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Sports
The Battalion Page 5 • Monday, November 3, 2003
AP TOP 25
Record
Pvs
1.0U(65)
9-0
1
2. USC
8-1
3
3. Florida St.
8-1
5
4.LSU
8-1
7
S.VirginiaTech
7-1
10
6. Miami
7-1
2
7. Ohio St.
8-1
8
8. Michigan
8-2
11
9. Georgia
7-2
4
10. Iowa
7-2
13
H.Texas
7-2
16
12. Wash, a
7-2
6
13.TCU
84)
15
14. Michigan St.
7-2
9
15. Bowl. Green
7-1
17
16. Purdue
7-2
18
17. Florida
6-3
23
18. Tennessee
6-2
19
19. Nebraska
7-2
12
20. Mississippi
7-2
20
21. OSU
7-2
14
22. Missouri
6-2
21
23. N. Illinois
8-1
21
24. Minnesota
6-2
24
25. Pittsburgh
6-2
25
(First place votes in
parentheses)
ESPN COACHES POLL
Record
Pvs
1.0U (63)
60
1
2. USC
8-1
3
3. Florida State
8-1
5
4.LSU
8-1
8
5. Virginia Tech
7-1
11 '
6. Ohio a
8-1
7
7. Miami
7-1
2
8. Michigan
8-2
12
9. Georgia
7-2
4
10. Iowa
7-2
14
ll.Texas
7-2
16
12.TCU
84)
13
13. Wash a
7-2
6
14. Purdue
7-2
17
15. Michigan a.
7-2
10
16. Nebraska
7-2
9
17. Tennessee
6-2
18
18. Minnesota
8-2
19
19. Florida
643
21
20. Bowl. Green
7-1
20
21. Pittsburgh
6-2
23
22. OSU
7-2
15
23. N. Illinois
8-1
22
24. Mississippi
7-2
—
25. Louisville
7-1
25
(As voted on by 63 Division 1-
coaches.)
BIG 12 STANDINGS
SOUTH
conf
all
ou
54)
9-0
Texas
4-1
7 - 2
OSU
3-2
7-2
Texas Tech
3-2
6-3
Texas A&M
2-3
4-5
Baylor
14
36
NORTH
conf
all
Nebraska
3-2
7-2
Kansas State
3-2
7-3
Missouri
2-2
6-2
Kansas
2-3
54
Colorado
14
36
Iowa State
04
2-6
OTHER SCORES
Big 12
Texas 31, Nebraska 7
Oklahoma 52, OSU 9
Texas Tech 26, Colorado 21
Kansas State 38, Baylor 10
Others
Michigan 27, Michigan St. 20
Florida 16, Georgia 13
Virginia Tech 31, Miami 7
Arkansas 71, Kentucky 63
McNeal has
a career day at
Kyle Field in win
over Jayhawks
By Blake Kimzey
THE BATTALION
By kickoff Saturday at Kyle Field, it
didn’t appear the Aggies would be getting
much fan support. For as much as the
Twelfth Man is touted at Texas A&M, the
fans decidedly left the football team to
fend for itself in a 45-33 victory over the
Kansas Jayhawks.
In a season of bandwagon mantras,
topsy-turvy fan support and faithless rhet
oric floating about the demise of A&M
football, the Aggies inched closer to .500
in front of almost 14,000 empty seats.
This weekend, however, was much more
positive than the lack of support would lead
the average sports fan to believe. A&M
used a balanced offensive attack to claim a
much-needed home victory.
“We needed to win here at home and to
start this stretch in November,” said A&M
coach Dennis Franchione. “This was good
for the players, emotionally and mentally.
It was good for the fans and coaches, too.
We all needed it.”
It was a victory to be savored indeed,
as it brought A&M up to 4-5 on the sea
son with the twilight of its Big 12 sched
ule on the horizon.
This year, A&M has been consistently
using a balanced offensive game plan, and
followed suit on Saturday by distributing
the ball on the ground for 253 yards and
through the air for 294 yards.
Sophomore quarterback Reggie
McNeal glided to 71 rushing yards, and
combined with his passing numbers, had a
career day with 303 total yards.
For just the second time this year the
Aggies scored on their opening drive,
which set an optimistic tone for the rest of
the game. A&M kept Kansas guessing by
spreading the ball around while steadily
racking up 547 yards of total offense.
The Aggie running backs did their jobs
by using a successful battery combination
of finesse and power as freshman
Courtney Lewis and junior Derek Fanner
wore down the Kansas front line.
“Courtney Lewis had a big day, getting
120 yards,” Franchione said. “And Derek
Fanner had a big day. While he didn’t get
a lot of yards, he had some hard-nosed
runs for us.”
The Aggies also managed to stay on
the positive side of the turnover battle.
The A&M defense came out in the
third quarter detennined to finally put a
Franchione halftime speech into practice.
Junior Byron Jones forced a fumble just
15 seconds into the second half as sopho
more free safety Jaxson Appel scooped it
up for a 5-yard touchdown scamper.
Appel was as surprised as anybody
when he found himself in the end zone,
putting A&M up by seven.
All week in practice the A&M coach
ing staff had been preaching the virtues of
forced turnovers.
The fumble, which danced out of
Kansas wide receiver Deric Mills’ hands
twice, turned out to be the story of the sec-
Reggie Returns
Joshua Hobson • THE BATTALION
Texas A&M sophomore quarterback Reggie McNeal escapes from the grasp of a Kansas linebacker
during the Aggies' third-quarter touchdown drive. McNeal finished the game with 303 total yards.
ond half and the hinge on which the game
swung in A&M’s direction.
“We hadn’t had any key turnovers in a
while and the coaches are preaching
turnovers all the time,” said sophomore
linebacker Archie McDaniel . “We had
set a goal of causing some turnovers, and
we did.”
A&M stopped Kansas in its next two
possessions, while the Aggie offense rat
tled off a field goal and two touchdowns
in its first three possessions of the third
quarter.
The succinct collaboration of the
Aggie offense and defense was enough to
put the game out of reach.
Despite the 12-point loss, however, the
Jayhawks are looking at Saturday’s con
test as a coming out party for true fresh
man quarterback Adam Barmann.
Barmann managed to make judicious
decisions under pressure and looked like a
savvy veteran as he threw for 294 yards
and four touchdowns in his unveiling.
Kansas head coach Mark Mangino
took the red shirt off Barmann out of
desperation, something he didn’t want to
do in an environment as imposing as
Kyle Field. Because injuries have deplet
ed the depth at quarterback, Mangino
was relegated to giving Barmann the
starting nod.
“Not only did he play well, but he
managed the huddle,” Mangino said. “He
checked at the line of scrimmage as often
as (injured starter) Bill (Whittemore)
JP Beato III* THE BATTALION
A&M senior wide receiver Tim Van Zant cele
brates after his fourth quarter touchdown.
does, and was correct in just about every
check he made today. To think this was
his first start, in College Station, Texas, in
one of the best and hostile venues in col
lege football, to go and perform like that
See Aggies on page 7
Aggies enjoy
second half
success for first
time this year
PETE BURKS
O ld football
wisdom
teaches that
it is the first drive
of the second half
that usually deter
mines the outcome
of the game. For
the Aggies, this
proverb could not
be more true.
In the weeks
preceding the Kansas game, Texas
A&M football coach Dennis
Franchione had been stressing the
importance of setting the tone for the
second half with a solid drive in the
first series after halftime.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, for
most of the season they have been
unable to produce such drives. Often
sleepwalking through the third quar
ter, the lack of a momentum swing in
A&M’s favor has been a factor in its
4-5 record.
In the first half, A&M and Kansas
looked evenly matched as the half
ended with the score tied at 14. The
Aggie offense was able to create some
successful drives behind the legs of
redshirt freshman running back
Courtney Lewis and the arm of soph
omore quarterback Reggie McNeal.
Yet the Aggies were not able to
pull away as Kansas, led by freshman
quarterback Adam Bannann, used a
combination of quarterback draws and
screen passes to milk the clock and
put the ball in the end zone.
In essence, it was like the Aggie
defense was being bled at the point of
a sewing needle as Kansas executed a
game plan of ball possession through
short gains, effectively keeping the
A&M offense off the field.
In other words, the Aggie defense
needed to create turnovers to give the
offense the opportunity to pull away.
Indeed, a Kansas turnover could not
have come at a better time as Kansas
wide receiver Derrick Mills fumbled
during the first play of the third quar
ter on a reverse, which was promptly
scooped up and run into the end zone
by sophomore free safety Jaxson
Appel.
“You can watch any game played
on Saturday and the team with the
least amount of turnovers wins,”
Appel said. “We really worked on cre
ating turnovers this week in practice
and it worked for us. (On the fumble,)
I was getting ready to congratulate
somebody on knocking the ball out
and it was sitting right down at my
feet, so I just picked it up and ran.”
The turnover proved to be huge as
the Aggies then scored 17 consecutive
points to pull ahead of the Jayhawks
for good.
See Drive on page 7
Soccer team drops thriller to Longhorns
JP Beato III • THE BATTALION
Members of the Aggie soccer team display their emotions after a heartbreaking double
overtime loss to the University of Texas in Austin Friday night. It was the first time the
Longhorns have beaten the Aggies in the series' history. A&M was 14-0 against Texas.
By Troy Miller
THE BATTALION
AUSTIN — In 11 years of
soccer, the Texas A&M soc
cer team had never lost to its
arch rival Texas. All that
changed Friday night at
Myers Stadium in Austin as
the Longhorns pulled out a
thrilling 2-1 victory in dou
ble overtime.
Drama was at the fore
front, as it took two late goals
for No. 21 Texas to upset the
No. 6 Aggies, culminating in a
penalty kick in the last minute
of double overtime buried by
Texas freshman midfielder
Nikki Thaden to seal the
match for the Longhorns (12-
7, 7-3 Big 12).
“I was very nervous
(before the penalty kick),”
Thaden said. “Once the ball
hit the back of the net I turned
around to give my teammates
hugs, but there they were all
jumping on me.”
The penalty was awarded
on an arguable hand ball call
committed in the penalty box
as the Longhorns were attack
ing the Aggie net in the final
minute of play, sending the
A&M bench into a frenzy.
“The first goal was an
unlucky deflection that
(Spisak) had covered one
way and it deflected the
other way, and she still
almost grabbed it,” said
A&M coach G/ Guerrieri.
“And then it’s unlucky that
we get a penalty kick given
against us in overtime so the
referee can go home.”
The Longhorns were
happy just to get positioned
to win after beginning the
match without a score for the
first 89 minutes. With A&M
(12-4-2, 5-3-2) holding a 1-0
lead throughout the second
half, Texas continued to be
thwarted by the Aggie
defense and sophomore goal
keeper Kati Jo Spisak.
However, with just 37 sec
onds left in the match, Texas
senior midfielder Kati
McBain drilled a shot from
25 yards that eventually
found the back of the Aggie
net. The • shot deflected off
traffic inside the 18-yard box
and past Spisak to tie the
match at one.
“I just took a chance and it
went in,” McBain said. “A&M
has been a hard opponent
every single year I’ve been
here, and we came and
showed that we can play at
that level.”
The match began with the
Longhorns immediately put
ting pressure on the Aggie
defense. The Aggies faced
eight shots from the
Longhorns, including a shot
from Longhorn junior for
ward Kelly McDonald that
hit the bottom of the cross
bar and bounced out away
from the Aggie goal in the
33rd minute.
With the score tied 0-0, the
Aggies put more pressure on
the Longhorns in the second
in 20T
half that eventually paid off in
the 66th minute. Sophomore
midfielder Carrie Berend
streaked down the right side
of the 18-yard box and sent a
cross into the middle that
found the back of the
Longhorn net to give the
Aggies a 1-0 lead.
“This is one of the games
that (Berend) had talked about
making a difference,”
Guerrieri said. “She was nails
today, absolute nails. She was
challenged physically all the
time by them, and I thought
she did a phenomenal job.”
After the equalizer from
McBain, both teams stepped
up in an overtime that saw
plenty of chances for both
sides. In the fifth minute of
overtime, Texas junior for
ward Kelly Wilson made a
beautiful spinning move at tb''
top of the 18-yard box, giving
her a clear shot on goal that
resulted in Spisak’s finest
See Soccer on page 7