AGGIELIFf THE BATTALIO & Faith fs 8 p.m. 4BC Faith Ford & y Ripa tars Faith Ford and K ay have grown up tog it in opposite directions down in the Midwest ed, stay-at-home mom ) her busy. When she o a PTA meeting, on the other hand, rano her high school gradua- r Search,” and lived the ra star. cter Ashley Storm is he Sacred and the it a dime to her name, the lesson in money e her Hollywood home est, moves in with Hope airly calm suburban lives t. sonality pulls people ins the admiration of Sydney (Nicole Paggi), aunt was on TV. e making the transition rid, or however real it regularly brings up her on the soap opera /ents in her own life, of her charm and is is. pe helps Faith mature es Hope to loosen up a star power to the show well to show that even lining at your sister, you —Jessica Lenchner Cubs lead series 3-2 Sports The Battalion Game 4 ppd until Monday at 7:18 p.m. due to rain. Yankees lead series 2^-1 Page 5 • Monday, October 13, 2003 AP TOP 25 Record Pvs I. 0klahoma(61) 64) 1 2. Miami(3) 6-0 2 3. VirginiaTech 6-0 4 4. Georgia 5-1 8 S.SouthemCal 5-1 9 6. WashingtonSt 5-1 12 7, FloridaSt 5-1 5 8.0hioSt 5-1 3 O.lcwa 5-1 14 10.LSU 5-1 6 II. Arkansas 4-1 7 12. N.lllinois 60 16 13. Putdue 5-1 18 14. Wisconsin 6-1 23 15. MichiganSt 6-1 21 16. TCU 60 18 17. Michigan 5-2 20 18. Nebraska 5-1 10 19. Auburn 4-2 20. Texas 4-2 11 21. Tennessee 4-2 13 22.0negonSt 5-1 24 23.0klahomaSt 5-1 24. Missouri 5-1 25. Minnesota 6-1 17 (Rtst place votes in parentheses) BAIT SPORTS POLL Full throttle A&M’s offense runs wild on Baylor, Ags end three-game skid By Michael Crow THE BATTALION Three weeks’ worth of frustration boiled over Saturday at Kyle Field. After three straight losses, including a 59-28 drumming by Texas Tech, the Texas A&M football team rebounded in a big way, blasting Baylor 73-10. From the game’s onset, the Aggies played more aggressively on both sides of the ball than they had in previous contests this season. The cathartic victory over the int dry 1 commercials >s" ??? your friends 1.0U (9) Record 50 Pvs 1 Bears improved A&M’s record to an even 3-3 overall and 1-1 in Big 12 play. It also 2. Miami 50 2 shed new light on a season many had 3. Virginia Tech 64) 4 already written off as a failure. 4.Geotgia 5-1 10 “I think after a week like last week 5. USC 5-1 9 (against Tech), you find out what you’re 6. Washington St 5-1 12 really made of,” said A&M defensive coor 7. Florida State 5-1 5 dinator Carl Torbush. “There was a lot of 8. Ohio State 5-1 3 pressure on us today, no doubt about that. I 9. Iowa 5-1 15 do think we played hard, and I think we 10.LSU 4-1 6 made a lot of big plays.” 11.Arkansas 4-1 8 The A&M defense controlled the first 12. Wisconsin 6-1 22 quarter and immediately set the tone when 13. Minnesota 50 16 Ronald Jones picked off a Baylor pass 14. Michigan 5-2 19 attempt and returned it 26 yards to the 15. N. Illinois 50 18 Baylor 9-yard line. The play set up a 6-yard 16. Michigan SL 6-1 23 touchdown pass from Reggie McNeal to 17. Minnesota 6-1 13 Andy Matakis, the first of three passing 18. Nebraska 5-1 7 scores from McNeal. 19. Oregon SL 25 25 Later, on the third play of the second 20.TCU 50 17 quarter, Jaxson Appel added an interception 21. Texas 4-2 11 of his own, returning an Aaron Karas pass 22. Texas Tech 5-1 — attempt 64 yards for a touchdown to extend 23. Tennessee 4-2 14 the Aggies’ lead to 17-3. 24. Oklahoma St. 4-1 — “1 thought 1 was going to get caught 25. Auburn 4-2 — from behind,” Appel said. “He was trying to PETE BURKS John C. Livas • THE BATTALION ) got a front-row view Don Zimmer cht artinez, and Martinez nmer to the ground, urday night was atie Couric, whose t-owner Tom Werner, cheering for the (As voted on by Battalion sports writ- ets.) QUOTABLE They just kicked our butt.” - BU linebacker Stephen Sepulveda’s thoughts on the Bears’ loss “I think that was big for us to gain confidence in our offense, especially in our running game. We did a great job run ning the ball, and that adds another dimension if you can run the ball well.” - A&M WR Jamaar Taylor on A&M’s offense “Reggie threw the perfect pass, I didn’t break stride, I made the catch and scored a touchdown.” -Taylor on his 91- yard touchdown catch “It gives us a lot of confi dence. Showing that we have all the tools to win a big game like Nebraska.” - A&M RB Courtney Lewis on confidence before facing Nebraska throw it to the fullback, and I read it and he threw it right to me.” Once the A&M defense helped put the Aggies ahead, the offense took over and never looked back. Sparked by an overpow ering running game, the Aggies closed out the first half with drives of 74, 67 and 64 yards to build a 38-10 halftime lead. Baylor’s lone touchdown of the game came on a 37-yard strike from quarter back Aaron Karas to wideout Marques Roberts that was nearly another A&M interception. The Aggies nearly doubled Baylor’s offensive production in the first half, and showed more of the same in the second. Running backs Courtney Lewis and Derrick Farmer took turns barreling through the Baylor defensive front for big gains. Both backs finished with more than 100 yards and each averaged more than 10 yards per carry. Lewis picked up the bulk of his yardage on an 86-yard touchdown scamper after breaking free on a draw play. “The offensive line did a good job blocking and opening up holes,” Lewis said. “The wide receivers, they were getting blocks down field ... so that made it a lot easier for the running backs to pick up yards.” See Aggies on page 7 Above: Texas A&M junior defensive lineman Mike Montgomery takes down Baylor quarterback Aaron Karas in one of six sacks for the Aggies Saturday after noon. Heading into the game against Baylor, the Aggie defensive line had recorded just one sack the entire season. Prior to A&M's six sacks Saturday the Aggie defense had tallied just seven sacks in their first five games of the season. Right: Agg ies celebrate fol lowing a touchdown by A&M freshman receiver Chad Schroeder. It was his first career touchdown reception. Schroeder hauled in two receptions in the game for 48 yards including the 42-yard touchdown from junior quar terback Dustin Long late in the game. The 10 touch downs for the Aggies was second-most in school histo ry. A&M scored 1 1 touch downs in 1944 against Miami in a 70-14 win. Sharon Aeshbach • THE BATTALION Aggie defense shows it can play, could be Wrecking Crew A fter three weeks of being put under a microscope big enough to make a microbe nervous, the Aggie defense let off some steam Saturday in a 73-10 dismantling of the Baylor Bears (3-3, 1-1 Big 12). Coming into the game, all the talk was about how bad the defense had been playing, and deservedly so. In three consecu tive games, the Aggies gave up more than 30 points, a statistic that would send any defensive coordinator to the edge of a nervous breakdown. Not only that, but the Aggies were falling quickly into a defensive downward spiral, progressively getting worse each week, bottom ing out with a 59 point bloodlet ting in Lubbock. Enter Baylor, a team that was on a hot streak, winning three in a row, including a win over last year’s Big 12 North champion Colorado the previous week. The Bears came in hungry to gain respect and beat a team they had not beaten since 1985; there would have been nothing better for them than to kick the Aggie defense while it was down. However, things did not go as planned. Although the score told the story of the offense’s record day, it was the defense that made it all possible. From the First series, the Aggie defense was bound and determined to set the tone for the entire game. In contrast to the previous three weeks, there was a different feeling in the air as the defense took the field. For the first time in a long time, the defense came out fired up and on a mission to do one thing: destroy the Baylor offense. The demolition began when sophomore defensive back Ronald Jones intercepted an Aaron Karas pass and returned it 26 yards to the Baylor 9-yard line, leading to an Aggie touchdown. At that point, the rout was on, and the Aggie defense never looked back. After last week’s defensive col lapse, the Baylor game was the perfect catharsis for A&M defen sive coordinator Carl Torbush. “After a game like last week, you find out what you’re made of, and you find out who’s willing to go out there and fight,” Torbush said. “This week, we got ourselves off the field for a change, and we were able to come out and make a statement.” The defense made a statement. After gaining more than 200 See Defense on page 7 s mother inst royal ew book e mother of Princess ok that the royal fam- her daughter’s body a car crash in 1997. so says Buckingham to travel to Paris to back to Britain, brought back painful )iana’s brother John, he was delivered, r hold either of them he says. “I do ache markable Story of ’ Kydd tells authors 'an Naden that she n the day of Diana’s my other daughters heir readings at the son (Charles), who of brotherly love," n, Dodi Fayed, were tris tunnel as their paparazzi. Strutz nets two as Ags beat Baylor By Troy Miller THE BATTALION On a squad full of youngsters, the Texas A&M women’s soccer team was led by its upperclassmen who were involved in each goal Sunday in A&M’s 3-0 win over Baylor. Midfielder Kristen Strutz, the lone senior on the team, took over the scoring leaderboard as she gained two tallies in the win over Baylor (6- 8. 1-5 Big 12) giving her four goals and an assist on the weekend. The No. 5 Aggies defeated Texas Tech 8- 0 on Friday. “Kristen Strutz is the real deal,” said A&M coach G. Guerrieri. “I’m real pleased.” Strutz was not the only upperclass men getting into the act against Baylor for the Aggies (10-12, 3-0-2). Junior defender Amanda Burke earned an assist and led the team in shots, along with Strutz, with five. Burke seemed to be everywhere on the field during the match, thwarting Bear attacks and spurring the Aggies on their own onslaughts. “Amanda Burke had a real good game,” Guerrieri said. “It’s great to see her getting that much of her potential out (on the field). It’s great to be with a home crowd. When we come out here and see the bleachers full it just gets us really motivated. ” — Kristen Strutz A&M midfielder The Aggies began the scoring in the third minute of play as junior for ward Emma Smith got behind the Baylor defense and streaked to the left post of the Baylor goal. Her cross found the foot of freshman forward Madison Klovstad, who buried the ball into the back of the goal to give the Aggies a 1-0 lead. Despite peppering Baylor goal keeper Monica Housden’s goal with 13 first-half shots, the Aggies could not increase their lead until Strutz headed in a goal off a beautiful cross from Burke 18 minutes into the sec ond half that threw the 2,449 in atten dance into a frenzy. “It’s great to be with a home crowd,” Strutz said. “That’s extra intensity. When we come out here and see the bleachers full it just gets us really motivated.” Strutz added an insurance goal in the 77th minute when she collected a rebound from Housden and shot it past her just inside the right post. The win gave A&M its second straight shutout and eighth on the sea son, but it’s not enough for the Aggies. It won’t be enough until they are clutching the Big 12 Championship trophy for the second year in a row. “All this week we put in so much work in practice,” Burke said. “This week having a home crowd is so much easier to play for, but we still weren’t satisfied. A 3-0 today, yeah, it’s convincing, but we’re still not sat isfied. Why win by three when you can win by eight like we did Friday.” Ags dominate UNT Joshua Hobson • THE BATTALION Texas A&M's Erin Briskie pushes off before won all 16 events during A&M's 171-109 win winning the 200m backstroke. The Aggies over the University of North Texas on Friday.