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Category: College

K-State pulls away late to beat Missouri State

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Collin Klein threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns, John Hubert ran 95 yards for a fourth-quarter score and No. 22 Kansas State pulled away late to beat Missouri State 51-9 Saturday night.

Hubert finished with 152 yards rushing, Braden Wilson and Daniel Sams added touchdown runs, and Tramaine Thompson returned a punt 89 yards for another score as the Wildcats (1-0) tuned up for next week’s showdown with Miami with an impressive second-half scoring binge.

The game was tied at 9 early in the third quarter before Kansas State piled up 42 straight points against the team picked to finish last in the Missouri Valley Conference.

The late surge allowed a sellout crowd of 50,007 to relax, assured that Kansas State wouldn’t need more late-game antics in an opener against a middling opponent.

Last year, the Wildcats needed a long touchdown pass from Klein in the waning minutes to beat Eastern Kentucky, another program from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Missouri transfer Ashton Glaser was 22 of 44 for 257 yards for the Bears (0-1), who won just two games last season and had been going through some turmoil — special teams coach Bob Montgomery resigned just 10 days ago so to pursue a business opportunity.

It was the 20th consecutive season-opening win for Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, who returned to the sideline four years ago after a brief retirement to rescue a program that had fallen back on hard times. The Wildcats won 10 games last season and reached the Cotton Bowl.

Expectations are much higher this season — the Wildcats will no longer sneak up on anybody — and that showed as Missouri State gave everything it had most of the night.

The Bears had a healthy advantage in total offense by the end of the third quarter, but were done in by a couple mistakes that kept points off the board.

Wide receiver Julian Burton fumbled just short of the goal line to waste a touchdown chance in the first quarter, and a dropped pass midway through the fourth wiped out another likely score.

The Wildcats certainly didn’t give the Hurricanes, who beat Boston College earlier in the day, any helpful video to prepare for next week’s matchup in Manhattan.

They hardly blitzed on defense and ran a vanilla offense, and that was part of the reason the game was close into the second half. After carrying 317 times last season, Klein didn’t take off on a designed run until midway through the second quarter, and finished with just 54 yards rushing.

It was Klein’s legs that helped set up Kansas State’s first touchdown, though — an 18-yard pass to Thompson with 7:06 left in the third quarter. And it was a 17-yard draw by Klein that set up Wilson’s four-yard touchdown run a few minutes later to make it 23-9.

The Wildcats quickly got the ball back and Hubert scooted free for a 95-yard touchdown, the second-longest in school history. Gerald Hackney went 96 yards against Kansas on Nov. 2, 1948.

Klein added a short touchdown pass to Chris Harper before giving way to Sams, the freshman backup, and he scooted 46 yards for another touchdown. Thompson capped the scoring with his dynamic punt return in the closing minutes to make the score appear much more lopsided.

— Associated Press —

Kansas defeats South Dakota State in Weis’ debut

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Tony Pierson rushed for two touchdowns, Dayne Crist connected with former Notre Dame teammate Mike Ragone on a short touchdown pass, and Kansas launched the Charlie Weis era Saturday night with a 31-17 victory over South Dakota State.

Weis, a winner of three Super Bowls as a key assistant coach at New England and former head coach at Notre Dame, brings his considerable prestige to a program that won just five games the previous two seasons and ranked dead last in defense among major colleges last year.

His first game started with a jolt. Zach Zenner gave the Jackrabbits a 7-0 lead with a school-record 99-yard run.

Crist, who was recruited to Notre Dame by Weis and played for him until Weis was fired in 2009, was 17 for 36 for 169 yards. Pierson rushed for 124 yards and scored on runs of 3 and 47 yards.

The Jayhawks held a 24-7 lead with 5:29 left in the third after Crist tossed a 2-yard TD pass to tight end Ragone. But the Jackrabbits scored 10 straight points in the fourth quarter on Austin Sumner’s 22-yard scoring pass to Tyler Kool and Justin Syrovatka’s 25-yard field goal.

After Kansas’ second possession, Ben Heeney downed a punt on the South Dakota State 1, putting huge pressure on the Jackrabbit offense.

But Zenner, who won the starting running back job in spring training, popped through a big hole up the middle, brushed off one would-be tackler and unfurled the longest run in South Dakota State’s 115-year football history. Safety Bradley McDougald gave chase but stayed about 5 yards behind the 215-pound Zenner as they sprinted down the field.

Crist, just two days short of one year since he last started a game for Notre Dame, showed poise and a strong arm. On the initial play of the game, he hooked up with a wide open Kale Pick for a 43-yard gain. But on third-and-8 from the 17, he overthrew Ragone in the end zone and then Ron Doherty missed a 35-year-old field goal attempt. Crist, who earned his degree in management at Notre Dame in December, overthrew receivers in the end zone three times before Kansas settled for a 10-7 halftime lead.

Pierson boosted the lead to 17-7 when he bolted up the middle, juked defensive back Bo Helm and scored on a 47-yard run.

McDougald had two interceptions for the Jayhawks.

— Associated Press —

Northwest volleyball rolls past Saginaw; falls to Lewis

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The Northwest Missouri State volleyball team was able to break even as they closed out the Hyatt Place Sunshine Classic rolling past Saginaw Valley State before falling to Lewis University Saturday evening.

The Bearcats moved to 2-2 as they split both matches Friday and Saturday. Northwest will continue tournament action next weekend as they return to Missouri for the Middle of Everywhere Classic hosted by Missouri S&T.

The Northwest defense was solid as they rolled past Saginaw Valley, 25-14, 25-11, 25-18 to claim their only win on Saturday. Double figure dig efforts from Tori Beckman and Dallas Gardner helped limit the Cardinal to under a .100 hitting percentage in all three sets.

Whitney Mason paced the Bearcats offensively with 10 kills and a .769 hitting percentage.

The nightcap saw Lewis outlast a Bearcat team that put up a solid effort before falling 25-18, 25-19, 25-17.

Beckman and Abby Graves were again solid defensively, but errors in the first and second sets hurt the Bearcats. Beckman recorded 16 digs in game two while Graves added 10.

On the weekend Brooke Bartosh led Northwest offensively with a .247 hitting percentage and 34 kills. Bartosh also added seven blocks on the defensive side of the net.

A number of Bearcats were solid defensively as Beckman recorded 54 digs in the four games followed by Gardner with 28 digs. Mason also paced Northwest with 10 blocks.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Martinez throws 5 TDs as Nebraska rolls past Southern Miss

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Taylor Martinez saw immediate results from all the offseason work he did to improve his passing.

Martinez threw for a career-high 354 yards and matched his high with five touchdown passes to lead No. 17 Nebraska to a 49-20 victory over Southern Mississippi on Saturday.

“We’ve been practicing all along like that, against our defense, so we knew as an offense that our offense is really good,” Martinez said. “We’ve got to be able to keep that momentum going. I don’t think no one could stop us if we keep going like that. We have so many dynamic athletes out there.”

Martinez, in his third year as the starter, might be the most dynamic of them all if he keeps passing like he did against the Golden Eagles.

The junior always has been a running threat. The knock against him has been his inconsistency as a passer.

The past two years fans and media harangued Martinez for an unconventional motion that often had him throwing off his back foot and wildly off the mark.

“I think for a while I was probably his only friend,” offensive coordinator Tim Beck told reporters.

Why?

“Just how he gets criticized all the time. Today he’ll be up for the Heisman. Tomorrow you guys will want to…,” Beck said, not finishing his thought.

The last time Southern Miss came to Lincoln (2004), the Eagles left with a 21-17 victory. Any threat of an upset was gone by halftime.

The Huskers won their nation-leading 27th straight opener. Nebraska has scored 40 or more points in seven openers in a row, and all but one of the wins during their streak have been by double digits.

First-year Southern Miss coach Ellis Johnson said Martinez wasn’t the biggest factor in the game.

“The biggest thing was they man-handled us on the line,” Johnson said. “I thought that was obvious the whole game. The thing they did well was their tempo. They run a power offense with a tempo, which is unusual, and we didn’t have the ability to keep up with them a couple of times.”

Southern Miss backup quarterback Anthony Alford carried 15 times for 84 yards in his first college game.

The Golden Eagles scored their first touchdown on Tracy Lampley’s 100-yard kickoff return. They tied it 14-14 on first-time starter Chris Campbell’s 24-yard pass to Dominique Sullivan.

Nebraska’s go-ahead TD came on Martinez’s 9-yard pass to Jake Long early in the second quarter.

The only damper for Nebraska was an injury to Rex Burkhead. Nebraska played the last three quarters without the 1,300-yard rusher last season. He went out with a sprained ligament in his left knee after opening the scoring with a career-long 57-yard run.

Coach Bo Pelini said Burkhead was “day-to-day, week-to-week.”

Burkhead’s backup, Ameer Abdullah, ran 15 times for 81 yards and made an acrobatic catch for an 11-yard TD.

Beck had said throughout fall camp that all signs pointed to his charges being more comfortable in the second year of his spread-option system.

The Huskers looked comfortable and confident early, not to mention dominant. They amassed 205 yards on their first three series with a 50-50 run-pass mix and finished with 632, the most since Pelini took over as coach in 2008.

Martinez had starred as a runner in his previous two openers, combining for 262 yards and six touchdowns on 26 carries.

It was all about his passing this time.

He said last month that his goal was to complete 70 percent of his attempts this season. He went out and hit on 26 of 34 (76 percent).

He completed five straight short passes to start, then missed on a throw to Kenny Bell that Deron Wilson nearly intercepted. That was one of Martinez’s few mistakes. In fact, he lofted a beauty of a pass to Bell for a touchdown on the next play.

“It’s what I expected from Taylor,” Pelini said. “I’ve been seeing a lot of good things. I thought, to be efficient, he’s got to handle the offense well. I thought he directed things very well. He got us out of some bad plays and into some right plays.”

Martinez promised Beck after last season that he would dedicate himself to becoming a better passer.

He hired a personal quarterback coach in the spring and summer and attended the Manning camp in July.

Against Southern Miss, he went through his progressions, set his feet and threw with new-found zip.

Martinez said he couldn’t tell if his mechanics were perfect.

“I haven’t watched film yet,” he said, “so I’m not real sure. But I was really comfortable.”

Was it a statement game after all the heat he has taken from fans and media?

“I guess if you guys want to say that,” he said.

Receiver Jamal Turner said he’s sure Martinez was driven to prove the doubters wrong.

“I’m sure he feels good about his performance, to kind of hush some of his critics,” Turner said. “I’m sure he pays attention. Nobody wants to be talked about and criticized about not being able to throw the ball. I’m sure it gets to him a little bit. That’s the drive you need to go out and fix it and get better.”

— Associated Press —

Western volleyball defeats Chadron State to go 2-0 on first day

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The Missouri Western volleyball team opened up the 2012 season 2-0 after defeating a scrappy Chadron State College squad 3-1 (25-19, 19-25, 25-14, 25-23) in the Northern State / Dacotah Bank Classic. Sarah Faubel had a huge match recording a career best 16 kills while leading the way with 21 digs.

In set one the Griffons scored 10 of the final 14 points claiming a 25-19 victory. MWSU hit .226 with 12 kills in the opening set. In set two the Griffons got down early and could not get on track falling 25-19.

The Griffons regained focus in the sets three and four as they had 13 and 15 kills respectively winnning 25-14 and 25-23. In set three the Griffons used an 11-0 run midway through the set jumping to a 2-1 lead in the match. In set four Missouri Western jumped out to a 10-5 lead but the Eagles battled back tying the score at 18. The rest of the set was close but a ball handling error by Chadron State and a Jessie Thorup kill gave MWSU a 24-22 lead. An attack error by the Eagles gave the Griffons the set and the match.

Western improves to 5-2 all-time against the Eagles.

The Griffons finished with 51 kills hitting .157 in the match. Missouri Western had 47 set assits with Stephanie Hattey getting 28 while Jordan Chohon had 16. Defensively five different Griffons had 10 or more digs as they recorded 80 in the match.

Chadron State falls to 0-2 on the season as Jessica Jester and Mollie Jones both had 12 kills.

The Griffons play two more matches tomorrow Saturday, September 1 against Northern State University at 12:00 pm and Black Hills State University at 4:00 pm.

— MWSU Sports Information —

Bearcat volleyball finishes 1-1 on day one in Florida

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The Northwest Missouri State volleyball kicked off the 2012 season going 1-1 on the first day of the Hyatt Place Sunshine Classic, knocking off Barry University in the nightcap after falling to host Palm Beach Atlantic in game one.

The Bearcats start off 1-1 on the year and will finish action at the Classic Saturday with a pair of games. Northwest will take on Saginaw Valley State at 2 p.m. before closing out tournament action against Lewis University at 5 p.m.

A combination of first game jitters and hot hitting from Palm Beach Atlantic saw the Sailfish take a 3-0 shutout in game one.

Despite a few errors in the second set the Bearcats were still able to hang with PBA falling 25-20, 25-20, 25-18. The Sailfish hit over .400 in sets one and three.

Brooke Bartosh led Northwest with eight kills as the PBA defense recorded nine blocks.

Game two was a different story for the Bearcats as they were able to find open floor space. Northwest edged out the first set before running away with the second set, 25-23, 25-12.

Barry would steal the third set 25-21 before Northwest picked up the win 25-18 in set three.

Abby Graves paced Northwest offensively with 15 kills while Tori Beckman and Mackie Keller guided the defense. Keller recorded six blocks while Beckman finished with 15 digs.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

MWSU soccer loses opener against Southwestern Oklahoma

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The Missouri Western soccer team fell 2-0 against the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs in the first game of the 2012 season on Friday evening. Western managed just two shots as they fall to 0-1 on the season.

The Missouri Western soccer team struggled offensively in the first half getting just one shot which was on goal by Teddie Serna. Griffon goalkeeper Kelly Voigts made two saves on three shots on goal.

The Bulldogs had five shots with Jessica Carbonara and Paige Doherty leading the way with two apiece. Doherty gave the Bulldogs the lead in the first half when she headed one past Voigts at the 27:56 mark of the first half. The assist went to Josie Price.

The Bulldogs held the Griffons to just one shot in the second half while the Bulldogs tacked on one more goal giving them the 2-0 victory. Southwestern Oklahoma State scored its second goal in the 58th minute when Jessica Carbonara put one in the bottom right of the goal.

The Bulldogs improve to 1-0 as they had eight corner kicks to the Griffons zero.

Missouri Western will play again on Sunday, September 2 against the East Central Tigers at 2:30 pm in Spratt Stadium. East Central fell 1-0 against the Emporia State Hornets in the first game of the Drury Inn Classic Friday evening.

— MWSU Sports Information —

Northwest soccer plays Saint Cloud State to a draw

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The Northwest Missouri State University women’s soccer team began its season Friday with a draw, 2-2, against Saint Cloud State at Bearcat Pitch.

The Bearcats set a fast pace early in the home opener, but the Huskies were at their side through the whole game. Both teams took 19 shots in the game. The Bearcats lost the lead in 83rd minute, and could not recover.

Amanda Bundrant connected with Victoria Von Mende for a goal in the fourth minute to give Northwest an early 1-0 lead. The goal was Von Mende’s first of the season. In the 2011 season, she tied the program record for most goals scored in a season with 11.

St. Cloud made their comeback in the second half. The unassisted goal by Bailly Drayton started their final push to the end of regulation. Coco Cammon assisted with the tying goal by Gabby Fleck in the 83rd minute.

Freshman, Crystal McElhose, scored her first career goal in the 53rd minute that gave Northwest a 2-1 lead.

Bearcat Goalkeeper Kelsey Adams was solid in the net with 12 saves out of 14 shots on goal.

With the draw, the Bearcats and Huskies records start at 0-0-1. The Bearcats host Newman University at Bearcat Pitch Sunday at 1 p.m.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Griffons open season with 38-26 victory over Central Missouri

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Missouri Western started its season out with a 38-26 victory over Central Missouri Thursday night at Spratt Stadium.

MWSU moved the ball efficiently early on after a personal foul penalty returned the ball to the Griffons on their second drive of the game. The Griffons took full advantage of the penalty; driving 49 yards on five plays that concluded with a Travis Partridge 8-yd touchdown pass to tight end Reggie Jordan that put MWSU on top 7-0.

After Central Missouri’s drive stalled out, the Griffons steadily drove to the 21-yard line, setting up Michael Hill’s first rushing touchdown of the season. Hill’s 21-yard touchdown put Missouri Western up 14-0 with 3:25 to play in the first quarter.

MWSU continued to improve its score, taking a 21-0 advantage early in the second quarter after Hill’s second touchdown run, this time from 17-yards out. The Mules were soon intercepted by Yomi Alli, whose 18-yard return set the Griffons up with great field position at Central’s 13-yard line.

The Griffons jumped ahead by four scores when Travis Partridge connected with backup tight end Alek Ferbet for a 5-yard score, giving MWSU a comfortable 28-0 lead with 7:19 to play in the first half.

MWSU’s defense harassed Central in the first half, making the Mules switch to backup quarterback Colter Smith. The change benefited the Mules, as he led them down the field for their first score of the game, hitting Ronrei Lloyd for a 16-yard touchdown.

The Griffons still led 28-7 heading into the half.

MWSU took a 35-7 lead midway through the third quarter when Tyron Crockom caught his first touchdown of the season. Crockom’s six-yard score came one play after he caught a strike from Partridge but was out of bounds.

Central Missouri kept the game close with a 52-yard fumble recovery and score with 34 seconds left in the third. Taylor Anderson gave the Griffons three more points with a 20-yard field goal to give Missouri Western a 38-13 lead with 11:17 left in the game.

The Mules scored two more times pushing the score closer, but time ran out as MWSU took the game 38-26.

David Bass’ first sack of the season came in the first minute, putting him just a ½ sack away from tying the all-time record at MWSU which is held by Kinney Redding with 30.5.

Hill continued to his push toward a Missouri Western record. Coming into the night’s game, Hill was 596 yards away from the career rushing total record. He ended the night with 169 yards on 28 carries.

Partridge finished the first game of the season throwing 14 completions on 20 attempts for 126 yards. He connected on three touchdown passes for the third time in his career.

MWSU was 5-1 last season when scoring first and 1-0 this year. The Griffons have won six straight home games against the Mules, while winning nine of the last 10 in the series.

The Griffons take on William Jewell at 6 p.m. next Saturday, September 8th in Spratt Stadium.

— MWSU Sports Information —

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