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Sports

Tuesday, September 3, 2013 houstonianonline.com/sports

Rolling out the welcome mat

Bearkats crush Huskies 74-0 in HBU’s first-ever game CONNOR HYDE Sports Editor

Sam Houston State University recorded their fifth highest shutout in school history Saturday against Houston Baptist University, welcoming the NCAA football freshman team with a 74-0 blowout to open the 2013 season. SHSU head coach Willie Fritz said the matchup against the Huskies was the final tune-up to conclude fall training. “Our kids, I thought, learned a lot.” Fritz said. “We can watch the tape and everything else, but if you’re not playing 11-on-11 football it’s hard for them to learn the lessons they need to learn.” Fritz said he kept full-contact scrimmages limited during fall camp and depended on Saturday’s matchup to work-out problems in the defense. “The tough part for us defensively is tackling guys,” he said “We’re going to be able to clean things up in that regard.” Senior wide-receiver Torrance Williams accounted for 187 allpurpose yards with two, 40-plus yard punt returns and 72 yards on the wide-out. Williams kickstarted the offensive air attack with a 66-

Alex Broussard | The Houstonian

SHUT OUT. Bearkat quarterback Brian Bell (middle) walks in the endzone during the first half against the Huskies. Bell accounted for three touchdowns in SHSU’s 74-0 season opener victory.

yard touchdown reception from quarterback Brian Bell to extend SHSU’s first quarter lead 21-0. The receiver said he has to step up to replace former Bearkat receiver Trey Diller on the offensive and special team spectrum. William’s punt returns set up four of SHSU’s 10 touchdowns.

Kassidy Turnpaugh | The Houstonian

“Field position is everything,” Williams said. “Just to be back there, I got to replace Diller from last year, the main thing is to catch everything. The other 10 guys had awesome blocks and I just ran around them.” Fritz sat his starting lineups on both sides of the ball with a 52-0 lead to close out the first half. He said the second half was crucial for young players to clock in playing time. Williams remained in the game to receive HBU’s punts. Redshirt freshmen Stephen Hicks and Don King III recorded their first collegiate touchdowns with a combined 119 rushing yards and two touchdowns in the third quarter. Fritz said King was disappointed after the game with his performance, stemming from a third quarter fumble with two missed passes. Bell said he pushed King and third string quarterback Jared Johnson to focus on the technique

during sideline huddles. “You go out there and you get loose and all that good stuff and you get excited and caught up in the moment sometimes and you just got to think back to practice,” Bell said. “Once they started doing that they were fine.” The three-letter quarterback attributed offensive tempo against a young HBU secondary for maintaining a strong presence in the air. The young Bearkat defensive secondary and front defensive line kept HBU offensive production at a stand-still. The Huskies recorded 90 offensive yards with zero productivity in the second half. Freshmen defensive back Shelby Davis returned a 48 yard interception for touchdown early in the second quarter, after struggling to lock down Husky wide-outs. “We just had to adjust the

game,” Davis said. “We brought the corner and safeties over. Coach wanted to play [the secondary] a different way.” SHSU’s defense recorded 10 tackles for loss, totaling 32 complete yards led by sophomore Tristan Eche. Senior running back Timothy Flanders extended his resume by becoming the all-time leader in the Southland Conference for rushing touchdowns. Flanders recorded a quarter of play time with 51 total yards, complete with a four-yard touchdown run in the first quarter to put SHSU on the board. Flanders is 410 yards shy of becoming the SLC all-time leader in rushing. The Bearkats travel to College Station Saturday to line up against No. 5 Texas A&M for the second consecutive year. Tickets are available online at www. gobearkats.com.

Heart monitor system helps prepare soccer JEREMY VILLANUEVA Contributing Reporter The women’s soccer team implemented a new heart monitoring system last spring to keep track of the workload each player’s training. Now three games into the season, the team has seen positive results from the Polar Electro Team2 Bluetooth system, head coach Tom Brown said. The system allows Brown to objectively monitor the workloads and heart rate each player is putting into training and games; a problem Brown said the team faced last season with pre-game warm-ups. Brown said the pre-game warm-ups were generating larger training loads, which limits peak performances during the games. Brown said his coaching staff reconfigured the team’s pre-game routines to limit stress during warm-ups. “The loads were getting higher than we wanted and we also found the intensities were not getting as high as we wanted,” Brown said. Brown said the intensity is related to the quality of the performance versus workout loads relate to the quantity of weight training and conditioning. The data from the system helps Brown and his assistant coaches, Meredith Flaherty and Keaton Henson, determine what the team needs to do to continue getting better while making sure the team does not exceed their physical capability during workouts. “We can tailor our training sessions based on the information and data we get back to run a shorter or lighter session or know times we can run a heavier fitness

practice,” Flaherty said. “After training sessions, the data is input into the program and we can tell if ‘yes, this player is good to go’ or ‘No, this player is fatigue.’” By monitoring the workload each player is producing, Brown said he is able to compare players and positions and determine who is not reaching their individual performance goal Brown determines. “[We’re] more aware of the workloads on the players so we don’t put too much of a work burden on them,” Flaherty said. The system has also become a motivational tool in making sure the players are playing their best. Sophomore forward Shelby McDaniel said it keeps the team from falling behind in their work on the field. “We have training sometimes where [Brown] will call us out and say like ‘Shelby, you’re not working hard enough,’” McDaniel said. “There’s no way to hide. You have to constantly work your butt off.” McDaniel also said that it keeps players from slacking off away from the field because the team has to constantly maintain their fitness. She added the system allows players to stay in game day shape, without working players too hard. “We can’t be overworked and we have to prevent injury,” she said. “It works both ways; to train you hard and also to protect you and get better too.” McDaniel said the team looks to continue to get positive results this season from Brown’s system. The Bearkats soccer squad squares off against the University of North Texas in Denton on Friday, before returning to Huntsville to face Prairie View A&M University on Sunday.

Check out the recap of the most recent Women’s Soccer game on www.HoustonianOnline.com

Photo by Alex Broussard |The Houstonian (left) and courtesy the Daily Reveille (right)

INTO TIGER TERRITORY. Sam Houston State University athletics announced in August the match-up between LSU and SHSU in September 2014.

Bearkats to face LSU in 2014 MARISSA HILL Sports Reporter The Bearkats will square off against a new SEC opponent in 2014 when they travel to Baton Rouge, La., to play Louisiana State University, the Sam Houston State University athletic department confirmed August 21. The game will be played in the newly-renovated Tiger Stadium with a capacity of nearly 100,000. SHSU head coach Willie Fritz said playing NCAA Top 25 teams helps compare his squad against teams of higher caliber. The Bearkats are familiar with squaring up against FBS teams as they will face No. 7 Texas

A&M for the second consecutive season. “Our guys will be used to playing in front of a huge crowd and great competition,” Fritz said. The Bearkats lost 28-47 against the Aggies in 2012. LSU finished last season with a 10-3 record, falling to Clemson University in the Chick-fil-ABowl, following their previous bowl defeat in 2012 during the BCS National Championship against Alabama University. The Tigers enter the 2013 season ranked 12th in the Associated Press preseason poll. SHSU and LSU have faced each other in the past 20 years in different sport venues. Men’s basketball lost to LSU 67-

85 in 1999 compared to women’s basketball 0-2 against the Tigers, who last played them in 2003. Bearkat volleyball has faced the Tigers in seven matches, but not since 1986. Bearkat softball has had the most success, with a 3-2 record, last beating the Tigers 1-0 in 2009. This June, SHSU baseball fell against the Tigers in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional 5-8. The Southland Conference did not want to comment about the 2014 matchup and how it affects the conference. LSU head football coach Les Miles and athletic director Joe Alleva were not available for comment.


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