Show Section Thursday October 9 200? I ' Pagel ' The Herala Journal Vandals playing with a I i ' purpose By Shawn Harrison sports editor no more The Idaho Vandals busted into the win column in a big way last Saturday Down 28-- 0 in the third quarter the Vandals rallied for a thrilling 35- 31 win against the team tabbed to challenge North Texas for the Sun Belt Conference crown Is Idaho for real? The answer to that question can be ' found out Saturday when die Vandals host the Mean Green in Moscow for homecoming : North Texas two-tileague champs extended its consecutive conference win- Cellar-dwelle- rs Sports briefs Aggie Stampede for homecoming game Hoping to start a new tradition for home football games the Aggie Stampede will take place this Satur-- " day before the homecoming game " against Wyoming ' v ' Departing from the Fine Aits Cen-ter puking lot (near 700 North 1200 East) at 3:45 pm the Aggie Stampede will be led by the USU cheerleaders and local talent Everyone is invited to walk to die stadium heading west on Seventh North and noth on Eighth East past the Greek houses to 10th North Head coach Mick Dennehy and others will address the crowd outside of Rom- hey Stadium Fans are encouraged to wear Blue and join the walk 7" 3- ' 7 V - r " rung streak to 12 games when the Mean Green beat Louisiana- Lafayette on Sept 27 Last week North Texas had a bye The conference streak is the : second longest in the nation behind Miami (Fla) s Maybe the Meari (keen streak will be tested thisSatur--7 day facing the suddenly hot VandalsIdaho is 2-- 1 against ' Both USU J itiy teams ranked ' £: M ’ Utah State’s men’s 'and women’s cross country teams are both ranked in the top 10 of their respective Regional polls as both squads are rated ninth in this week’s listings' s The S Agjgiemen have run three !':pt races diisyear finishing second atV : die Idaho State Invitational fourth X at the BYU Autumn Classic and Minnesota 20th at the Griak InvitationaL j Jlf (ijy m J v '' : 30-tea- m v " ' HSU’S women were second at ISU 1diirdatBYUand20thoutof26at Minnesota this season Ashley Johnson led USU at die first two meets before Card Cabanillas was die top Aggie & the Griak meet placing 92nd overall ! McCourt reportedly Wants to buy Dodgers y ' LOS ANGELES (AP) — Boston real estate developer Frank McCourt is negotiating to jbuy the Los Angeles Dodgers from News Corp a baseball official said Wednesday “They’re in serious discussions’’ the official said speaking on condi- tion of anonymity v: The negotiations were first report-e- d by the Lbs Angeles Times which cited unidentified baseball executives as its sources The paper said McCourt was on' the verge of completing a deal to buy the team high-ranki- - Wednesday's scores AL Boston 5 New York 2 ' NL Chicago 12 Florida 3 NHL New Jersey 3 Boston 3 tie Minnesota 0 Chicago Dallas 4 Anaheim 1 1 'i On television COLLEGE FOOTBALL 5:30 pm ESPN — Kentucky at South Carolina 8 pm ESPN2 — Colorado State at BYU GOLF 7:30 am TGC — European PGA Tour Dutch Open first round at Hilversum Netherlands 1pm' ESPN — LPGA Samsung World Championship first round at Houston 2 pm USA— PGA Tour Las Vegas Invitational second round at Las Vegas 3 pm TGC — Nationwide Tour Gila River Classic first round at Phoenix MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 6 pm FOX — Playoffs American League Championship Series game 2 Boston at New York NHL 5:30 pm ESPN2 — Los Angeles at Detroit JhreeihomersWakefiedSm NEW YORK (AP)—TTm Wake- field left the New York Yankees curs--: ing his knuckleball while David Ortiz Todd Walker and Manny Ramirez left them marveling at their power -For all the '‘Star Wars” imagery and talk of good versus evil Game I of the ALchampionship series was decided by Wakefield’s darting knuckler and Boston’s overpowering bats “Our offense came through It’s unbelievable” Wakefield said 7 Wednesday night after the Red Sox put aside fatigue and opened with a 2 " victory' Ortiz started Boston off with a two- 5-- los- - 7 7 just snapped a nine-gathat T streak back to dated ing title drought only run homer in the 7 i Boston of its ' " last year fourth inning and 7 7 seemed to spur on the Red Sox against ' Idaho 5 overall) finds Walker and Ramirez their old rivals who have dominated in a three-wa- y itself with ' addeid solo shots in 7 their Nordieast neighbors for decades ' ' (2-Texas North Utah : and After traveling from Boston to Oak-die fifth off a shaky (1-State the atop league A land on Sunday night then winning 7 Mike Mussina 85-ye- ar : ’ (1-- 3) ’ 4) Wakefield to even the NL championship series after two games “I was so happy that I had a chance to produce” Sosa said “As soon as 1 put the swing on the ball the ball was out of the ballpark “I’ve been lucky I’ve been seeing good pitches and I’ve hit them out” he said 12-- 3 befud-die- d New York’s batters taking a five-ru- n lead into the seventh before he got wild and three relievers front Boston’s beleaguered bullpen completed the three-hitt-er “He had a good one” Yankees : shortstop Derek Jeter said' “Nobody knew where it was going” Allthe chants and signs reminding Game 5 on Monday night and flying back across the country the Red Sox seemed bleary-eye- d when they arrived at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday But when it came time to play they had the energy and emotion not New York which had beeq off since winning its first-rousoies at Muindsota on Sunday ' See BOSTON on B3 pre-seas- on - - He’s had plenty of company too' Alex Gonzalez homered twice and 4) 0-- 5) ' Aramis Ramirez also connected for the Cubs But it was Sosa’s shot' games that woke up WrigleyFidd “This is die prime time to do it” Cubs manager Dusty Baker said “He really hasn’t had a hot streak all year It seems when he does he hits a home run every at-b- at “I’m hoping it’s oh the way Boy it’s coming right on time” he said A day after he tied the game two-ru- n shot in with a two-othe ninth for his first postseason n home run Sosa hit a drive in the second inning that went even farther ut two-ru- See CUBS on B4 - quarterback Brian Undgren whp was named to the n Belt Conference team last week The senior signal caller had found himself in a back-u- p role until last Saturday Lindgren ' passed for 408 yards and five touchdowns against New Mexico State (0-- 1 earning player of the week hpnors Now he will be at 7 home in the friendly confines of the Kibbie Dome It may not get any easier for the southern Aggies after their disappointing setback against Idaho They face Middle Tennessee (0-- 0 who is also ' celebrating homecoming The Blue Raiders have won 14 of their last 15 homecoming All-Su- nd - standings at The Vandals finally startedl-- even series CHICAGO (AP) — Sammy Sosa called it a stroke of luck More like the stroke of a slugger primed to lead his team deep into the postseason Sosa struck again Wednesday night this time dealing the jumper bushes in dead center field with a 495-fo- ot shot that left teammate Kenny Lofton shuddering And that wasjust the begin- - 7 ning for the Chicago Cubs The Cubs put on a startling display of raw power at the plate and on the mound land behind Mark Prior over- whelmed the Florida Marlins 'r But it should be exciting The only two times these schools have hooked up the outcome has been decided by a combined seven points and a combined 49 points have been scored in die fourth quarter Want more? The eventual winner trailed going into the fourth quarter They both have won a game in the series In the third conference game this weekend the Ragin’ Cajuns of LouiSiaiia-Lafayethost rival Louisiana- te te AP photo Cubs hurler Mark Prior reacts as Florida's Juan Pierre pops out to end the top of the second inning See VANDALS on B3 Mental toughness the key so far for Ags By Jason Turner sports writer A great year quickly After beating Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona in Boise Idaho to finish the nonconference the Utah portion of its season State women’s soccer team found itself in an eerily similar position as the Aggies from a year ago Not that the position was a bad one While the Aggies didn't quite match the 2002 squad's school- - ‘ start they found themrecord selves sitting pretty heading into the Big West Conference season Oh that cursed Big West season at least for last year's club 6-- 4 6-2- -2 turned sour for USU as it went an awful ' to begin 0-6-- win the Big West and qualify for the NCAA Tournament Fast forward to now The soccerplaying Aggies opened the Big West season at home like they did in 2002 but came out strong tfyis time With victories over Cal State Northridge and Pacific Utah State arid an 1 Cal Poly squad are the only two BWC schools off to a league start The Aggies have matched the program’s season high in victories with eight and there are still a whopping seven games to go So what sets dris year's club apart from all of the other Aggie teams back-to-ba- ck BWCplayin 2002 The Aggies would end up winning their final two league games to overall — good finish the season enough for USlTs best season in school history by percentage points It didn’t matter to the Aggie players however who entered league action feeling like they had a shot to -3 11-- 2-- 0 ’ tion in 1996? After all this is an Aggie team that lost arguably their best player in school history to graduation and was picked to finish dead last in the Big West by the league's coaches It is not a simple answer by any means In fact there are many factors that have served as catalysts for this team But one that glaringly sticks out is this USU squad believes in itself and has demonstrated mental toughness Now I realize there is still a long season ahead for the Aggies and they still have a lot to prove before everyone jumps on their bandwagon But if anybody questioned the mental beginning with die program's incep mmsmsssmsm iV See TURNER on B4 |