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Show Aggies keep Svin streak5 alive with victory over Utes By GARY R. BLODGETT Sports Editor SALT LAKE CITY University of Utah went into Saturday afternoon's game as the No. 1 passing team in the nation. But it was Utah State University's awesome passing that turned the tables. "They have two great quarterbacks, but we have one, too," said Aggie Coach Chuck Shelton. "And we felt that if we played hard and took advantage of the breaks that we could win." And they did, 41-36, in a wild, thrilling inter-state rival played at the U of U's Rice Stadium. It was the first time in four years that the Aggies beat the Utes, and the first time since 1980 that the Ags had won on the Ute turf. "It was a big win for the team and the school's athletic program," commented Coach Shelton. "We have been struggling strug-gling this year but this win will give us a lot of incentive to combine with our hard play. It was a good win; we deserved it." Aggie quarterback Brent Snyder had a pass intercepted by the Utes' Sean Robertson who raced 48 yards down the sidelines for the first score with the game not even two minutes old. It looked like it would be a 'blowout" by the Utes as many Ute-partisan fans were predicting. After all, the Aggies had won only one game all season and the high-riding Utes were atop the national ranking in passing and total offense. "We didn't expect to stop Utah. All we could hope for was to disrupt their explosive offense; stop the big plays and hope to stay close. 1 told the players earlier in the week that we could beat Utah, but we had to keep their score down and hope for a low-scoring victory," said Coach Shelton. "We didn't accomplish the first," he laughed, "but we did r win the game and that's what counts. "We had to come from behind, but when things began to happen we were able to put it all together." The Aggies pulled ahead by II points, 41-30, with about 9'i minutes left in the game which gave rejuvenated life to the Ags, but didn't count the Utes out. Utah did manage to narrow the score with a 91 -yard drive which was culminated with a 20-yard TD pass with only 36 seconds left on the clock. The Utes went for a two-point conversion conver-sion in hopes of being able to knot the score with a field goal. But the conversion failed and the Utes came up five points short. The Utes were conservative in the use of their reknown "Daffy Duck" formation but they did come up with a pass play that should be included in their play book. It was a pass from quarterback Chris Mendonca to himself good for 36 yards, and nearly resulted in a touchdown. Mendonca' Mendon-ca' s pass attempt was batted in the air by the Aggie defense and Mendonca caught the deflected oval and raced upfield before being tackled from behind. Snyder was sensational hurling five touchdown passes and had a personal career-high 360 yards. Split end Kendal Smith was his top receiver, garnering 142 yards. Offensively, the Ags racked up 557 total yards. Another split receiver Pat Newman and tight end Pette Maiden were also on the receiving end of Snyder's passes. Maiden and Smith each scored twice while Newman was in the end zone for one reception. For the Utes, Carl Harry caught two touchdown passes and Jeff Jenkins was on the receiving end of another pass. In addition addi-tion to Robertson's pass interception runback, Utah's other score was a plunge of less than one foot by Clifton Smith. Utah went into the dressing room at hajftime with a 24-17 lead and extended that lead to 30-17 with a TD pass to Jenkins in the end zone in the early minutes of the second half. By now, it looked like a Ute romp was in progress. But Dene Garner kicked a 19-yard field goal to make it 30-20 with 6: 13 left in the third period. But early in the fourth quarter, Newman and Smith were in the game together and ran Utah's "riddled" secondary to a frazzle. One long pass from Snyder to Newman was good for one TD, and 49 seconds later after a recovered kickoff fumble recovery recov-ery by Justin Olsen the Aggies scored again on a TD pass to Smith and Utah's 10-point lead had quickly changed to a four-point four-point lead, the Aggies' first lead of the game. ' Utah scored with a brilliant 92-yard drive to make the game close but time ran out and the previously hapless Aggies were celebrating. BYU's Cougars got a big one under their belts Saturday night, barely defeating the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in a defensive battle of two Western Athletic Conference powerhouses. The slim margin of victory means BYU still has a shot at the WAC title, especially if the Cougars can get past the Air Force Academy Saturday at 2 p.m. in Cougar Stadium. "There are still plenty of WAC games left on the schedule but I believe that we could be in the driver's seat if we can get past the Air Force Academy on Saturday," said Coach LaVell Edwards. Ed-wards. The BYU-Air Force game will be played in Cougar Stadium beginning at 2 p.m. instead of being an evening game. The game will be televised live over ESPN cable television. "It's always a struggle when any team plays Hawaii on the Islands," commented the coach. "They have an outstanding defensive team and neither team could put together a solid offense. It was an exciting but nerve-racking game to be in." Quarterback Bob Jensen had his problems handling the snaps, a recurrence of a previous game. "I don't know what it is but I do know I must be more consistent," he said. The Rainbows scored once each in the first and second period and had a last-shot attempt late in the game. Hawaii was in position to score but suffered a couple of penalties that put the offense deep in the hole. Leonard Chitty booted three field goals and a 35-yard touchdown touch-down pass from Jensen to Darren Handley was enough for the victory. Coach Edwards praised his defense for "playing real tough game." The defense held Hawaii to yards total offense the second half, 65 yards coming in the last two minutes on some razzle-dazzle plays. Weber State's Wildcats captured a back-to-back sweep of Montana's two football teams Saturday with a stunning 29-26 victory over the University of Montana at Missoula. But it wasn't easy. The Wildcats waited until the last 3'2 minutes before quarterback quarter-back Jeff Carlson connected on a 36-yard touchdown pass to Wade Orton Weber's newfound pass receiver. The victory boosted the Wildcats' win-loss record to 4-0 in Big Sky Conference Confer-ence action and 6-1 overall where they are ranked No. 10 in NCAA Division 1-AA. Weber's next conference test comes Saturday against the University of Idaho in Wildcat Stadium. Orton was on the receiving end of 12 Carlson passes against Montana adding that to 10 pass receptions against Montana State the week before. Against the Grizzlies Saturday, Orton caught 12 passes good for 218 yards. In the past two games, he has gathered in 22 aerials for a two-game total of 448 yards. And Carlson in the past two games has thrown for 738 yards and six touchdowns. Both Carlson and Orton are college juniors. Weber trailed 12-7 at halftime, but Carlson put the ball in the air 21 times, and completed 15, for 270 yards in the second half. Nine of Orton's 12 receptions came in the second half. But that was only part of the story. Carlson also hit touchdown touch-down passes of 39 and 44 yards to Ogden sophomore Jon Fuller. |