ember LUl
londay, November 13. 2000
Sports
Page 7
THE BATTALION
A Tough Challenge; A Proud Finish
iggies come four yards short ofOU upset
on Teil
e an opp|
couldsa® Y Br]AN Ruff
'he Battalion
■nterl.V'l The No. 21 Texas A&M football
ow(AL0]u im came just four yards short of
if'etyAw,: si locking the No. 1 Oklahoma Soon-
hich wiliie! s and the rest of the college football
m theCtworld Saturday as Heisman fron-
iUniveiiunner Josh Heupel handed the Ag-
honTiiies their second home loss of the
linthelliieason, 35-31.
lutthen* Trailing by four points with less
informal!pan three minutes left in the fourth
saidTaluarter, senior wide receiver Chris
r in AIMaylor could not handle a fourth and
puter eJoal pass from sophomore quarter-
■ack Mark Farris. The incomplete
mittee (Mass ended the Aggies’ best opportu-
together iity to regain the lead and ended the
) speak Aggies’ dream of the biggest upset in
rareness fl&M history.
ihaus Sil “We are obviously disappointed
ALOT in the loss,” said A&M coach R.C.
this.” Blocum. “The kids played hard. You
npleadeflave to give credit to Oklahoma,
usinessit;
wail#
reek™
ountyRa:|
id Studfij
5). She
■hey made the plays they needed to
■take to win the ballgame.”
I The Aggies began their upset bid
Inst four minutes into the game,
gvhen special teams standout Jay
Brooks darted through the middle of
like peomhe Sooner line and blocked Jeff Fer-
campos. Kiison punt. A&M took over at the
thislype j'pu 12-yard line, and just five plays
benefitsr.flater, Farris followed sophomore
tsaid. light guard Taylor Whitley’s block
UPD, sail! and leapt into the end zone for a two-
med ah..yard touchdown run.
With A&M up 7-0, Oklahoma’s
reed to klfleupel found wide receiver Josh
orman deep over the middle for a
ifsocietV; gain of 55 yards down to the A&M
4-yard line. The Wrecking Crew de
fense held strong, forcing Heupel to
nake three straight incompletions
ndforced the high-flying Oklahoma
ffense to settle for a 31-yard Tim
Duncan field goal.
The teams traded punts for the rest
af the quarter, and at the end of 15
reventioi minutes of play, A&M led the Soon-
about tb :rs 7-3, mustering a mere 39 yards of
al offense in the quarter.
Oklahoma’s returning threat J.T.
Thatcher took a 41 -yard Cody Scales
any pla« punt and returned it 27 yards to set up
it safety
key tlii.-
votmaki
less,
e nc
1. “Crime
liege can:
own. Ab
supenff
he Sooner offense in A&M territory,
eupel shoveled the ball to running
back Quentin Griffin on a second-
down play and the sophomore found
a hole and darted 28 yards to the
A&M seven-yard line.
Two plays later, Heupel rolled left
and with plenty of time, found wide
receiver Curtis Fagan in the middle
of the end zone for a seven-yard
touchdown.
With A&M trailing in the game
for the first time, the team looked to
be in trouble when the offense went
three-and-out on the ensuing drive.
Oklahoma took over and moved the
“You have to give
credit to Okla
homa. They made
the plays they
needed to make to
win the ballgame.”
— R.C. Slocum
Texas A&M football coach
ball to midfield, where the Sooners
were faced with a 4th-and-l situa
tion. Stoops elected to go for the first
down, but Heupel’s attempted quar
terback sneak fell short when Aggie
linebacker Brian Gamble leapt over
the line and stopped the OU quarter
back for no gain.
The Aggies moved the ball down to
the OU 35, and on 4th-and-18, the Ag
gies elected to try to convert instead of
trying a long field goal. Farris threw to
junior receiver Robert Ferguson, but
the pass was knocked down at the goal
line and fell incomplete.
The Aggies would get another
chance to regain the lead two plays lat
er when heavy defensive line pressure
forced Heupel to make an errant throw
that found its way into the arms of
linebacker Jason Glenn who returned
the pick to the OU 34-yard line.
On a third-down-and-three play
with less than five minutes left to play
in the half, Farris found Ferguson on
a short route to the sideline that gave
A&M its first third-down conversion
STUART VILLANUEVA/The Battalion
^onsafcOutside linebacker jason Glenn returns his interception off OU quarterback
. asserti'Josh Heupel. Glenn left the game with a sprained knee in the 2nd half.
A&M women make
cross country history
entio#
DporW 11
oppo^
MHtrf
dlllKlW 1
Staff and Wire
DENTON — The 24th-ranked
Texas A&M women’s cross country
team made school history by win
ning the 2000 NCAA South Central
port 1111 Regional Saturday at the Eagle Point
Golf Course in Denton.
A&M scored 52 points to upset
ilth-ranked and heavily-favored
Arkansas by 16 points. Arkansas’
Lilli Kleinmann and Tracy Robert
son finished 1-2 in the individual
ace, but the Aggies placed five run
ners in the top 22 to defeat the de
fending champions.
The victory marks the first time
in school history that an Aggie cross
country squad has taken a regional
title and the first time a women’s
team from A&M has qualified for
the national meet since the sport was
sanctioned by the NCAA in 1982.
Obviously this was a tremendous
achievement,” said third-year head
coach Dave Hartman. “We had an off
day at Big 12s. We thought we had a
shot at Arkansas, but 1 don’t think a
whole lot of other people did. The
girls did a very good job of maintain
ing their confidence, and they came
up here and performed.”
The Aggies were led by juniors
Andrea Bookout and Melissa Gulli.
Bookout finished fourth while Gulli
placed seventh.
“Andrea (Bookout) ran an awe
some race,” said Hartman, who will
take his third team to nationals in five
seasons of coaching. “She was sick
last week, so we were a little worried
going in, but she’s so mentally tough
and came on really strong. Melissa
(Gulli) did a phenomenal job. She per
formed better than expected going
into the meet.”
Senior Brooke Edwards was the
See Cross Country on Page 10.
of the game. The Aggies moved the
ball to the OU 20, but had to settle for
a 37-yard Terence Kitchens field goal
to tie the game at 10.
Just one minute later, OU com
pleted a pass over the middle, but re
ceiver Andre Woolfolk was hit by
freshman corner Jonte Buhl, who
forced the ball to fall to the ground.
A&M safety Michael Jameson fell
on the fumble, and the Aggies got a
chance to regain their lead at the OU
39-yard line.
Buhl, a true freshman, was play
ing for an injured Sammy Davis who
left the game earlier in the half. Far
ris completed a 22-yard pass to wide-
out Bethel Johnson to start the drive
that moved the Ag^es to the Sooners’
red zone. With only 19 seconds left
on the clock, Farris took a two-step
drop and fired a quick pass to Fergu
son, who got one foot down in the
back of the end zone to give the Ag
gies a 17-10 lead going into the half.
On Oklahoma’s opening drive of
the second half, Heupel threw high
over his intended receiver and was
picked off by a diving Terrance Kiel.
Ferguson would come up big
again for the Aggies, bringing down
a Farris pass that set up the Aggies
with Ist-and-goal at the OU four-
yard line. Three plays later, fullback
Ja’Mar Toombs rumbled behind the
left side of the line and into the end
zone to give the Aggies their biggest
lead of the day, 24-10.
After an OU punt, the Aggies took
over and moved the ball to the mid
dle of the field before Oklahoma de
fensive back Michael Thompson
stepped in front of a post route and
picked off the Farris pass. Okl ahoma
would drive deep into A&M territo
ry but was stopped by the Aggie de
fense and a costly holding penalty
close to the goal line.
At the end of the third quarter,
A&M clung to a 24-13 lead. On Ok
lahoma’s next possession, the Soon- *
ers would find the end zone on a 21 -
yard draw to the tailback Griffin who
eluded the A&M defenders and
crossed the goal line to cut the lead to
24-19. The Sooners, looking to make
See Shortcoming on Page 10.
CHAD ADAMS/The Battalion
A&M fullback Ja'Mar Toombs scored his second touchdown in dramatic fashion, dragging four Sooner de
fenders 10 yards to put the Aggies up, 31 -21 in the fourth quarter. No. 1 OU came back to win 35-31.
Wrecking Crew big part of near OU victory
Last week Texas A&M’s
defense provided a fourth-
down stop that kept Okla
homa State out of the end
zone and preserve the win.
This week against No. 1 Ok
lahoma, the Wrecking Crew
played to near perfection, but
it was not enough.
The Aggies may have en
tered the biggest game of the year with the
youngest secondary in the league, a defensive
line that has struggled past injuries and a pair of
losses, but in front of 87,188 maroon-clad, tow
el-waving fans, the Aggies left no doubt that the
Wrecking Crew was as strong as ever.
In the end, it would take some defensive mag
ic from the Sooners in a fourth-quarter intercep
tion-turned-touchdown and then a goal-line
stand to retain their elite status as the nation’s
only undefeated team with a 35-31 win.
It was only fitting that Oklahoma could not
overcome A&M’s defensive tradition and power-
fuf crowd with their heralded offense that had al
ready beat a No. 3 Kansas State team, a No. 1
Nebraska team and a Texas team on the edge of
the Top 10.
In the past three seasons at Kyle Field A&M’s
defense has set the stage for upsets over the same
teams the Sooners downed this season. In 1998, it
began with No. 2 Nebraska, followed by an upset
over the Wildcats who had hopes of playing for
the national title. Last season, A&M finished out
a rocky season with a win, holding No. 5 Texas to
just 16 points.
This season, after losses to then-unranked
Notre Dame and then-winless Colorado, the Ag
gies beat No. 10 Kansas State, setting the stage
for the showdown against the Sooners.
The Wrecking Crew did everything right. Cor-
nerback Jay Brooks blocked OU’s first punt, his
fourth blocked punt of the season. Linebacker Ja
son Glenn posted a first half interception and de
flected another pass before leaving with a
sprained knee. Safety Terrence Kiel added anoth
er interception to Heisman candidate Josh He-
upel’s numbers.
By the time all was said and done Okla
homa’s big-play offense was only allowed one
break-out play, a 55-yard catch in the first quar
ter — the result of a broken play by the Aggie
defense. Even then the Aggies were able to rally
and hold the Sooners to a field goal.
By the time it was over, the undisputed best
team in the country was able to score just 28
points on offense against an Aggie team that was
0-8 all-time against No. 1 ranked teams.
Even when Oklahoma returned an interception
See Wrecking Crewom Page 10.
Aggie soccer wins,
moves to Sweet 16
By Brian Ruff
PATRIC SCHNEIDER/The Battalion
A&M midfielder Kristen Strutz battles for possession against Marquette's
Jaimie Krofta Sunday. A&M moved into the Sweet 16 with the 2-0 win.
The Battalion
The No. 9 Aggie Soccer team
opened its 2000 NCAA tournament
play with a 4-0 victory over the Mar
quette Golden Eagles Sunday after
noon at the Aggie Soccer Complex.
“Our emphasis this week wasn’t on
changing anything we’ve been doing,”
said coach G. Guerrieri. “It was just the
fact of cleaning up our game and do
ing those things better.”
Goalkeeper Esther Thompson
posted another shutout, the first in Ag
gie history, after six-straight NCAA
tournament appearances.
Just under nine minutes into the
game, the Aggies got on the score-
board when freshman Kristen Strutz
sent the ball to Andrea Starns, who
dribbled around a Marquette defender
and blasted a shot into the bottom left
comer of the goal to give the Aggies
an early l -0 lead. Siam’s goal would
prove to be all the Aggies needed.
Later in the half, the Golden Eagles
got their first and only shot and scor
ing chance of the first half when Mar
quette forward Kate Gordon gathered
a loose ball and took a shot that
glanced off the right post and then ca
reened out of bounds.
With 15 minutes remaining in the
half, the Aggies would up their lead
when Stams found senior midfielder
Heather Wiebe at the top of the penal
ty box. Wiebe received the pass and
blasted the shot into the upper right
hand comer of the net to increase the
lead to 2-0.
“The people down the middle of
the field did a great job,” Guerrieri
said. “Heather was able to keep con
trol of that portion of the field.”
The Aggies mounted another
chance shortly after, when Strutz'
found an open Heather Ragsdale who*
took a shot deep in the Marquette box,*
but missed wide left.
See Soccer on Page 10.