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Show 13 Monday, Sept. 12,2005 Take Note: The volleyball team will take on Weber State Tuesday in Ogden. 797-1761 sports@statesman.usu.edu Domination, cont. Ags drop eighth straight to Utes BY BRYAN HINTON Assistant Sports Editor After holding a 7-0 lead late in the second quarter, the Utah State football team gave up four straight touchdowns and lost 31-7 to in-state rival Utah, Saturday. The loss was the Aggies' eighth in a row to the Utes. Head Coach Brent Guy said his team came out of the gate fine, but lost its composure later in the game. "It was not first-quarter jitters for us," he said. "It was the last-three-minutes-of-thefirst-half-and-we're-winning jitters." Nineteen players saw college action for the first time in Saturday's contest, but Guy said the new players weren't any worse than the experienced ones. "We had older guys make as many mistakes as young guys," he said. Quarterback Leon Jackson III said Utah didn't outplay USU, but the Aggies simply broke down mentally. "We had them on their heels," he said. "They didn't iknow what to do. We moved ithe ball well and came out land executed plays. But one play here, one play there and -Utah turned it around." ! With the score tied 7-7, |USU punted with a minute and a half remaining in the first half, which lUtah returned 22 yards to ; the Aggie 30. In the next play, Ute quarterback Brian Johnson found receiver John Madsen for a 30-yard touchdown to give Utah the lead for good. • USU struck first with 13:45 !to play in the second quarter. |Ryan Bohm ran three yards for a touchdown to cap a 15-play, 82-yard drive that lasted over seven minutes. Utah gave USU chances to get back in the game in the second half, but the Aggies couldn't take advantage. After the Aggies forced a punt on the Utes' first possession, returner Kevin Robinson fumbled the punt, which Utah recoverd at the USU 17-yard line. The Utes scored three plays later to take a 21-7 lead. Later in the third, USU appeared to stop Utah on third down with a sack, but John Chick was called for a 15-yard facemask penalty to give the Utes a first down. Utah would fumble the ball back to USU later in the drive, but the Aggies went three and out and had to punt. Guy said his team needs to take advantage of opportunities better. "We had a chance, but we made mistakes and had costly penalties on third down," he said. "We have to have the ability to take what's there." Guy said there isn't anything good to take from a 24point loss, even if it was his first game as head coach. "I'm not a guy that finds positives after a 31-7 loss," he said. "It feels just like a loss. It didn't feel any different as an assistant." Guy did say that Jackson did well, but still has room for improvement. "He was productive," he said. "But he needs to do a better job of getting the ball to the right player." Jackson said he also thought he played well, but the team shouldn't concen• FOOTBALL See page 17 Down I Line Sports Notes Football team to hold tryouts for walk ons UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Athletic Media Relations Utah State's football team will hold walkon tryouts on Monday, Sept. 19 at 3:30 p.m. in Romney Stadium. To be eligible for the tryouts, students must be full-time students enrolled in 12 credit hours. It is preferred that students have gone through the NCAA Clearing House while in high school. Any interested students must contact assistant coach Greg Stevens in advance at 797-1857. Walkups will not be allowed to participate. Bowling club to hold first meeting Ryan Talbol p/ioto/r[<a/bo(@ccusu.edu UTAH STATE'S LEON JACKSON I I I carries the ball as Will Fausel (left) and Ryan Bohm block while Utah line backer Spencer Toone attempts a tackle. The Ags fell to the Utes 31-7 Saturday night at Rice Eccles Stadium. • Utah State started five freshmen on Saturday: RT Derek Hoke, TB Ryan Bohm, LB Devon Hall, LB Jake Hutton and (B Marquis Charles. On paper, game was a lot like last year's • QB Leon Jackson III rushed for more yards than any Aggie quarterback in the last 15 years with 87 yards rushing. halftime for the Aggies. The Utes actually gained Senior Writer 69 more yards this game than they did last year (510The score wasn't as bad as 441), but the last year, Aggie defense but the — * - ^ ^ came up with stats seem two timely to show the turnovers Ute offense to decrease performed scoring better on Inside the game "I the margin by 18 Saturday points. night than they did last year. The Aggie defense forced Still, the first half was an two turnovers but couldn't amazing 30 minutes of football seem to stop the Utes any other to have a score of just 14-7. way. Utah gained only 10 yards less than they did in the first half • NOTEBOOK last year, yet the game was well Seepage 15 within reach coming out of BY KEVIN NIELSEN Notebook • TB Ryan Bohm had the best debut of any runningback in the past three years as he rushed for 56 yards on 11 carries. • WR Tony Pennyman was suspended for the game for violating team rules. Pennyman will play against UNLV, Guy said. The Utah State Bowling Club will hold an informational meeting Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 3:30 p.m. at The Gutter Bowling Center at the Cache Valley Fun Park at 1770 N. 255 East in North Logan. At the meeting, bowlers will discuss practice times and days for the upcoming season. There will be three tournaments the club will be participating in this season at Utah, Weber State and USU. The club already has enough participants for a full men's and women's team, but it is hoping to have an additional 20 or 30 people. In order to participate, bowlers must pay $75 plus become a member of the Collegiate Bowlers Association. Big Blue Club luncheon on Monday BY UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY LEFT: AGGIE RYAN BOHM is pursued by Ute Alex Puccinelli. MIDDLE: HEAD COACH Brent Guy and assistant Jeff Copp instruct the team during the first half of Saturday's game. RIGHT: BRIAN Soi attempts to tackle Ute running back Quinton Ganther. Photos by Ryan Talbot/ nalbot@cc.usu.edu Men's soccer splits with Weber, SLCC BY SCOTT MCALLISTER ' Staff Writer It was a weekend of much !needed improvement for Utah State men's club soccer as they split results with Weber State and Salt Lake Community. 1 _ As he has done throughout Ithe season, Landon Potter ^scored all three goals for the ;Aggies. "Landon's like the only guy Ithat's scored on our team," !midfielder Darin Christensen said. "He just gets lucky some- times. They seem to hit half the post and half the net — I don't see how he gets them in." The game of the weekend came against Weber State who handed the Aggies a 4-2 loss in front of a large crowd. A few tactical changes on defense led to an improved score line from Wednesday's 9-2 loss to UVSC. "What we did was take two of our best athletes and put them back on defense until we get our injured players back," Head Coach Vince Lamara said. Moving Greg Larsen and Danny Spillman from midfield to the backline, Lamara said they would do well at closing down opposing strikers because of their fitness and ball control. "Greg Larsen and Danny Spillman absolutely dominated their forwards," sweeper Jake Carlson said. "Every goal they scored came from overlaps in the midfield, so their two forwards didn't do a thing all game because of Larsen and Spillman." Things were looking good for USU early on in the match. Colby Jones found himself behind the Weber defense with the ball in the seventh minute. But the WSU goalkeeper smothered Jones' close-range shot. In the very next minute, Weber went on the attack — systematically working through the Utah State defense and even beating goalkeeper Mike Goodman. Just as the ball seemed to be heading into the net, Carlson came in behind Goodman and cleared it off the line and out of danger. Just two minutes later, the Wildcats opened the scoring on a free kick from 25 yards out. The initial shot traveled on the ground past the defensive wall but took a deflection that put the ball just out of • SPLIT See page 14 Athletic Media Relations ' Utah State's weekly Big Blue Club football luncheon will be held at the Coppermill Restaurant on Monday at noon. The luncheon is not limited to Big Blue Club members and is open to everybody. The weekly meetings begin at noon and feature head coach Brent Guy and two players. The coach will also show video of the Utah game. Cost of the i luncheon is $12. This week in Campus Bee. • There will be an intramural triathlon Saturday at 9 a.m. in HPER. • The Outdoor Adventure Full moon hike will be Saturday night. Contact the Outdoor Recreation Center for more information at 797-7529. • The Utah State Hockey club ! team vs Alumni Friday 8 p.m. ! at the Eccles Ice Center. [ • The Utah State Hockey club team vs BYU Saturday 8 p.m. Eccles Ice Center. Tickets are $3 with student ID. |