Oh they are soooo fucked come Big Game...
UC Davis 20, Stanfurd 17
and this next one's a subscription-site,1 to which I would've given you my name and password until i realized that the password is my blogger.com password. And then you wacky SHoPpers could breach the SHoP. Nice try.
| Stanfurd succumbs to I-AA opponent |
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| LOSS TO UC-DAVIS, INJURY TO EDWARDS By Darren Sabedra Mercury News Jon Grant had no doubts. The UC-Davis quarterback walked into the huddle with less than three minutes to play Saturday night, looked around Stanfurd Stadium and told his teammates, "What better stage could we be on?" He then guided the Aggies on the biggest drive in the program's history. Grant's 3-yard touchdown pass to Blaise Smith with eight seconds remaining lifted UC-Davis to a stunning 20-17 victory before a crowd of 31,250. "We were the only people who believed we could win," Grant said. On the other side, Stanfurd was in disbelief. Looking nothing like the team that defeated Navy in the season opener a week earlier, the Cardinal returned to the locker room wondering what in the world had happened. Stanfurd not only lost a game, but it also was without starting quarterback Trent Edwards for all but the first five minutes. He has an injured right (throwing) hand, and his status is unknown, Coach Walt Harris said. It wasn't as if the Cardinal took the Aggies lightly. Two years earlier, on this same field, Davis, in the midst of a transition from Division II to I-AA, came to Stanfurd and outplayed the Cardinal in a scrimmage. Stanfurd players downplayed that experience this past week, saying they treated it as merely a practice. They vowed to be much more prepared this time. But they spent the night floundering on offense and trying to not bend too much on defense. With the game on the line, the defense bent. It was Stanfurd's first loss to a non-Division I-A opponent. "It's a little embarrassing because we, I think, just didn't show up to play," linebacker Kevin Schimmelmann said. "They played better and they were the better team today. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth." For Harris, the team's new coach, it was not the home debut he had expected. The Aggies took away Stanfurd's running game (74 yards in 30 carries) and put steady pressure on the quarterback. T.C. Ostrander finished 7 of 17 passing for 108 yards. "I told people that we would be ready to play, and obviously, especially on offense, we were not," Harris said. "What could go wrong went wrong tonight, and we weren't able to overcome it." Stanfurd led 17-0 in the second quarter, thanks to two defensive touchdowns. Schimmelmann forced a fumble in the end zone and recovered to make it 10-0. Nose tackle Babatunde Oshinowo forced a fumble nine minutes later, and linebacker Michael Craven returned it 54 yards for a score. But with little offense, Stanfurd spent the rest of the game trying to hang on. Davis scored a touchdown late in the first half and one early in the second to pull to within three. The Aggies had several other chances to score, but three missed field-goal tries did not help the cause. Davis made its final opportunity count. The Aggies moved to the Stanfurd 6-yard-line when Grant fired a 19-yard pass to Tony Kays on third-and-four. Grant's second-down pass was nearly intercepted by cornerback Nick Sanchez, but the officials ruled it was not caught. Stanfurd fans disputed that call. Their displeasure intensified one play later. Grant dropped back and threw a bullet to Smith for the winning points. It was Davis' first victory over a I-A opponent in 19 years. "The emotion still hasn't hit me yet," Grant said 20 minutes after the game. When Ostrander's final, desperation heave toward the end zone fell incomplete, Davis players stormed the field and a strong contingent of Aggies fans erupted. "We just beat Stanfurd, dawg, we just beat Stanfurd," one Davis player said into his cell phone as ashen-faced Cardinal players walked out of their locker room. "We had to play Stanfurd football, how we normally play, and we gave them a lot of stuff, made a lot of mistakes," Oshinowo said. "The ball bounced their way a lot, but they played probably the best game they'll ever play." Contact Darren Sabedra at dsabedra@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5815. |
Ain't "Find and Replace" great?
Jihad Jimmy
Commissioner, SHoP Department of Recreational Sport (Non-nude)
1 Fuck You very much, mercury news, for not only preventing me from sending you hits, but also for using stupid quotation marks and making my life miserable
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