ahe £irbiguu])ailg Sports desk: 647-3336 1 i: 3 11 1 1 1 . . _ _ . . . . . _ - _ 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 I - - ,