second in their debut race in 1997. SUU swept the Mid-Con Championship races for the second-consecutive season last year in Lee's Summit, Mo. The men scored 29 points to run away with the men's title for the third-consecutive year, defeating secondplace UMKC 29-60. The women repeated as champions by outlasting UMKC 48-51 . The men placed four runners in the top-five spots, paced by senior Jody Benson, who covered the 8-k course in a personal-best time of 24:37, winning the individual title and Teresa Rice athlete of the year award. Right behind Benson was Curtis Moore in a time of 24:43, while Zak James and Mark Wright finished fourth (25:07) and fifth (25:18). All four earned first-team all-Mid-Con honors. Dustin Hudspeth finished SUU's scoring placing 17th with a time of 26:23. The women placed five runners in.the top-15, led by Robyn Adams who placed 5th individually with a time of 18:43 in the 5-k run. Teresa Rice placed sixth (18:44), followed by Ilene Dixon (8th; 18:55}, Robyn Truman (1 4th, 19:21) and Kelly Moore (15th, 19:25) rounded out the 'Bird scoring. Adams and Rice were named to the all-conference first-team roster, PAGE 13 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL SPORTS while Dixon and Truman earned second-team accolades. Both men's and women's teams were selected to • successfully defend their titles in the Mid-Con Preseason . Coaches' Poll, with the men's team being a unanimous selection, while the women's team received seven out of a possible nine first place votes. "Our workouts leading up to this weekend have been really good and I think we are ready to go," SUU head coach Eric Houle said. "The conference looks to present a bigger challenge, especially on the men's side. Our top-three (Moore, Wright, James) are going to be right there, but the question is how our fourth and fifth runner will finish compared to the rest of the field. UMKC looks to be strong and even Oral Roberts .... could be a surprise. If we can be in the toptwo, especially with how things have worked out with our men's team , I'll be happy." ~ Through Oct. 17, the trio of Wright, James ~ and Moore owns the top-three times in the ~ Mid-Continent Conference heading into this ~ weekend's race. UMKC, however, looks to • ~ be the favorite Saturday having the next six fastest times, with a split time of only 23 seconds between the six runners on the list. The SUU women do not have a runner ranked in the top-10 on the list. The women's championship looks to be up for grabs with as many as six teams, including SUU, UMKC, Western Illinois, Oral Roberts, Youngstown State and IUPUI looking to emerge victori9us Saturday. · "On the women's side, I think it will come down to either us, UMKC or Western Illinois, with Western probably being the team to beat,· Houle points out. · western is on its home course and has three runners under 19 minutes. I think we can win at least one if not both races.· ! a Cannon honored for great play Thunderbird quarterback Matt Cannon has been named this week's I-AA Co-Player of the Week for his efforts last Saturday at Idaho State. Cannon, who rushed for 262 yards and th'ree touchdowns in SUU's 62-24 win at ISU, shares the award with Brown's Mike Malan, who had 234 rushing yards and five touchdowns in the Bears' 56-40 win over Cornell. The honor was awarded by The Sports Network, which bestows the weekly distinction. Cannon was also named I-AA Independent Offensive Player of the Week for his performance Cannon's rushing totals gave him 4 ,155 career rushing yards from the QB position, making him the most prolific rushing quarterback in NCAA history (All divisions. He already holds the single-season record, all divisions, with 1,553 rushing yards in 1998). His three TDs give him 14 rushing touchdowns on the season and 61 for his career, the second-best q:ireer total in I-AA history, behind only Adrian Peterson of Georgia Southern. In addition, Cannon's 262 yards rushing vs. the Bengals represented the fourth-best single game effort in school history. SUU gained 679 rushing yards Saturday, two yards shy of the I-AA single-game rushing record and finished with 736 yards of total offense; both totals represent school records. "Matt had a great game [Saturday),· SUU Coach C. Ray Gregory said. "He really had it. Any time you average 12.5 yards per carry like Matt did you're having a pretty good day.· Golf ends season -at Boise· St. BY JASEN ASAY JOURNAL SPORTS EDIOTOR The Thunderbird golfers wrapped up their fall season by playing the last of five tournaments on their schedule Monday and Tuesday at the Bosie State Match-Play Tournament, played at the Spur Wood Country Club. The 'Birds finished seventh out of eight teams. The SUU team started the tourney off slowly, losing its first two matches to instate rivals Utah State 4-1 and Weber State 4-1 . Then the 'Birds bounced back with a victory in their last match 5-3 against a "wild card" team. This tea,:,, was made up of five players from the other schools competing in the tournament. This was the first time the 'Birds have competed in the Boise State tournament, and it was the only match-play tourney of this season. The teams counted five players' scores toward .the team total, as opposed to counting four players' scores in a typical . intercollegiate tourney. The team is now off the course until the spring, when the 'Birds' 2001 season will begin in March. '. |