The Daily Item from Sunbury, Pennsylvania • 29

The Daily Item Sunday, November 1 4, 2004 Page C7 College Football PATRIOT LEAGUE MIDDLE ATLANTIC CONFERENCE Warriors rout Crusaders By Harold Raker The Daily Item hi i Tin; i i Bfe "fill 1 I i 1 V) Photos by Art FoxallFor The Daily Item Bucknell defensive end Sean Conover blocks Colgate punter Jason Sutton's attempt in the second quarter Saturday. Conover recovered and Bucknell scored on the next play to take the lead for good. Bison put it all together keep working hard good things will happen." Girardi conceded that the motivation was high because not only was it the last game, but it was against long-time rival Susquehanna. "Even though both teams were not in the hunt, it's still Susquehanna and they're 30 miles away, and it still had a lot of relevance." -The first two touchdowns scored as a result of special teams play. Murdock returned a punt 50 yards to the SU 3-yard line, where he was tackled by punter wight Swaney (a Mifflinburg High graduate).

"That was a big spark for the team," Murdock said. "It was a left return wall and there was a huge hole there, and my eyes lit up and I saw that punter out there. I'm going to hear about that for a long time to come." Lycoming senior quarterback Phil Mann ran for the first of his three touchdowns to put Lycoirfing up 7-0 with 9:59 left in the first. Lycoming's Tyler Barth recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and the Warriors scored in nine plays, a one-yard run by Mann to make it 14-0 with 5:50 left in the first. After that the Lycoming offense got started and the Warriors were able to put it out of reach early.

Even when things were going well for the Crusaders, something always seemed to go wrong. Senior fullback Jason Eck lost the handle after a nice gain and Lycoming recovered. Chris Ross seemed headed for a touchdown but safety Ryan Repko stripped it and took it 36 yards the other way. "I said right from the get-go: 'We can't make mistakes in the kicking game and offense and I think we did the whole first half, and the results showed," Briggs said. Traugh had a 39-yard run on the first play of the game, but the Crusaders' defense held and a 31-yard field goal try went wide right.

Nevertheless, Traugh said that run did a lot for the confidence of the running game. "I think it was a huge spark to set the tone for the offense, to show we could run the ball against he said. On a day when little went right for the Crusaders (4-6 overall, 3-6 Middle, Atlantic Conference), SU senior wide receiver Duane Park averted a second consecutive shutout by Lycoming when he caught a 31- yard touchdown pass from Justin Wutti with 1:35 left. "I've been playing football since fifth grade and obviously I would much rather have had a win than that touchdown, but coming down with a touchdown at the end of the game is a good way to end my career," said Park, who had apparently scored earlier only to have the TD nullified by a questionable interference call. "Hopefully the team can build from this year, but I'm going to miss it." The loss ended another disappointing season for the Crusaders, whose last winning season was 7-3 in 2000.

Said coach Steve Briggs, "We have got to play better. I think in some cases our -season may have ended down in Reading a couple of weeks ago (a come-from-behind win at Albright) because I really haven't seen that (Crusaders') team since. And that's my fault." Lycoming coach Frank Girardi, whose Warriors (3-7, 3-6) averted their worst season in his 33 years at the helm with the win, said, "Even though we've had a lot of adversity this year, you wouldn't have known it on the practice field. If you SELINSGRQVE Like the Lycoming upperclassmen, Warriors freshman Brandon Traugh is not used to his foot- Dan season November. ending in Even though Lycoming, led by a career-high 145 rushing yards from Traugh, routed Susquehanna 35-7 Saturday afternoon at Nicholas A.

Lopardo Field, it was the end of the season for the perennial NCAA con-, tenders. And Traugh, fresh off a pair of PIAA Class A championships with Southern Columbia, must find another way to pass the time. "For me this is really unusual. It's only the second week in November and I'm done playing football. I'm used to playing in December," said Traugh, who scored his first college touchdown on a 28-yard run in the fourth quarter.

"It just didn't work out this year. "Our offensive line did a great job today, and I was able to read their blocks and cut off of them. And when I was able to get downfield a couple times, the wide receivers made some great blocks; Johnny Moore had some fantastic blocks." His former Southern teammate, sophomore strong safety Matt Murdock, said, "It was a great performance by the offensive line. They opened holes up all over the place for Brandon and the other backs." "He ran real hard. He looked like he was seeing the field real well.

I knew he had it in him playing with him at Southern," Murdock ffiftef llm I'Jf'IMiliHl Magna Grip HT $5095 1BS75A14 l-awillJW8fR if ill i it I I Qty- Wintermark I 199 i reaavror, MjnsjJ through to block it and recover it at the Colgate 4. "All year I had been getting close on our punt safes (which has the Bison defense, not their punt return team, on the field)," Conover said. "I faked going outside, did a swim move inside and the punter fumbled the snap, so I was able to get there." On the next play Wilson ran it in to give the Bison a lead they would never relinquish. Wilson ran 64 yards on Bucknell's first offensive play of the second half for a 21-7 lead. His 69-yarder, which included a great hesitation move about 30 yards from the end zone that froze Colgate defensive back Andrew Moore, also was the first play of a drive.

Bucknell's six scoring drives took a combined 14 plays. "Last year we were like babes in the woods up (at Colgate)," said Landis, who was then in his first year. "We were 2-0 in the league and people were saying we were playing for the league title. "I knew that was a bit premature." Notes: It was Wilson's second game this season, with his first two weeks ago at Holy Cross. He is the only Bucknell player to have two such scoring games in a career.

It was Wilson's third consecutive 100-yard rushing game, his second career 200-yard game. (Holy Cross was the other), and put him at 1,006 yards rushing for the season, a school record for a quarterback. It was the first 200-yard rushing day allowed by Colgate since 199s (Navy). Graham, with his seven catches, is Colgate's all-time leader in career receptions (213). Running back Jamaal Branch, who ran for 175 yards and two scores in last season's meeting, had yards Saturday to give him 1,080 for the year.

He is two yards shy of becoming' the second Raider to have 4,000 career yards rushing. go-ahead touchdown when Tony Hunt ran 2 yards with 4:51 left. Mills then ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 22- 16. Hunt's score wiped out a 16-14 Indiana lead, which it took on Bryan Robertson's 23- yard field goal with 8:47 left. per gal Discount Heating Oil can 286-4519 sjf-f Cany mmm.

By Tom Housenick The Daily Item LEWISBURG If Colgate had known Saturday's game at Bucknell was going to be as bad as it was, the Raiders would have just stayed on the bus. problem, though: The bus was broken. It was that kind of trip for coach Dick Biddle's club. Quarterback Daris Wilson rushed for 236 yards and five touchdowns and Bucknell ended four years of frustration with a 42-7 romp in front of 3,502 fans at Christy Mathews on -Memorial Stadium. The Bison had lost the last four in the series, three by a combined'eight points, before last year's 50-6 Raiders romp.

The win was Bucknell's biggest in the series that dates back to 1894. The Bison won 41-7 in 1972. "AU week, we talked about putting it all together like we did last year against Fordham (a 31-10 Bucknell win)," Wilson said. "We've played well in certain areas, but not all three in the same game. "We knew it was a matter of time." With the win, Bucknell (6-4 overall, 4-2 Patriot League) is assured of its first winning season in three years, with a road game against Duquesne on Saturday to close out the season.

The loss ended the hopes of Colgate (6-4, 3-2) for a possible share of the league title and a return trip to the NCAA playoffs. It lost in last season's national title game. It took a while for the Bison to put it together Saturday, netting minus-1 yard on three first-quarter series. Colgate actually took a 7-0 lead, but the scoring drive proved costly. Standout quarterback Chris Brown was injured while throwing a third-down pass completed for eight yards and a first down.

The senior was hit by Bucknell defensive linemen Corey Mayo and Sean Conover as he released it. Brown, who did not return, was to be checked today for a possible leg fracture. He had completed three of five passes for 31 yards and rushed three times for 36 more. "We knew we had to get after (Brown), get some pressure on him and keep him in the pocket," Bison coach Tim Landis said. Freshman Lee Sloan finished the scoring drive by hitting Luke Graham with a two-yard touchdown pass at the 5-minute, 18-second mark of the first quarter.

Sloan got his first career touchdown pass under heavy pressure. But he delivered a perfect throw near the left pylon with Dante Ross draped on Graham. Sloan was pressed into second-string duty when regular backup Mike Saraceno left school to be with his mother, who was dying of cancer. She passed away a couple of weeks ago. Bucknell's fortunes turned on the fifth play of the second quarter, when Wilson had (at that point) the longest touchdown run of his career a 50-yarder a play after the Bison picked up their initial first down.

Wilson would later run for scores of 4, 64, 69 and 1 yard, as Bucknell rolled after its slow start. "The plays we scored on were the same ones we had run earlier," Landis admitted. "It always takes us a few series to adjust because we end up practicing for four or five different schemes. We never know what we're going to see (from an opposing defense) because we run the option." As much as Brown's loss hurt the Raiders, perhaps the game's biggest play came on a Colgate punt two series later. Jason Sutton dropped a good snap, picked it up and tried to get it off, but Bucknell's Conover broke score, I guess there will always be a better call." The defense was expected to play that way.

But the difference was Penn State's offense also made plays. Michael Robinson caught six passes for 99 yards and one touchdown, which officials initially ruled incomplete. Replays, however, showed Robinson dragged his foot inbounds and into the front corner of the end call was reversed, and Robinson's 33-yard TD tied the score at 7. Zack Mills finished 11-for-19 with 169 yards, one touchdown pass and one touchdown run. and led the Nittany Lions on an 80-yard, nine-play drive that produced the wutten Snokicin JA TYRES l1 LIT All Weather Economy 40.000 umwmtnit SBR i99 1S580R13 rfUMEKICAM RABIALS Silver $5895 CTTMt All Vifc WR Weather Plus Light Tniek tUV few mmn noKicin 50,000 Uik Warranty $3495 MMff nw Iwntfattintmtt A mcdino am poMfnfiwvt snow AvtUabt In tizas, T.

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