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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 1988)
Friday, September 2, 1988/The Battalion/Page 15 )U1 • c<) nd| ar . ,n under ind 26 Sports sev(J led a col Ags cooking Cajun Baton Rouge Connection hits LSU K-anie ifi ed b anl; j 'oon lafp >il and. By Dianne Normand Reporter Four years ago, a sophomore quarterback-, for the Broadmoor High School Buccaneers of Baton -—Rouge, La., came off the bench to l 'b 11% > n his first high school football ot betalf game. He dropped back, faked to the running back, then rolled out and connected with the all-state senior "g Oil ; ’il and _ Texan? illo. lsi >ccessfj tight end for a 35-yard touchdown. establij v Yorkf; 'og him n Furr this ytj sted rev, ,r e thar ante (jut op's ha; 12 ceo; dp’s firi' ortipan; ullion lie lop’s *5 le’s in ack of [r. tive isot :h devd iness. lave sir ion, dir they sir ervboc; The sophomore’s first. The quarterback was Bucky Rich ardson; the tight end was Wally Hartley. Since then, both have been im ported from Broadmoor High to Aggieland via the Texas A&M foot ball team. Now dubbed “The Baton Rouge Connection” and wearing A&M jer seys, both players will try to live up to their title in Saturday’s game against Louisiana State in f ront of a hometown crowd. Richardson, the Aggie quar terback and offensive Most Valuable Player of the 1988 Cotton Bowl, will view the LSU game from a much dif ferent perspective than he did the last time the Aggies traveled to LSU two years ago. “I was a senior in high school watching the game from the stands,” said Richardson, who played as a true freshman last fall. Hartley, however, was on the field for the Aggies that game. The ’86 LSU game was the first mark Hcollege game I played in,” said the 6- A&M vs. LSU • When: Saturday night, kickoff at 7 p.m. • Where: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, La. • Rankings: A&M is ranked No. 11 by the Associated Press. LSU is No. 17. • Television: on pay-per-view basis at Rudder Auditorium. Sa tellite feed provided by Home Sports Entertainment. • Radio: KTAM 1240 AM, with Dave South on play-by-play and Jay Howard on commentary. 5, 240-pound junior tight end. “I was fired up playing in Tiger Sta dium. I grew up watching football there. “The LSU game is like the other students’ Texas game for the Loui siana players.” Both players were recruited by both schools, Richardson said. “1 don’t think I would have come to Texas without knowing anybody,” he said. “Wally being here made the decision much easier for me. “I knew there was an opportunity for me playing here since Kevin Murray was going professional. LSU had (Tom) Hodson for quarterback, and I knew no one would beat him out of that position.” The duo’s parents support the Ba ton Rouge natives’ decision to play S, ed ich mercii ine ra reop million n, the - Corp. ssionet; .ed the about C was mation i prac- j entra- estate I he re- 1 loan | e than ed the bank's mil of based Dallas, ent in Lady Ags sweep Lamar in season opener By Doug Walker Assistant Sports Editor The Lady Aggie volleyball team opened the 1988 season by sweeping three games from Lamar Thursday night in Beaumont. Senior outside attacker Cheri Steensma led the Lady Aggies with 13 kills as A&M took the three games of the match 15-6, 15-7 and 19-17. A&M hit .412 as a team with 47 kills and 12 errors in 85 attempts. “The first two games tonight we did exactly what we wanted to do,” Givens said. “In the third we let down and relaxed a little bit and al lowed Lamar to get back in it.” Steensma hit .417 with only three errors in 24 attempts. Senior middle blocker Vivian Viera led the team in hitting percentage by hitting .500 in 20 attempts. Sophomore outside at tacker Amy Cumings led the Lady Aggies in attacks with a .727 per centage. Givens was pleased to be able to use some of his younger players as 10 of the 12 team members saw ac tion. “I definitely think we’ve got a lot of weapons. We’re going to be* a really good team, and we’ll continue to get better with each outing,” Givens said. Tonight the Lady Aggies meet Louisiana State at 7:30 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge. for A&M. But they’re not the only ones to make the six-hour drive to College Station to see the “Baton Rouge Connection” in action. Rusty Price, the Broadmoor High School head football coach, also makes the trip to see his former players perform. “Both were leaders on the field, especially Bucky because he played quarterback,” Price said in a tele phone interview last semester. “They definitely stood out — Wally has a gift in catching the ball.” The players showed this finesse last week against Nebraska when a Richardson-Hartley pass sparked the Aggies’ first successful touch down drive of the season. “One of the best things about them,” Price said, “is that success hasn’l gone to their heads. They come back on breaks and really en joy talking to the high school play ers. “Last spring break Bucky was throwing passes to Wally on Broad moor’s practice field; he also threw to some of the players.” Throwing and catching wasn’t the only thing “The Connection” did over spring break, Richardson said. They both watched LSU’s Purple and Gold game. It was the Tiger’s fi nal spring training scrimmage. “It pumped me up and we got a good look at the Tigers,” Richardson said. “Heck yeah, we’re going to beat ’em.” To that, Hartley gave his standard phrase of approval: “Gig ’em!” Simmons now has a chance to be proven worth the hype As a high school senior, I had the privelege of watching Aggie fullback Randy Simmons in the last football game of his high school career. It was the 1986 A AAA Texas state championship featuring Simmons’ McKinney High School and my alma mater, West Orange-Stark. I knew he was good from all the hype surrounding the game, but after seeing him carry the ball the first eight plays of the game, I was convinced. Simmons was one of the country’s most highly recruited players in 1987. He was named to to the Parade All-America team as a senior and was rated the No. 1 prep fullback in the country according to recruiting expert Max Emfinger. So when I read that both he and Darren Lewis w^re coming to A&M, I figured they would both make an immediate impact in the Aggies’ continuing quest for the Cotton Bowl. 1 was half right. Playing in the shadow of now-Green Bay Packer Keith Woodside, Darren Lewis still managed to ramble for 668 yards and a 5.3 yards per carry Jeff Miller ^gort^viewgoin^ average as a freshman. But Simmons played only against Southern Mississipi and was redshirted after receiving a hardship because of knee surgery. Disappointinglx, he was left with only five carries for 12 yards and a 2.4 yard average gain. This season, Simmons will get his chance, right? Wrong. Senior Matt Curley retained his startingjob after 388 yards and five touchdowns in 1987. The 6-2, 220-pound redshirt freshman Simmons scored his first collegiate touchdown and played much of the second half in the Aggies’ 23-14 loss to Nebraska. He got the chance after Gurley went out with a knee injury. Now, he finally gets his opportunity to showcase his blue-chip talent in a starting role against Louisiana State this weekend. With Gurley out for this week’s contest, Simmons was thrown into his first start for Texas A&M in perhaps the toughest place to play in college football — Tiger Stadium (a.k.a. “Death Valley”). He must come through with the big plays up the middle, as the Aggies converted only 18 percent on third-down situations. More importantly, to Simmons anyway, is the question of whether or not he can “live up” to t he high expectations of Aggie coaches and f ans alike after being such a highly sought player. Alongside Simmons will be Larry Horton, who See Simmons, page 16 Ten Napel dominated LSU By Tim Stanfield Reporter Fourteen years ago LSU Tiger QBs also had to be aware of an out standing pair of A&M LBs in Garth Ten Napel and Ed Simonini. t-m i i Even that Hashback didn’t help, as Ten Napel so ransacked the Tigers in 1974 that he was named the AP’s National De fensive Player of the Week, as A&M defeated LSU 21-14. “From a football standpoint Garth was always a totally aggressive player,” former A&M Head Coach Emory Bellard said Thursday. “He was alert, committed to excellence and just an outstanding player and person.” Ten Naple had started all 11 games in 1973 at weak linebacker and helped the Aggie defense be come the first of four consecutive A&M defenses to top the SWC in fewest yards allowed. A&M crushed Clemson 24-0 in the 1974 opener at Kyle Field, then headed to “Death Valley,” better known as Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., where they had last won in 1957. “I told the squad the night before the game that at some time every football team had to be a good team in order to better its own program,” Bellard said. “And I knew that LSU had that kind of team.” Robertson’s fiery defenders stuffed the Tiger offense while the Aggies’ Wishbone ground out an amazing 290 yards rushing in the first half. Skip Walker scored on a 10-yard run late in the opening quarter and Bubba Bean’s 50-yard scamper in the second quarter put the Ags’ up 14-7 at halftime. But the Tigers stayed tough, tying the game late in the third period. At this point Ten Napel and friends took control of the game. LSU fumbled midway in the final E eriod, Ten Napel recovering the all at the Tiger 37. Bucky Sams powered into the end zone a few plays later, giving the Ag gies a 21-14 lead, but the Tigers weren’t dead yet. They moved deep inside A&M territory as time ticked away. On See Ten Napel, page 16 ■■■J.:. , > YOUR CANDIDATE FOR SAWIGS ts in jured ill be tiilton | angtd ; cr V : rmine its de-1 nillion! ndud- j :ounts insur-1 nk up | avail-1 an the j to the iored, i the ' can liiton, heac- ct sev- their ;rans- ill be i pay- k JP Special Discount Subscriptions Award Winning Coverage Best in Movie and Music Reviews The Houston Chronicle is the candidate most qualified to bring you the information you need. Keep in touch with events that relate to your classes and your life with in-depth coverage of the state, the nation and the world. Maximize your entertainment quotient with Chronicle reviews of all the latest movies, albums and concerts. And stay on top of all the stats and standings with our complete sports coverage. 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