St. Thomas Academy vs. Hill Murray

Led by its multi-headed rushing attack, St. Thomas Academy continued its string of dominance to begin the 2009 season with a 48-0 romp over Hill Murray, spoiling the Pioneers’ homecoming.

Tailbacks Dan Freund and Augie Braddock powered the Cadets offense with two touchdowns apiece and the defense shut down the Hill Murray (1-3) attack.

St. Thomas Academy, now 4-0, has outscored its opponents 174-27 this season.

The Cadets wasted little time flexing their offensive prowess, scoring on the opening drive of the game courtesy of a 25 yard run up the gut by Freund.

John Garry found Dan Abbott open across the middle for a 10 yard touchdown and Freund ran another in for a 5 yard score on the team’s next two possessions to push STA’s lead to 22, where it would remain through halftime.

The Pioneers never really threatened.

Playmaker Zach LaValle was held in check with the exception of a long screen pass and catch that took Hill Murray into Cadets territory, and starting quarterback Alec Conners was forced out of the game in the third quarter with an injury.

St. Thomas continued to pound the ball in the second half; a tiring Pioneers defense opened the door for some big plays.

Braddock scampered 60 yards untouched into the end zone and ran another in from 10 yards, quarterback Ryan McManus connected with Kyle Rohde for six on a 31-yard strike and John Gould broke numerous tackles during a 64 yard dash on his way to paydirt to cap the scoring.

Catch the Cadets in action next Friday, Oct. 2, as they take on the Henry Sibley Warriors, while the Pioneers head to Tartan to play the Titans.

Brady Loses? A Look at a Couple Week 2 Games

The New England Patriots lost for the first time in 22 regular season tries in games Tom Brady started, falling to the Jets 16-9 Sunday.
The streak began following a 21-0 loss to Miami in December 2006.
(Like that? The Pats had gone 21-0 with Brady since losing 21-0.)

Mario Manningham, a former Michigan receiver who dominated the Big Ten had a colossal game on primetime Sunday. He caught 10 balls for 150 yards and a score in the Giants’ thrilling last-second 33-31 victory over the Cowboys to spoil the opening of the $1.1 billion Dallas Stadium.
The night’s production accounted for 65 percent of Manningham’s career receiving yards and 59 percent of his career catches.
He began playing in the NFL in 2008.

Minnesota Meets The Best

Jukes, speed and quickness
Jahvid Best scores with ease
Gophers suffer defeat

(A Haggy Haiku)

Smile at Misfortune

When your best efforts lead to the worst results -- the showers on the hook for a loss -- there's only one thing to do.
Smile.
The always focused, generally pissed off looking Justin Verlander gave in to the "say cheese" expression Saturday after giving up what proved to be the game-winning hit to Jason Kubel.
The single came with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth of a 2-1 game on a well located 0-2 fastball down and away.
Kubel sliced at the ball, and with the help of Verlander's velocity -- the radar gun registered 100 mph -- blooped it enough to reach the outfield turf for the decisive single.
And Verlander's performance up to that point, holding the Twins to five basehits and one run through 7 1/3 innings went for naught.

Dome Friendly

The Twins are sure going to miss playing at the Metrodome next year.
Thanks to the translucent roof, the Twins pulled off a 6-2 come from behind victory Saturday over Detroit and moved to within two games of its AL Central-leading opponent.
With a runner on in the bottom of the eighth and one out trailing 2-1, the Twins' Orlando Cabrera hit a routine fly ball to left field. Don Kelly, a rookie who had just entered the game as a defensive replacement, lost it in cumulus cloud ceiling.
After searching with his arms raised in obvious confusion, Kelly located the ball in its final 20 feet of flight, and made a desperation dive to his right.
He came up empty.
And the Twins took advantage.
By the time he recovered and relayed the ball into the infield, runners were on second and third.
After loading the bases with an intentional walk to Joe Mauer, who had delivered Minnesota's lone run of the afternoon earlier with his 28th home run, Jason Kubel hit an end of the bat flair base-hit into left field off of Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander to give Minnesota its first lead at 3-2.
Michael Cuddyer followed with an exclamation point three-run blast into left center off of newly inserted Brandon Lyon to ensure that the Twins would at least win this ever important series with Detroit.
It isn't the first time the Dome roof has come into play, but it certainly has to be one of the most timely.
And after sitting seven games back of the Tigers not two weeks ago, the Twins have climbed to within a couple games of taking over the lead in the AL Central.
These two teams play eachother five more times, including tomorrow's game and four at Comerica Park where Kelly and the Tigers should now see that this division battle will likely go down to the wire.

Trojan Triumph

There is a new hero in Southern California.
Just his second collegiate game, 19-year old Matt Barkley, before 106,000 excitable Ohio State fans smelling blood and against the hungry Jaws of defenses nationally, calmly punched the eye of the Buckeyes with a late-game touchdown drive and two-point conversion to lift No. 3 USC to a 18-15 victory Saturday night.
It certainly wasn't the rout of meetings past, but USC, thanks to the big plays by its true freshman quarterback, found a way to move to 7-0 against Ohio State under coach Pete Carroll's tenure and 10-0 against the Big Ten.
Barkley completed passes of 21 and 26 yards and converted two fourth downs with quarterback sneaks on the winning drive that began at the Trojans' own 18 and took 14 plays.
Entering Saturday's tilt, the Trojans' average margin of victory was more than three touchdowns, and zero games were decided by 10 or fewer points.
Those games also featured Trojan teams with well established talent, many of whom are now in the NFL.
After Saturday's impressive performance it's safe to say, Barkley has established that he's well on his way.

Badger Football Needs New General

This season should be Bret Bielema's last as head coach.
Brought in for his ability to recruit, Bielema has consistently been outdone by just about every Big Ten school.
The most emasculating moment took place two years ago. Nemesis Minnesota, following its 1-11 2007 season, landed the 17th-best class, according to Rivals.com, whereas Wisconsin ranked No. 41.
Where the Badgers have suffered most is on defense, particularly in the secondary and on the defensive line.
Wisconsin employs a pro-style offense (11th man is a fullback or second tight end rather than a receiver), known for its ground-heavy attack; it led the Big Ten in rushing in 2008. For the most part, that translates to grinding, slow paced football and fewer points. In order to remain competitive, teams using the pro-style need a gritty defense to match.
The Badgers don't have that.
No defensive back recruit has been classified as a top-tier athlete (more than three stars) under Bielema's reign. And while the overall stars of incoming freshmen has improved since the early 2000s, the player development has gotten worse.
Jay Valai at 5-foot-9 is an undersized strong safety and Chris Maragos is only a slight upgrade from the days Shane Carter consistently played an out-of-position free safety. Inexperienced youth sits behind them on the depth chart.
Heck, the home field advantage Camp Randall used to provide seems to becoming a thing of the forgotten past. The Badgers were embarrassed by Penn State a year ago and nearly so versus Cal Poly in their own backyard. Ohio State came away with a road win as well.
Saturday, the Badgers needed two overtimes and a career long 57-yard field goal by Philip Welch to overcome a 14 point deficit and defeat unranked Fresno State 34-31. The upcoming slate of conference games could be painful to watch.
Sure the team is young with 12 new starters on both sides of the ball.
Few have proven capable of solidifying this team as a Big Ten contender, however.
Bielema has had plenty of opportunities to avoid such a decline, and his time can't be up soon enough.