Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 11

Angels take 2-1 series lead Saturday CCTSD0112, 2CC2 I 1 1 WUATS. o'lbecond Inside today's sports section SCO KB CAMTV SPORTS .....82 AREA PREP FOOTBALL SPOO'S QUEST FCR ICO 84 NFL B4 The Anaheim Angels monkeyed around with Minnesota for seven innings, then watched Troy Glaus put them in control oftheAL championship series. 5F villi I h) 1 MATTOON (III.) JOURNAL GAZETTE QUESTION OR COMMENT? CONTACT US AT sport5ig tc.com MATTOON 14 CHAMPAIGN CENTRAL 12 'Menise rolls SCOTT 1 LAMBERT Finally, somediing to look forward to "0 J' BY SCOTT LAMBERT JC Sports Editor MATTOON It came down to one big play. Champaign Central had just scored with 1:13 remaining in the game to cut Mattoon's lead to 14-12. The Maroons lined up for the two-point conversion and quarterback Matthew Davis rolled to his right under heavy pressure.

He looked for his No. 1 target in running back Drew McMahon, found him heavily guarded in the corner of the end zone and let the ball go. It was incomplete. Central had to try for the onside kick but Mattoon's Cody Mullen fell on the ball and the Green Wave ran the clock out to claim a 14-12 win over Central. "I didn't even think about it (the onside kick)," said Mullen.

"I thought it was going to go to (Adam) Cole but it came to me and I just fell on it." It was a win that Mattoon had to have to keep its playoff hopes alive. After Friday's win, the Wave's hopes are positively glowing. As was coach Gerald Temples, who has said all year that his team has the mental makeup to be a playoff team. Friday night proved it. "They had to," said, Temples.

"If they didn't play together and didn't play mentally tough we knew we were going to get beat. "You have to give Central a lot of credit because they're a tough team. They came out in the second half and played some very physical football. Our kids answered the bell. "They did it inside their own 10-yard line but they made the plays." It was the perfect way to end the home career of 15 Mattoon seniors, a its toughness and its ability to over- MIKK KSH Liysi I I'l 101 API Mattoon's Cody Mullen brings down Champaign Central running back Drew McMahon during the Green Wave's 14-12 win Friday.

The win keeps Mattoon's playoff hopes alive. INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing Mattoon 0 J. Walker 22-74; Ryan Snowden 4-45; Ross Jeske Central Drew McMahon 34-1 89, 1 TD; Gregory Richaid 4-11; Michael Stone 1-2; Matthew Davis 8-3; Justin Peacock l-(-2). Passing 'Mattoon Ryan Snowden 6-14-1-76, 1 TD Central Matthew Davis 7-15-1-87, 1 TD. Receiving Kyle Hudson 5-83, 1 TO; Jake tOrts 2-4, p.

A p. 1 Central 0 0 6 6-12 Mattoon 0 7 0 7-14 Second quarter Kyle Hudson 3 pass from Ryan Snowden (Shane lockart kick), :19 Third quarter C-Orsw McMahon 5 fun (Chris Roney kick failed), 142 Fourth quarter M-Ross Jt-ke 20 run (Lockart kick), 3:44 Ixim .15 pas from Ohw Davis.twi Xpass failed), 1:13 TEAM STATISTICS Mat Cen Rist downs 11 18 by run 7 13 bypass 3 5 by penalty 1 40 Rushes-yards 30-149 48-203 Passes attempted 15 14 Passes completed 7 6 Had intercepted 1 1 1 Yards passing 87 76 Total Ci'inie 2D8 279 0 Penalties-yards 7-35 9-65 Punts-yards Central DiwMcMahwi 1f7); KA Mcftomsr? H-t tnc wown i-n; justin ceacocK y-ui jeremy Leman 1-15, 1 TD. See ROLLS, B5 EIU FOOTBALL Payton lirophy; OVC lead up for grabs (4-2) zX (3-2) 1:30 p.m. today at O'Brien Stadium H3d: WHQQ-FM 93.9 Thank goodness for basketball season. With the University of Illinois football season in a shambles heading into today's noon game against Purdue, Illinois held its media day for basketball Friday.

Finally, a ray of hope. OK, so expectations aren't sky-high for this basketball season. Illinois, coming off its second Big Ten championship season in a row will open its Season without Cory Bradford, Frank Williams, Damir Krupalija, Lucas Johnson or Robert Archibald. They still have Brian Cook, most likely this season's pre-season Big Ten Player of the Year, and they have a group of youngsters that will make this team enjoyable to watch if nothing else. "Far the first time since ve been here I don't have much of a clue as to who will be playing and what kind of team we'll have," said Illinois coach Bill Self.

"But Tm so excited about this year. "It's going to be a unique year. Well be a different team this year. We won't be the power team that "we've been the last couple of years, well be quicker and well need to play a faster and diffofentgame." rrsr TttS" Last season's Big en'ccPchampi-ons finished with a 26-9 record and, after a slow start, advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the second consecu-tiveyear. But the team wasn't the kind that caught your eye.

Williams was the quintessential aloof basketball player and the team built its personality around its leader, especially with Johnson spending much of the year on the sideline with a knee injury. The team of last year spent much of its season trying to find a personality. Don't expect that to be a problem this year. Not with the group of freshman, highlighted by guards Deron Williams and Dee Brown. Talk about personality.

Brown is the Illinois basketball answer to Brandon Lloyd, a personable young man with cornrows, a quick smile and lightning fast moves on the basketball court Williams, Brown's roommate, is a bigger and stronger guard, more in the mold of Williams (with maybe a better jump shot). They will most definitely provide the team with personality. "We've got a very enthusiastic group of players this year," said Self. "Last year, for a while during the season, we were a bunch of duds. I don't think that will be a problem this year.

We have very enthusiastic players this year." Don't enter the season expecting too much from this group. With the number of youngsters who will have to play well in order for Illinois to excel, it would be hard to enter the season with high expectations, a change for Self. The last two years his team has been picked to win die Big Tea "If different" he admitted. "I think you want to enter the season with the best players, no matter what the situa-tionis. "But I do think we have very good players who people don't know any- thing about yet" Which means this team will have some early growing pains.

"You can count on it," Self said. 'Tm not expecting us to be a great team early. We have a lot of young kids and they'll have to learn some things in the early part of the seasoa "You have to understand that early in the year they'll be more concerned with trying to make sure they're in their spots and trying so hard not to dis-appqint that they won't really be in the flow of things. "Once we get them to the point where they're reactors, we'll have a chance to have a good team." Until then, well just have to wait But at feast for now, we have something to look forward to on the Illinois campus. Scott Limbert Is sports editor for the Journal Gantte.

Contact Lambert at Hudson was limited to 61 rushing yards when Eastern Kentucky opened its season with a 49-10 loss at NCAA I-A Oregon State. Two weeks ago he scored three touchdowns but had time for just 41 yards on 10 carries before Kidd mercifully substituted in a 55-0 rout over Division II Glenville State. The sophomore's best statistical game so far has been 168 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries in a 36-28 loss to Appalachian State, which is now ranked third in I-AA. Romo had to start the season against two I-A foes. EIU's senior quarterback managed 319 passing yards BY BRIAN NIELSEN T-C Sports Editor CHARLESTON Who says defensive players cannot win the Walter Payton Trophy? They can help.

That is one of today's subplots when two nationally ranked NCAA Division I-AA football teams with three-game winning streaks collide at O'Brien Stadium in a 1:30 p.m. Homecoming game that could wind up deciding the Ohio Valley Conference championship. Eastern Illinois, 3-2 and ranked No. 9 by Sports Network and No. 10 by USA TodayESPN, features two-time OVC Offensive Player of the Year Tony Romo, who can break his school's record for wins by a football coach.

"Coach Spoo is concentrating on the OVC but it's a nice footnote," EIU offensive tackle Mike Bujnak said of the coaching record. Whichever high profile player has the better footnote day might help determine the outcome between the two teams that both stand 1-0 in the conference. "I hope he doesn't play well against our team," Romo said of Hudson. "The good thing about our team is we're balanced. If you can take him out of their game, it'shuge." Pre-conference schedules have hindered both players in their Payton Trophy bids so far.

is 11th in NCAA I-AA passing efficiency. Eastern Kentucky, 4-2 with No. 19 and 18 national rankings, has its traditional powerful ground-oriented game led by the nation's No. 14 rusher C. J.

Hudson. Today could be the kind of breakthrough day when one star or the other takes a giant step toward the Payton Trophy awarded to NCAA I-AA's player of the year. "We don't play for that reason but we have a Walter Payton Trophy candidate and they have one," EIU defensive secondary coach Edmund Jones said. "Our defense wants to say 'He's not going to have a Walter Payton day on We'd be lying if we didn't say we don't think about that" The passer vs. runner duel is just part of this showdown between the OVC's two premier teams and coaches Eastern Kentucky's 311-game winner Roy Kidd, who is on his farewell tour having already announced his retirement for the end of this season, and Eastern Illinois' Bob Spoo, who today SeeCKABS.B.) Stepping stone has lasted 16 sweet years i BY BRIAN NIELSEN T-C Sports Editor "Eastern was willing to be the step-ping stone.

This former Purdue quarterback who then developed quarterbacks -like Jim Everett, Scott Campbell and Mark Herman was coming to EIU for a year or two, right? R.C. Johnson was Eastern's athletics director who found Bob Spoo to replace winning coach Al Molde, who after a 1986 NCAA Division I-AA quarterfinal berth with quarterback Sean Payton moved on to I-A Western Michigan. "I was just impressed with him as a person," Johnson said this week. "I really was. I liked the fact that he threw the ball around.

I liked the fact that he had high school coaching experience in Chicago. I think the only concern I had was he was coming from a Big Ten school to a school like ours with a limited budget. But he convinced me he was all right with that. "I'd like to tell you when I hired him it would work out like this. I think we all really felt he would be successful but if anyone thought this nationally ranked NCAA I-AA teams Eastern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky or sometime later this season, Spoo is to post his 97th victory to break Charles Lantz's record for wins by an EIU football coach.

Last week he pulled even with Lantz, who was 965-13 in 1911-34 and 1944. Who was to know. "I thought he'd have moved on and I really think he could have moved on," said John Smith, who came to EIU as Spoo's defensive coordinator in 1987 and then after the '97 season moved into the athletics department's administration, "He was kind of like me. He fell in love with the community and (Spoo's daughter) Katie and (wife) Susie were very happy here. If Bob wanted to have been the kind of coach who won and moved on, he could have." But the former Boilermaker was not considering Charleston a quick stop on his way to finding the spotlight of major college coaching.

"I don't think I really did," Spoo said. "I think maybe my wife thought this was going to be a stepping stone. I didn't really think 1 was I AS IUM KES TltK.V ART! IVNSTAKF PI VTTiX IRAPI 11 DU coach Bob Spoo watches the Panthers practice this week. Spoo could surpass the all-time wins record for a football coach at Eastern with a win. would happen, he is probably lying." today in a festive Homecoming set-What is about to happen either ting at O'Brien Stadium matching ggjglllllllllg MA, 0h.

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