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Sports desk: 647-3336
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U
U
.e Good,
t e Bad and
the Ugly
coow
On the second play
of the third quarter
wide receiver Tai
Streets caught a
quick slant from
Brian Griese and
*d 41 yards for a
touchdown.
* Glen Steele and
IaMes Hall led a
Mlchigan contingent
that held Irish tail-
bpck Autry Denson to
no gain on a fourth-
and-two play late in
the fourth quarter.
fter a Jason
on punt pinned
Notre Dame on its
own two-yard line,
the Irish marched the
length of the field
and scored a go-
ahead touchdown
with just 18 seconds
left before halftime.
T ight end Aaron
a coughed up the
football after making
a one-handed catch
in the fourth quarter.
Ronnie Nicks
jarred the ball out of
Russell Shaw's hands
after a six-yard
reception.
N Brain Griese and
Chris Floyd flubbed a
off and Jimmy
Way recovered at
the Michigan 28-yard
line.
Blue nearly
gives away
come-from-
behind win
By John Lao
Daily Sports Editor
It was almost as if the Wolverines wanted the
test. They started sluggish, they ended sloppy.
They looked good in the middle.
Beaten by the Fighting Irish through the first
Michigan 21
Notre Dame 14
a "gut-checked" defense
two quarters,
Michigan had its
doubts at halftime.
But the Wolverines
persevered, thanks to
, after nearly giving the
game away.
But, No. 6 Michigan held on for a 21-14 victo-
ry over Notre Dame on Saturday despite fumbles
in its own territory on three consecutive posses-
sions in the fourth quarter.
"It was very disturbing," Michigan tailback
Chris Howard said. "We'd get one good play and
make something happen, and then the next play,
we'd make a mental error and fumble the ball.
"That's something you can't do to yourself or
your defense. We could really have sustained a
drive and put this team out of the game, and we
didn't."
Instead the Wolverines (3-0) left it to their
defense. All three times, the Michigan defense,
burned for two long drives in the first half, stopped
the Irish (1-3) short of the end zone.
Free safety Tommy Henricks picked off a Ron
Powlus pass in the end zone after the first fumble
and the Wolverines stuffed Autry Denson on a
fourth-and-two dive with 3:30 left in the game.
See IRISH, Page 4B
SARA STILLMAN/Daily
Tailback Clarence Williams outruns Notre Dame cornerback Ty Goode in the first quarter of Michigan's 21-14 victory over the Fighting Irish.
Mattison takes his medicine in return
Back from a one-game
suspension, Michigan
fullback Chris Floyd
celebrates the game-
winning touchdown,
his 17-yard run In the
third-quarter. Floyd
Opned just 41 yards
on the day, but
Michigan quarterback
Brian Griese said
Floyd's blocking,
receiving and running
make him the
Wolverines' "most
valuable player of
offense."
WARREN ZINN/Daity
Revenge is a difficult emotion to
lasso. You don't go into a situation
bragging about the humiliation
you're about to inflict on your offender. But
at the same time, revenge often evokes such
intense feelings that it is often impossible
to suppress - or even slightly mask -
them.
Michigan had revenge on its mind
Saturday. Not from a prior defeat or any-
thing that happened on the field.
The true leader of Michigan's team last
year never scored a point, never made a
tackle, nor did he even play a down on
either side of the ball. What made him the
leader was his ability to motivate an aspect
of the team that was too young, too small,
and not expected to play anywhere close to
the level it did, and made it one of the
nation's best.
And after pulling off that near-miracu-
lous achievement, he defected from the
Last December, with
Michigan still riding
high after its most
spirited victory of the
season, a 13-9 come-
from-behind triumph
in Columbus, Greg
Mattison, the
Wolverines' defensive
coordinator, the man
chiefly responsible for
the recruitment and
subsequent molding of
the mainstays of
team late in the season and this weekend
was the Wolverines' first opportunity to
exact retribution on him.
ALAN
GOLDENBACH
The Bronx
Bomber
appearance in the Outback Bowl less than
three weeks away.
Walking away was strike one.
Strike two was Mattison taking the same
job he had at Michigan somewhere else.
The final strike was where he went,
South Bend, the second-most heinous place
for any Michigan man to go. A place where
anyone who comes to Michigan is taught to
seethe at upon mention of the words.
When Mattison came to Michigan in
1992, it was his seventh position in his 17-
year coaching career. Obviously, Mattison's
ties to Michigan weren't as tight as those of
Bo Schembechler or Lloyd Carr.
But to leave a group of players, whose
trust in you became so strong, in midseason
for the same job at a vicious rival? That's a
low blow. It's like cheating on your spouse
with their best friend, regardless of the
tenure of the relationship.
See GOLDENBACH, Page 5B
Michigan's awesome defense - Jarrett
Irons, William Carr, Charles Woodson,
Marcus Ray and David Bowens - from
high-school standouts into stellar colle-
gians, walked away from the team with its
Wolverines hang on
to share of 1st place
Blue makes history
with win over Iowa
By Jacob R. Wheeler
Daily Sports Writer
tour goals should be enough to sur-
vive a Big Ten soccer game, but the
Wolverines almost let one slip away
yesterday.
But instead of collapsing,
Michigan held off Northwestern to
retmain undefeated and hold on to a
share of first place in the conference.
Michigan piled up a 4-0 halftime
lead, but played a lackluster second
.4If and held on to win, 5-3. The
Idcats lashed back and clawed
their way to within two goals but
Michigan used a one-player advan-
tage - courtesy of a first half
Northwestern red card - to hold on
to its seventh-consecutive victory.
No. 15 Michigan (4-0 Big Ten, 9-1
overall) blanked Wisconsin 6-0 on
'. a.; f an.. ic.int nnntr AJ
and came out way more inspired,"
Michigan coach Debbie Belkin said.
"We were kind of flat and they caught
us on our heels."
Down four goals, Northwestern
completely changed the momentum
of the game in the second half, virtu-
ally controlling the ball for the first
10 minutes of the stanza. Senior
Stephanie Erickson put the Wildcats
on the board with a penalty kick only
three minutes into the half.
"We agreed to handle it one goal at
a time in the second half,"
Northwestern coach Marcia
McDermott said. "We made a minor
adjustment pulling an extra player
forward and just decided to go for it
all."
Northwestern's fully offensive-
geared strategy paid off as sopho-
,m,.P Fri.n WPurmiroh tae n nother
By Kurt New
For the Daily
The Michigan field hockey team
made history on Friday by beating the
Iowa Hawkeyes for the first time ever.
The 2-1 win was the first in 32 tries for
the Wolverines.
As if that weren't enough, Michigan
showed there would be no letdown after
the historic victory, beating
Northwestern 2-1, yesterday, to up their
Big Ten record to 2-0.
What made the victory over Iowa
even more monumental was the fact
that the Hawkeyes had not lost a con-
ference game since 1994. As the final
whistle blew, Michigan players stormed
the field in a wild celebration that was
32 games in the making. Amid the joy-
ous screams and yells in the back-
arnund senior midfielder Julie Flachs
they've been holding us back," Flachs
said. "I can't even put this victory into
words. I'm about to start crying I'm so
happy."
While not as historic as the victory
over Iowa, the win against
Northwestern was also no walk in the
park, as the Wildcats battled Michigan
to a scoreless tie at the end of the first
half. But Michigan came out with
renewed intensity to start the second
and quickly took control of the game.
"When we're tied or ahead by one at
halftime we focus on winning the sec-
ond half and not letting up at all,"
Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz said.
Michigan's intensity finally was
rewarded when Lindsay Babbitt
slapped a shot past the goal line after a
mad scramble in front of the
Northwestern net with lust under 28
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