El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 27

Giants take on Falcons in Monday night tilt. Tuesday Tlmes11 Monday. Oct 15, 2007 Sports Editor John Erfort, 546-6170, jerfortelpasotimes.com www.elpasotimes.com Mexico rallies to tie Nigeria, 2-2 if By John Erfort El Paso Times Exhibition or not, Mexico was not about to let it's loyal legion of soccer fans go home disappointed after its first match in Juarez in a quarter-century. So El Tricolor rallied after trailing 1-0 at the intermission and 2-0 early in the second half with a pair of goals by Juan Carlos Cacho to earn a 2-2 tie in an international friendly against Nigeria on a sunny Sunday at Benito Juarez Olympic Stadium. "They did some things we needed to solve, and we did," Mexican national team head coach Hugo Sanchez said.

"It (our performance) was fair. "It would've been unfair if they blasted a left-footed laster past Guillermo Ochoa in the 31st minute for a 1-0 lead. Then Martins, who plays for Newcastle of the English Premier League, threatened to put the match away with a goal in the 52nd minute. But Cacho answered just two minutes later with a beautiful header into the left side of the net off a perfect through ball from Israel Castro. Cacho tied it in the 67th on a penalty kick after Giovani Dos Santos of Barcelona was fouled.

"We were (losing) and we had a chance to win the game," Mexico midfielder Andres Guardado said. "But we tied, and that's good." John Erfort may be reached at jerfortelpasotimes.com; 546-6170. clpasotimes.com ife-. 1 See notes from Sunday's Mexico-Nigeria match and a photo gallery online Thousands turn out to watch match 1A had scored on that penalty kick." Mexico was booked for a foul in the penalty area in extra time, but Nigeria's Ikechukwu Uche blasted his shot over the net to end the game and cue the capacity crowd of 22300 to reconvene it's day-long celebration. Mexico controlled play in the first half, but Nigeria's Obafemi Martins made a strong run and in' Adnene Jaeckle El Paso Times Mexico's Juan Carlos Cacho (9) headed in Mexico's first goal Sunday during a 2-2 tie with Nigeria in Juarez.

Dallas 27 NFL New England 48 fnlrrA uu OULJ UU UUU UJUJO 4 "Ww Ji NCLS: COLORADO 4 ARIZONA 1 Rockies one game away from sweeping D'backs By Arnie Stapleton Associated Press DENVER No more slumbering lumber for the Colorado Rockies, who are one win away from roaring right into their first World Series. With a cold rain falling, Josh Fogg shut By Jaime Aron AP Sports Writer IRVING, Texas Now the Dallas Cowboys know they're good enough to hang with the big boys in the AFC they're just not yet ready to beat them. Especially not when Tom Brady plays like this. Brady down Arizona's bats in Inside More from Sunday's game 4C Sunday's roundups 4C NFL standings 4C Inside threw a career-high five touchdown passes, with Donte Stallworth taking the final one 69 yards to break open a tight game early in the fourth quarter, as the New England his first post Game 3 Inside Weekly prep notebook featuring last week's top performances 5C Texas high school top 10 results 2C Sports Digest UTEP concludes UNF Invite with title JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Vicky Michaud and Ximena Fuentes' title in the Flight doubles consolation match capped off a tremendous showing for the UTEP tennis team at the UNF Invite on Sunday afternooa The Miners were in top form at the three-day event, with three individuals qualifying for the semifinals in the top flights and two others (Fuentes in singles and FuentesMichaud) advancing to the finals in consolation play.

Weronika Bloczynska, Marina Deluca and Megan Pritchard all surged into the semifinals of championship flights to go along with a back-draw championship and a runner-up showing. Miners lose in 5: Four Miners recorded double-figure kills and three had double-double performances as the UTEP volleyball team fell in five games to Houston 30-32, 27-30, 30-24, 30-22, 14-16 on Sunday at the AthleticsAlumni Center in Houston. Amy Sanders led the Miners (6-14 overall, 0-9 in Conference USA) with 20 kills. Catherine Chavez notched 17 kills and contributed 18 digs, and Christie Murphy tallied 10 kills and 13 digs for double-double performances. Boise St.

wins in OT: At Boise, Idaho, Ian Johnson scored from a yard out in the fourth overtime, and Taylor Tharp lofted a short pass to Jeremy Avery on the 2-point conversion to help Boise State beat Nevada 69-67 on Sunday night. Nevada matched the touchdown in the fourth extra period on Luke Lippincott's 8-yard run up the middle, but Boise State's Tim Brady ended the game by sacking Colin Kaepernick on the 2-point conversion attempt. It was a wild game from the start, with the teams combining for 1,266 yards of total offense as the Broncos (5-L 2-0 Western Athletic) beat the Wolfpack (2-4, 0-2) for the eighth straight time. The Broncos forced overtime on Kyle Brotzman's 27-yard field goal as time expired. Times staff, wire reports box score 2C season start, and Yorvit Torrealba hit a tiebreaking Indians three-run tie ALCS in extra innings 6C homer to fuel the Rockies' 4-1 victory yj 1 'I JTl K1 ItA i i 7 y(V(v i Patriots won 48-27 on Sunday in a rare battle of teams with 5-0 records.

"We wanted to be one of the elite teams," Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said. "Obviously we're not." The Patriots (6-0) started strong and finished stronger, grabbing their sixth straight blowout win and their highest point total since scoring 50 against Indianapolis in 1984. Yet it wasn't as easy as the final score indicated. New England gave up its most points of the season and trailed in the second half for the first time this year. Brady was sacked as many times (three) as he'd been all season.

Experience in big games had to be part of the difference. Consider what the Patriots did on their final five drives after the Cowboys went ahead 24-21 early in the third quarter: touchdown, field goal, touchdown, field goal, touchdown. The last came with 19 seconds left, a 1-yard run by first-year running back Kyle Eckel that Brady celebrated with two huge fist pumps. Brady went 31-of-46 for 388 yards and did much of his early damage on third downs. His five TDs tied a franchise record and gave him an NFL record with at least three in each of the first six games of the season he has an NFL-best 21 this year.

The league record is 49 by Peyton Manning. The Cowboys (5-1) were off to their best start since 1983. They allowed the most points since Philadelphia scored 49 on Nov. 15, 2004. Sunday night in Game 3 of the NL championship series.

MVP hopeful Matt Holliday also homered as the wild-card Rockies took a 3-0 lead with their 20th win in 21 games. They will try to sweep the Diamondbacks tonight, when Franklin Morales faces Arizona's Micah Owings in a matchup of rookies who have never faced each other's teams. The Rockies, who this season set a major league record for fielding percentage, turned three double plays in the first three innings. "When you can take the sting out of them early I think it helped our confidence," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. Now the Diamondbacks are hoping to join the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who rallied past the New York Yankees, as the only teams to overcome a 3-0 hole to win a best-of-seven postseason series.

"We've just got to get one on the board first," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "That's what we've been trying to do all year." Torrealba connected in the sixth inning, three pitches after watching one of Livan Hernandez's trademark "eephus" offerings poke across the plate for a strike so slow it didn't register on the stadium scoreboard radar. After a 60 mph bender that he fought off for a foul, Torrealba hit a fastball 402 feet into the left-field seats, then raced around the bases pumping his fists and hooting and hollering. Mam. -1111 I 1 Tim Sharp Associated Press New England Patriots receiver WesWelker, cen- Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys with team-ter, celebrated his 35-yard touchdown reception mate Donte Stallworth at Texas Stadium.

NLCS Colorado 4 Arizona 1 Arizona 10 Dallas 27 Oakland 14 Seattle 17 Minnesota 34 Chicago 31 I Green Bay 17 Washington 14 Baltimore 22 St. Louis 3 Kansas City 27 Cincinnati 20 Philadelphia 16 N.Y.Jets9 Tampa Bay 13 Tennessee 10 Cleveland 41 Miami 31 Jacksonville 37 Houston 17 Carolina 25 New England 48 San Diego 28 New Orleans 28 NBA EXHIBITION Portland 102 Atlanta 89 Detroit 109 Denver 106 Washington 86 Philadelphia 80 LA. Clippers 99 Golden State 89 Try NHL Minnesota 2 Anaheim 0 Detroit 4 Los Angeles 1 MLS Colorado 2 CD Chivas USA 1 mm inside: more nej ALCS tied 1-1 Rookie sets team record Adrian Peterson Sleep was at a premium Miners heartbroken Flip a coin three times, and the odds aren't very good that it will come up heads Sunday after a late, late dp asoumesxom showed the Bears why he was the first running C'- three straight times. That's the easiest way to take consolation from UTEP's shocking 45-42 loss to East night in nippy New England. The Cleveland Indians were tired, for sure.

Tied in the ALCS, too. With a record-setting, seven-run rally in the 11th inning of Game 2, the Indians beat the Red Sox 13-6 in the wee hours Sunday morning to even their best-of-seven series 1 Lome 1 I i' Franklin v3 Gutierrez back taken in this year's draft. Peterson finished with 224 yards rushing on 20 carries and scored on runs of 67, 73 and 35 yards. He broke Chuck Foreman's club-record of 200 yards rushing set in 1976. 4C Read more on local sports, including high schools and community sporting events Get all the latest pro and college sports scores and stats online a www.elpaso times.comsportsextra Carolina.

Between Tulsa, SMU and the Pirates, the Miners should feel lucky to go 2-1 after three consecutive games decided on the final play. They don't. 3C at one game apiece. 6C.