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Show Aggies send Miners packing, unbeaten at home BySETH R.HAWKINS web editor As a pregame ritual, a UTEP player buried a pickax into the sidelines of the soccerfield,but after 90 minutes of play, it was Utah State that buried the Miners, winning 2-1. The loss added insult to injury for UTEP (5-2-0), who left the state of Utah with their first two losses of the season after losing to Weber State Friday. Though the Aggies kept their homefieldrecord untarnished this season, the victory wasn't without somefirst-halfstruggles, said USU head coach Heather Cairns. "This game against UTEP was not an easy game for us to win. We had to dig and show a lot of heart," Cairns said. "This game we actually faced adversity and overcame it." Just 11 minutes into the game, UTEP got on the board off a give and go, when Miner midfielder Cara Nordin pounded the ball in from eight yards out. For the next 15 minutes, UTEP continued with a heavy offensive attack, keeping USU freshman goalkeeper Molli Merrill busy diving for saves in her first college start. The Aggies got a break in the 28th minute of play, when USU midfielder Chandra Salmon began a counterattack and fed the ball up to sophomore forward Lauren Hansen, who collided with UTEP goalkeeper Chandra Morden. The ball slipped past Morden and Hansen squeezed by for a quick kick at the open net, providing the first goal for the Aggies. It was Hansen's third goal of the season and Salmons first assist. Notfiveminutes later, the Aggies got on the board again. Once again, Hansen was involved, but this time in an assisting role as she fed the ball from UTEP s weak right corner to junior forward Erin Salmon, who pounded the ball into the middle of the net from 14 yards out. The goal was Erin Salmons second of the season and marked Hansen's first career assist. "The first half wasn't bad but I think they definitely were taking it to us," Cairns said. "We were fortunate to score on the two counterattacks." Fortune or not, the goals were a result of quality bench production for USU, as Hansen and Salmon were GAME 3: UTAH both substituted after UTEP s goal. "From the bench, me and Salmon, we were talking like, we hate playing a goal down," Hansen said. "Once you score, your momentum goes so much - the momentum's with you. So I think that helped turn around and get the second goal." The second half was an entirely different ball game from the first half. No goals were scored and the Aggies took the role as the active aggressor, outplaying and outpossessing the Miners, Cairns said. Where USU was outshot 7-4 in the first half, they outshot UTEP 11-3 in the second half. Cairns said limiting the Miners' scoring opportunities and improving midfielder passing in the second half was key to securing the win. "I think, especially the second half, we did what we needed," Hansen said. "We possessed right, we held the ball, were able to connect with each other instead of games before." With a fairly silent second half for Merrill - only making one save - she earned the first win of her career [M See SOCCER, page 9 58, USU 10 Aggies see red Home not so sweetfor Aggies in home opener ByTIMOLSEN assistant sports editor Fast Stats By SAMMY HiSLOP ForAggie fans wondering why they dishecj out $30 to witness Saturday night's USU-Utah football game, perhaps it is that they now know the Aggies can't play any worse. At least that was USU head coach Brent Guy's assessment. Guy, now in his fourth year at USU, described Saturday night's 58-10 loss to Utah in two powerful words: ground zero. "1 told them we hit ground zero," Guy said. "I said both tires just went down. We're at ground zero in my opinion, and I have to find a way to coach them out of it." The Aggies collected seven penalties for 82 yards, lost two of three fumbles, allowed the Utes to collect 439 yards of total offense, punted eight times and were 2-of-12 on thirddown conversions. Perhaps the costliest fumble came in the first quarter. Aggie senior tailback Curtis Marsh lost the ball on a WAC Boise State San Jose State Fresno State Louisiana Tech Hawai'i Idaho Nevada New Mexico St. Utah State Overall 2-0 2-1 1-1 1-1 1-2 1-2 1-2 0-1 0-3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 Volleyball Team U S U S E N I O R O T I S N E L S O N (14) hauls in a catch over two Utah defenders during the first quarter Saturday. The reception gave the Aggies their first lead of the season. CAMERON PETERSON photo never very competitive in the football game." It was an ugly game that saw the Aggies take a step back from the progress they seemed to make during the Oregon game. Turnovers, penalties and poor execution plagued the Aggies all night on both sides of the ball. Unlike the game against the Ducks, the Aggies quickly lost their composure and their competitiveness. Though the defense was able to keep the Utes out of the endzone early, the offense never found any kind of continuity. USU sophomore quar- [1 See ZERO, page 9 Turnovers, penalties hurt Aggies sports editor Utah State's Melissa Osterloh was named to the 2008 Utah Classic all-tournament team this past weekend as USU finished in a tie for third-place as it lost to Utah (3-0) and Saint Louis (3-1), and defeated No. 15 Purdue (3-2) to notch its first win of the season. Osterloh, a senior outside hitter from Sandy, Utah (Skyline HS), averaged 3.92 points. 3.17 kills, 1.25 digs and 1.17 blocks per game during the tournament. Her best match of the weekend was against Purdue as she recorded 18 kills, six digs, five block assists and two service aces. Joining Osterloh on the all-tournament team was Whitney Behrens of Saint Louis, Lori Baird and Emillie Toone of Utah, and Kelli Miller and Jaclyn Hart of Purdue, while the Boilermakers Stephanie Lynch was named the tournaments most valuable player. Utah State returns to action on Tuesday, Sept. 16 when it hosts Utah Valley at 7 p.m. in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Team • USU has given up an average of 62 points during the past two games as well as giving up an average of 317 yards rushing. prepared and I blame myself. I felt like we had a great week of practice and f thought we could come out and at least compete. We got the first break in the game when they fumbled the punt and we scored and took a lead, and after that we were By USU ATHLETICS IV CSt an dings Football • The Aggie offense was only able to For the first time this season USU jumped ahead of its com- gain a meagre petition. 116 yards during The Aggie offense, held to Saturday's contest* three-and-out in their first possession, recovered a muffed punt by Utah return man John Peel. Four plays later USU quarterback Sean Setzer found senior wide receiver Otis Nelson in the endzone fore a 9-yard strike, giving the Aggies their first lead of the season, 7-0. How quickly things changed. Utah State managed only 39 total yards in the first half and 116 total for the game against a stout Utah defense. What started out great ended for another tough night for the Ags as they fell to the Utes, 58-10. "I'm very disappointed," said USU head coach Brent Guy. "I thought we had our team Osterloh makes all-tournament team kick return and Ute defender Elijah Wesson picked up the ball and eluded Aggie defenders for a 20-yard touchdown run. Wesson's touchdown turned a 10-7 game into a 17-7 game. From then on, momentum was in Utah's favor. "I've never seen our team do this," said USU senior wide receiver Otis Nelson. "We just imploded. It went all downhill from there." Proof of that statement lies in the fact that the Aggies only got on the board once more - a 20-yard Peter Caldwell field goal just under three minutes into the third quarter. "We just didn't compete at all, period," Nelson said. "We beat ourselves with stupid penalties. I don't know how many personal fouls we had, but it was too many. We did not compete at all." All of the Aggie defense's three penalties helped push the Ute offense down the field in a hurry. The first came 10 minutes into the 01 See IMPLOSION, page 10 U S U H E A D C O A C H B R E N T G U Y looks on in frustration during the Aggie's 48-point loss to the University of Utah Saturday night. TYLER LARSON photo WAC Hawai'i Idaho Nevada New Mexico St. Fresno State San Jose State Boise State Louisiana Tech Utah State 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 Overall 7-2 6-3 4-4 5-6 4-5 4-6 2-7 1-5 1-9 Tennis competes at Utah Fall Classic in Provo By USU ATHLETICS Utah State men's tennis completed the last day of the Utah Fall Tennis Classic at BYU in Provo, Utah on Saturday. Playing well for the Aggies were freshman Jordan Barlow and sophomore Bryan Marchant. Marchant was defeated in the singles consolations quarterfinals by AJ. Young of BYU, 6-1,6-3. Barlow defeated senior Matt Braithwaite, 6-1, 7-5, in the singles consolation quarterfinals. Barlow moved onto the singles consolation final round but withdrew, resulting in a win for Young. Sophomore Jakob Asplund and junior Alex Thatcher moved onto the doubles consolation final round, but the pair withdrew due to an illness. The Aggies' next action will be September 19 - 21 at the Boise State Fall Classic. |