Hunting The Mascot

The Fight Is On!

NFL Sets Beijing Matchup

New England and Seattle will embark on a series of events that in one part has not been seen in the modern NFL era and on another a first in the history of the league.

The Patriots and Seahawks will play back-to-back pre-season games in 2007 first in Seattle then a week later in Beijing. Following the first game, both teams will travel together to China in preparation for the game. New England will exercise a NFL rule allowing them to begin camp a week early and also add a 5th game to its pre-season schedule.

The teams will play in the new Olympic Stadium on August 6, 2007 in the innaugural China Bowl.

The Patriots have been had a presence in China for sometime, even mainting a chinese language website for the team. The teams ProShop also carries some chinese language merchandise. Members of the media at the game last nite when the official announcement was made received the sticker below which is also available on the teams website.

Atlantic 10 Week 4 Recap

New Hampshire @ Dartmouth

In New Hampshire’s final non-conference game, the Wildcats scored early and often again to secure a dominant win over the Big Green 56-14. The Wildcats (3-0) were lead by Ricky Santos and David Ball. New Hampshire’s offense is ranked #1 in the country in total offense and scoring offense.

Delaware @ Rhode Island

Delaware needed a comeback win to defeat Rhode Island this week by the score of 24-17. Delaware will next need to find a way to stop the nations top offense, and hope that they can atleast stop one of New Hampshire’s record breaking performances this weekend. David Ball will go into the game needing just 1 touchdown to break the NCAA record, while Ricky Santos needs just 17 yards passing to break the school career record.

Stony Brook @ Massachusetts

Steve Baylark scored three touchdowns to lead Massachusetts to a 48-7 win over Stony Brook on Saturday in the first meeting between the schools.

Massachusetts (3-1, 1-0) faces William & Mary on October 7 after a bye next week.

Other scores:

Bucknell 21 @ Richmond 48
Shaw 12 @ Maine 62
Northeastern 14 @ James Madison 52
Towson 33 @ Hofstra 30
Virginia Military Institute 6 @ William & Mary 38
Villanova 27 @ Pennsylvania 20

Move Over Jerry, Here’s David!

On Saturday afternoon, just before halftime, New Hampshire receiver David Ball leaped in the corner of the endzone and came down scoring a touchdown for the 50th time of his career.

Number 50 was the one that tied him with future NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for the top spot in the NCAA record book. Ball should break the record this upcoming weekend at Delaware, so if your in the area, stop by and catch what should be a very big day in New Hampshire sports history.

Dan Shanoff, who formerly wrote ESPNs Daily Quickie column, today has Ball as an honorary selection on his Heisman ballot. The Union Leader in New Hampshire has a story on Ball today about his record tying performance Saturday. The Boston Globe and Boston.com also had a long story about David prior to the Dartmouth game, in the story they quote Rice as saying, “I’m very excited for him,” says Rice. “To be able to break records like that will mean a lot to him. He worked hard and I wish him the best.”

David Ball Ties Record

David Ball caught 3 touchdown passes to tie Jerry Rice’s NCAA record.

Press coverage of the record thus far.

Yahoo! Sports
ESPN
SI.com
MSNBC
USA Today
CBS SportsLine
Burlington Free Press
KLFY TV-10 California
Team4News Texas
Gadsen Times Alabama
Lexington Dispatch North Carolina
ABC7 Los Angelas
WHBF Illinois
WTNH Connecticut
WAFB Louisiana
WANE Indiana
ABC11 North Carolina
WWAY North Carolina

At this point I will just give publications that have the story as all the articles are from the AP and so are the same.

Sporting News, CSTV, FoxSports, Seattle Post Intelligencer, Houston Cronicle, Kansas.com, MLive.com, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Centre Daily Times, Myrtle Beach Sun, Town Hall, Bradenton Herald, Belleville News-Democrat, Fort Wayne News Sentinell, Charlotte Observer, Miami Herald, San Luis Obispo Tribune, Macon Telegraph, ABCNews, Wilkes Barre Times-Leader, Berkshire Eagle, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, Montery County Herald, Kansas City Star, Times Picayune, Henry Herald, PhillyBurbs.com, Sun-Sentinel, New Albany Tribune, ABC30, Newsday, ABC12, Enid News & Eagle, Niagra Gazette, News-Daily, Norman Transcript, The State, Akron Beacon Journal, Contra Costa Times, Pauls Valley Daily, Kentucky.com, Biloxi Sun Herald, Duluth News Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Terre Haute Tribune Star, Mankato Free Press, 6ABC

-more to come-

Blog Updates

Sorry it has taken so long to get this weeks UNH recap and A-10 recap up on the site, but I have been working on putting together a website for audio links for all I-AA teams, CLICK HERE to see what I have got so far. IF you know any links for teams yet to be linked please message me on AGS or email me HERE.

Atlantic 10 Recap

New Hampshire at Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — Ricky Santos was confident Division I-AA New Hampshire could beat a Big Ten opponent, even on the road.

“All 90 guys in our program felt we could win if we played our game,” Santos said Saturday after leading a convincing 34-17 victory over Northwestern. “And that’s what we did. We played our game.”

Santos scored three touchdowns and threw two TD passes to David Ball as New Hampshire used variety and a no-huddle offense to build a comfortable lead. Then its defense took over by blanking Northwestern in the second half.

Merrimack at Rhode Island

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (AP) — Derek Cassidy rushed for 96 yards and one touchdown and passed for another as Rhode Island beat Merrimack 42-7 on Saturday.

Cassidy opened the scoring with just under eight minutes remaining in the first quarter when he ran 80 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown.

Northeastern at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Maurice Murray rushed for 170 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries to lead Northeastern to a 24-14 victory over Holy Cross on Saturday.

The game was tied 14-14 at halftime, but Huskies’ quarterback Anthony Orio engineered a 20-play, 73-yard drive that took 10:18 off the clock to begin the second half. It culminated in Mat Johnson’s 20-yard field goal that gave Northeastern (1-1) the lead for good.

Massachusetts at Navy

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — When starting quarterback Brian Hampton didn’t get the job done, Navy head coach Paul Johnson went to backup KaipoNoa Kaheaku-Enhada.

Kaheaku-Enhada wasn’t much better, but he was good enough to lead Navy (2-0) to two touchdowns in the 21-20 win over Massachusetts on Saturday.

Navy’s offense fumbled seven times, losing four, and threw an interception, setting up three scores for Massachusetts.

Navy gained just 289 yards, its lowest total since a 2004 loss to Notre Dame, and was bogged down largely by the poor execution of the quarterbacks.

James Madison at Appalachian State

BOONE, N.C. (AP) — Kevin Richardson rushed for a pair of 1-yard touchdowns to lead Appalachian State to a 21-10 win over James Madison on Saturday.

Richardson led Appalachian State’s ground attack with 79 yards on 24 carries. Armanti Edwards added 37 yards and gave the Mountaineers (1-1) a 7-3 lead with a 7-yard touchdown carry late in the first quarter.

Maine at Youngstown State

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Tom Zetts threw three touchdown passes including two to T.J. Peterson to lead Youngstown State to a 34-14 victory over Maine on Saturday night.

Zetts completed 12-of-21 passes for 178 yards with two interceptions. He hit Peterson on scoring passes of 42 and 16 yards and also found former Ohio State tight end Louis Irizarry on a 7-yard touchdown throw.

Hofstra at Marshall

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP)Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 152 yards and four touchdowns as Marshall overcame an early deficit to down Division I-AA Hofstra 54-31 on Saturday.

Marshall (1-1) trailed 14-0 early in the first quarter but didn’t allow Hofstra to score another touchdown until the fourth quarter.

Lehigh at Villanova

VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) — Sedale Threatt threw for 223 yards and two touchdowns and Matt McGowan scored on a 15-yard run late in the fourth quarter as Lehigh rallied to beat Villanova 31-28 on Saturday night, spoiling the Wildcats’ home opener.

Threatt was 18-of-29 and rushed 13 times for 77 yards for Lehigh (1-1). Fran Trovato returned a punt 57 yards for a score and caught an 18-yard TD pass from Threatt, who also found Marques Thompson with an 18-yard scoring strike.

Towson at Elon

ELON, N.C. (AP) — Sean Schaefer completed 25 of 36 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns to help Towson push back Elon 24-17 on Saturday.

The Tigers controlled the first half, marching 79 yards in 7 plays during the opening possession for the game’s first score. Rasheed McClaude rushed 44 yards on three carries and Schaefer connected on 4-of-4 passes capped by a 10-yard touchdown strike to Eric Yancey for a 7-0 lead at the 3:49 mark of the first quarter.

West Chester at Delaware

NEWARK, Del. (AP) — Joe Flacco threw for two touchdowns and ran for another and Delaware beat West Chester 30-7 on Saturday.
Flacco had a hand in three touchdowns for Delaware (1-0) during a six-minute span of the first half, running four yards for one score before throwing 16 yards to Jared Bradley for a second touchdown and 50 yards to Rob Agnone for a third.

Recaps are from the game recaps on Yahoo! Sports.

New Hampshire Plays Big In Evanston

New Hampshire 34, Northwestern 17
Box Score ٠ Recap ٠ Audio

The New Hampshire Wildcats went on the road to open the season and dominated the Big 10’s Northwestern Wildcats for a 34-17 victory. New Hampshire set the tone early scoring 13 points before Northwesterns offense could run an offensive play.

Northwestern led by Freshman Mike Kafka had two impressive scoring drives in the first half, but were held scoreless in the second half by a strong New Hampshire defense.

2005 Payton runnerup Ricky Santos ran for three touchdowns and threw two more to All-American David Ball who’s now within three TD receptions of Jerry Rice’s record.

New Hampshire opens it’s home schedule next Saturday at noon against Stony Brook.