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Show ----------------------•••Kl~iflNAIJUI••~---------------------- SPORTS 1llE nruNDERBIRD • SOU1l1ERN UTAH UNIVERSITY• MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1992 • PAGE 11 'Birds trounced 35-18 at PSU advantage into the locker room. .BYJAYHINfON 'llmnckrbinl Sports Editor A hungry Portland State Voong k>Otba1l team feasted heartily on the SUU SUU's WtUU Turley and rht remainder of rht Bird defmse allowed 35 points in SUU's 35-18 loss co Portland State Saturday night in Portland's Civic Center. Golfers improve overall, take week off to work BY JAKE CUDNEY Thunderbird Sports Writer With an improved shot total from the previous tournament, the Southern Utah golf team finished 13th out of 15 teams at the 9th annual 54·hole New Mexico State University Coca Cola Classic tournament in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The team finished with a 54-hole total of 938, which was drastically improved from two weeks ago when the team finished at 965. This week was the best performance of the season for the Thunderbirds. SU finished the tournament ahead of two teams, Hardin-Simmons and Western New Mexico, but finished behind the Likes of Arizona, Cal State Northridge, Memphis State and the Air Force. Visiting Texas Tech outlasted the home team New Mexico State by three strokes 868 and 870, respectively. New Mexico recorded a 887 for a third-place finish. Southern Utah finished the second round in I 2th position with a two round total of 622. San Diego was five shots behind SU, but with a final round score of 301 they were able to pull ahead of the T-Birds. The Thunderbirds fi.nished the third round with a 316. The top individual Thunderbird finisher finished in a four way tie for the 41 st position. Cory Monson with an individual total of 230, along with players from Arizona, Long Beach State, and Cal State Northridge. This was Monson's best individual finish of the season. In the two previous tournaments the Red Jacoby Invitational and the Falcon Invitational, Monson shot a 236 and a 239, respectively. In his first tournament this season, Matt Oldroyd finished second behind Monson in 55th position with a score of 236. John Fister and Todd Mullin finished with equal scores of 237 and Tom King added a 24 l. The Thunderbirds will have a week to prepare for the Cables Encl/Ram Fall Classic in Fort Collins, Colo., Oct. 19-20. According to SUU Golf Coach John Evans, the Thunderbirds will have to play smarter and eliminate poor choices that result in higher scores. Thunderbirds Saturday night with a 3.>18 win at the Civic Center in Portland, Ore. The contest was the first game for both teams in Western Football Conference action. The Vikings were coming off two consecutive losses while the Thunderbirds were coming of a big win over Angelo State. "We were fairly gocxl sometimes in some things,• said SUU Head Football Coach Jack Bishop, "And we were horrible at other times. We didn't play as a complete football team. I think probably this was our poorest performance to date this year." Portland State jumped out of the blocks early and before both teams could break a sweat PSU led 14-0. PSU to0k the opening drive 65 yards for a score and then capitalized on an interception of Rick Robins for the second. With 11 :16 to go in the opening quarter the score stoOd 14-zip PSU. The Thunderbirds didn't roll over and die, however, as Zed Robinson capped a lengthy seven-minute drive with a two-yard run. Matt Gordon, who had a rough night in the kicking department, missed the PAT. SUU's offense remained silent for the remainder of the half, while Portland put up two more scores with 5:06 and 58 seconds left in the half, respectively, to take a 28-6 Early in the third quarter, the 'Birds got into scoring position, but came up with empty pockcm when Gonion missed his second field goal atttmpt The SUU defense rurned it up a notch in the second half by allowing the Vikings one touchdown, but SUU's offense sputtered. Late in the third quarter Bishop put in second string QB Austin Lindsey and he prompdy led the 'Birds to the promised land with a four-yard ID pass to Mike Key. The two-point attempt failed and the 'Birds closed the gap to 3.>12. linebacker Matanda Doss, who registered 12 tackles on the night, picked uP a PSU loose ball and scored from eight yards out for SUU's final score. The 'Birds fall to 0.1 in the conference and 2-3 overall and in looking at playoff potential and winning the conference, the loss to PSU puts a damper on things, but doesn't totally eliminate SUU's chances. "That's one of the hard things," said Bishop. "If you focus on the playoffs, then you run the risk of what do you do if you don't make them. "We've got to regroup and come together and get it done. It's disheartening because you want to win the conference. Anything can happen, you can't give up the ghost," he said. The 'Birds will have until Saturday to regroup before they battle another WFC foe, Santa Clara, at 8 p.m. in Santa Clara, Calif. Cross country squads look strong The Southern Utah men's and women's cross country teams had strong finishes at the Biola Invitational in La Mirada, Calif. Friday., with a fourth place finish for the men among nine Division I schools, while the women's team finished third in the field of seven. The only collegiate team to finish ahead of the SU women was Cal. State University Northridge. Cal. State Northridge fi.nished with its top runner in the Anna Pett 13th position, but she was followed in the 14th and 15th positions by two of her fellow runners and with runners in the 22nd and 24th. The top woman finisher of the tournament was a runner from Biola University, but despite her efforts Biola was only able to finish fifth out of the nine Division II teams. Southern Utah's women's team was once again led by Anna Pett who finished the 5000 meter race in seventh in a field of 128 at 18:52, only three seconds behind the number five finisher. Kristen Shaw was the second Thunderbird woman to finish with a time of 19:59 which was gocxl enough tO land the 19th position overall. Candi Casper rounded out the top three SU finishers in the 26th overall position with a time of 20: 18. To finish out the top five 'Bird finishers, Erika Timm finished 28th and Shaliece Proctor fi.nished 36th overall. The men were led by Phil Woolst0n, who finished in 26:30 in the five mile race, five seconds behind the number eight finisher, which earned him the ninth position overall. 0The second Thunderbird to finish for the men was Travis Anderson who fi.nished 17th overall with a time of27:14, and Steve Allen finished third for the T-Birds in 28: 16 which was gocxl enough to finish 44th out of a field of 216 runners. The Thunderbird men to0k the 67th, 68th, and 69th positions with only three seconds separating the three runners. Dennis Kerth finished with a time of 28:54 only one second behind the 66th. The 5th and 6th Thunderbird runners were Monte Marshall who ran a 28:55, and Jeff Snow who ran a 28:57. The cross country teams have this week off, but they head up tO Pocatello, Idaho on October l 7 tO run in the Idaho State Invitational. |