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Show 6 SPORTS Tuesday, September 29,2009 Tuesday Thursday Men's Soccer Softball www.dailyutahchronicle.com Friday Utah § Weber State SLCC@Utah UtahfUNLV All Day Layton 3 P.M. Ute Softball Field 6:30 P.M. Las Vegas Women's Tennis Swimming & Diving Women's Volleyball Utah @ BYU (Freshmen-Sophomores) ITA Ail-American Championships, Qualifying 6 P.M. Salt Lake City Alt Day, Los Angeles, Calif. l.TCU After four weeks of play, TCU remains the only unbeaten team and the unanimous pick for the No. i team in the conference. Andy Dalton completed 17 of 26 for 226 yards and two touchdowns, including a fourth-quarter score that gave the Horned Frogs the 14-10 win. 2. Utah The Utes bounced back from their loss in Oregon with a 30-14 win over Louisville. Despite seeing several key players exit early in the game because of injuries, Utah gained more than 400 yards of offense and forced three turnovers en route to victory. 3. BYU The Cougars also recovered from their loss last weekend but were challenged by Colorado State in their first MWC game. BYU scored three touchdowns in the first quarter that allowed it to hold on for the 42-23 win, despite a late attack from the Rams. 4. Air Force The Falcons joined BYU in picking up their first conference victory of the season with a 26-14 w m o v e r San Diego State. Air Force kicker Erik Soderberg scored the majority of the Falcons' points, putting up four field goals and two extra points. 5. Colorado State The Rams got their first loss of the season to BYU in their conference opener. Despite gaining more yards and having possession longer than BYU, Colorado State allowed three touchdowns in the first quarter and was unable to respond later in the game. 6. Wyoming The Cowboys are tEe the only 1 team to move up in the rankings (moving up from No. 8 last week) after earning a 30-27 win over UNLV in their conference opener. Austyn Carta-Samuels threw for 234 yards and three touchdowns to lead Wyoming to its second win of the season. Matt Asiata looked like he was healthy as he scored Utah's first touchdown, but a torn ACL will keep him out for the rest of the year. The Utes had three other starters leave the game; they will be evaluated during the bye week. / ; Bryan Chouinard ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Injury Report Although the Utes got the win over Louisville on Saturday night, it came at a cost. Four Utah starters were forced to leave the game because of injuries, including offensive starters Matt Asiata and Zane Beadles and defensive starters Joe Dale and Lei Talamaivao. Asiata looked like he was back to ioo percent Saturday night when the senior ran 24 yards for the first score of the night. He left the game after the touchdown run with a torn ACL, which will sideline him for the remainder of the 2009 season. "The worst part of the game is the injuries," said head coach Kyle Whittingham. "With Matt and the tough things he's had happen in the past years, you hate to see it happen. It breaks your heart to see a guy (injured) like that and how hard he's worked to prepare for this season."* Beadles also left Saturday's contest at half- time with what coaches called a "leg laceration" and is expected to be back after the bye week and be ready for Colorado State. On the defensive side of the ball, Talamaivao and Dale both went down—Talamaivao with a cracked fibia and Dale with what coaches called "tightness" in his legs. Coming in for Dale was junior Justin Taplin-Ross, who finished the night with three tackles and led the Utes in pass breakups with two. Talamaivao and Dale will both be evaluated during the bye week. Their status for the Colorado State game and the rest of the season has yet to be determined. ;. . t /». 7. UNLV The Rebels dropped to the bottom three of the conference after suffering a loss to Wyoming. Although UNLV had more yards and longer possession of the football, the Rebels were unable to hold off a fourth-quarter attack by Wyoming. 8 San Diego State The Aztecs dropped to 1-3 on the season and started conference play with a loss as they fell to Air Force. Like Colorado State, San Diego had more yards than Air Force, but was unable to convert yardage into scoring plays, as it lost 26-14. MWC Outlook 9. New Mexico The first four weeks of the college football season were bittersweet for the Mountain West Conference. During the first month of its nth season, the MWC made headlines for major upsets and crumbling defeats. In the New Mexico remains the only team in the conference that has yet to get a win. The Lobos held the lead over New Mexico State most of the game, but allowed the Aggies to score the winning touchdown in the final minute. Compiled by Paige Fieldsted Power Rankings are voted on by the sports staff. See FOOTBALL Page 7 RUGBY Utes use new system to stay undefeated Kelsey Price STAFF WRITER After a tough and error-riddled win against No. 23 Air Force last week, the Scrummin' Utes (3-0) looked like an entirely different rugby team as they rolled over Washington State 78-5 at Baliff Field on Saturday. Head coach Blake Burdette said after the game against Air Force that the team needed to evaluate how it played the ball. "We realized we needed to play in much better form if we wanted to continue to win," he said. Following numerous offensive and defensive mistakes against Air Force, the Utes switched their system of play against the WSU Cougars, which resulted in a wider, faster-paced game than Utah had previously played. "It was the first time we used this system," said fly half Thretton Palamo. "We were playing the whole field, which meant more players got to run the ball. It made a huge difference on all levels of play." The new system of play brought some big results to the Utes. Offensively, the Utes averaged a try— the equivalent of a touchdown— every eight minutes. Ute wings Blake Miller and Ryan Bailey and fullback Naki Angilau ran the ball up the sidelines, which resulted in frazzled attempts by the WSU forwards to stop the Utah offense. On defense, Utah held WSU with little to no opportunity to advance the ball forward. The Cougars were continually forced into the back of their side of the field, which forced them to resort to a kicking-dominated offense. Conversion attempts were also improved for the Utes, with Hayden McMullen successfully completing 8 for 12. However, the rugby team still sees plenty of opportunity for improvement this season. In the ruck—the tackle/contact area in rugby—the Utes struggled to recover the ball quickly. They also See RUGBY Page 7 SKIN Week #5: Oct. 2-Oct. 4 BestofWeek#4:Grafton Hull 14-2 s NCAA use California Oklahoma Miami LSU sun Georgia Michigan Michigan St. Florida St. Boston C Washington Notre Dame Penn State. Illinois Air Force Navy Broncos Bills 49ers Bengals Browns NFL Jets Name Saints Chargers Contact Steelers Lions Bears Ravens Patriots Cowboys Dolphins Rams Tiebreaker: Pick the final score of Oklahoma @ Miami Circle all of your selections and submit sheets to Union Room 318 by 5 p.m. Thursday. Winners announced every Tuesday, but just because you win Pigskin Picks doesn't mean you get a bye week too. Featured Staff Pick: Bryan Chouinard Staff Records: Mike Mangum 47-18, Bryan Chouinard 46-19,Ty Cobb 45-20, Matt Sanchez 41-24, Paige Fieldsted 40-25, Liz Frome 39-26 and Bubba Brown 38-27. |