A SORROWFUL SOCCER WEEKEND The Michigan women's soccer team lost to Wisconsin, while the men's team fell to Michigan State in overtime. PAGE 9B SHARAD MATTU: Steve Breaston struggles after great first year. PAGE 4B The SportsWednesday Column SPORTS October 20, 2004 1B Mcign 0,dwBade Michigan 30, ------------------------ Ground control Hart crucial to future 'M' success BOB HUNT Unleashed CHAMPAIGN - Most run- ning backs are commended for breaking tackles. But Mike Hart goes beyond breaking tackles. Mike Hart breaks piles. As Michigan earned possession, trailing by one in the third quarter, Hart took the ball and looked like he was going to be taken down in the backfield. With two Fighting Illini defenders after him, Hart pushed through the heap and broke free. A few yards later, he was met by another group. He got through them, too. All of a sudden, what was supposed to be a two-yard loss became an eight- yard gain. What's truly amazing, though, is that these occurrences have become routine. On a day when the Michigan passing game was subpar, the 5-foot-9 true freshman carried the offense. He juked by and bowled over defenders all day, carrying the ball 40 times for 239 yards. He broke the Michigan freshman running record which he set - last week. "He wants the football," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "It's an amaz- ing thing." At this time last year, Hart was the king of the central New York high school football world. He broke the national high school record for touch- downs, but competed in the Empire State's smallest division. Because of his lack of height and prep competi- tion, many critics outside the program thought that he was going to redshirt. But Hart has become a corner- stone of the Michigan offense, and his importance will only continue to increase during the regular season's final four games. The Wolverines face two road games that will decide the fate of their season in West Lafay- ette and Columbus. Against Purdue, the Wolverines are going to have to keep quarterback Kyle Orton and his offense off the field. Against Ohio State, they are going to have to wear down the Buckeye defense. That is something that Chad Henne, Braylon Edwards and the rest of the Michigan passing attack will be unable to do. While Henne has made incred- ible strides and should receive praise for how he has stepped into the starting role, he cannot be expected to carry the team. As a freshman quarterback, he can't be expected to be consistent every week while he's developing. One can figure that if the Wolverines find themselves up a touchdown next Sat- urday with six minutes to go, that there will be no hesitation as to who will be getting the ball. While Hart is still developing as a running back, he has shown over the past few weeks that he and the line can control the ball and the offense. In fact, during the first four games of the Big Ten season, Hart has run for 155 yards more than Chris Perry did dur- ing the same stretch last year against the same four teams. And Perry was a senior and Heisman Trophy finalist. On Saturday, Henne's timing was off See HUNT, Page 4B JEFF LEHNERT/Daily Mike Hart, above, ran for 234 yards on 40 carries, while second-half interceptions by Marlin Jackson, bottom left, and Scott McClntock, bottom right, fueled Michigan's comeback. Defense keys comeback By Sharad Mattu Daily Sports Editor CHAMPAIGN - With wind gusts of up to 35 mph wreaking havoc on Michi- gan's passing attack, Illinois had plenty of reasons to dream of an upset at halftime on Saturday. It had intercepted a pair of passes and scored 17 points on its last three possessions of the first half to take a 17-10 lead into the locker room. But in the second half, the Wolverines did what they've always done, whether it was a century ago or a week and a half ago against Minnesota. With a persistent running attack that wore down the Fight- ing Illini and a stifling defense that forced three interceptions and two punts in the second half, Michigan pulled away from Illinois to win 30-19. "I'm very pleased with our team in the second half after getting down, mak- ing so many mistakes and not tackling particularly well," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "The good news for us in the second half was we came out and got an early turnover, then got the lead, which is exactly what you want to do on the road." The Wolverines' ground game was led by Mike Hart, who - at 5-foot-9 and 194 pounds - is making the premise that he's too small for Big Ten football more and more laughable each week. After set- ting a Michigan freshman record against the Golden Gophers with 160 yards, Hart ran 40 times - fourth-most in Michigan history - and amassed 234 yards, which puts him in a tie for the program's seventh- highest rushing total. He had four runs between 25 and 32 yards and ran for a four- yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. "We started getting to the outside a little bit more," said Hart of Michigan's halftime adjustments. "They were play- ing really tight since we had been trying to run the ball inside a lot, so we opened it up in the second half and tried to get to the corners." Michigan's defense also stepped up. It won the turnover battle for the first time in three games. If the momentum wasn't in Illinois' favor at halftime, it definitely was when Michigan failed to convert on fourth down to open the third quarter. But three plays later, linebacker Scott McClintock inter- cepted a pass from quarterback Jon Beutjer to give Michigan the ball at the 6-yard line. Two plays later, the Wolverines scored. After Michigan scored touchdowns on its next two drives to take a 30-17 lead, Illinois marched down field to the 30-yard line and appeared to be in position to score. But on third down, Beutjer dared to throw at cornerback Marlin Jackson and paid the price, as the captain's interception basi- cally put the game away with just over five minutes left in the game. Illinois drove down the field one more time with two minutes left, but McClintock registered his second interception of the game, this time in the endzone. Penalty shot gives Blue boost in win 0 MENS BASKETBALL Cagers ready to meet expectations By Ryan Sosin Daily Sports Writer Thirteen minutes into the second period of Saturday's 5-2 win over St. Lawrence, Yost ti Ice Arena erupted in anticipation for what it was about u w Mst4 to see. Everyone 1CG 4 in the arena knew what was about to happen - except senior winger Jason Ryznar. After jumping out of the penalty box, Despite being up 2-1, No. 3 Michi- gan needed to build up a lead to protect against its chronic inconsistency. As the Yost crowd began to simmer over, Ryznar took off from center ice on the first penal- ty shot of his life. He juked slightly to the left before ripping a shot under St. Law- rence goalie Mike McKenna's blocker, sending Yost into another frenzy. "Ryznar's penalty shot was - that was a real one on one - that was huge." Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I thought it was the turning point in the game. He went in and beat the goalie By Brian Schick Daily Sports Editor If expectations for the Michigan bas- ketball team reached a fever pitch last sea- son, the sky seems to be the limit for this year's team. In the season after having the ban on playing postseason games lifted, Michigan just missed making the NCAA Tournament last year. But the Wolverines made the most of the postseason oppor- tunity by winning the NIT and raising a new banner in Crisler Arena. so we're going to do whatever we can to make the NCAA Tournament." One of the most important steps in taking the next step towards making the NCAA Tournament is improving the team's consistency, particularly on the road. After a win against Purdue at home last season, the Wolverines went on the road to Minneapolis and lost to a winless Minnesota team. Coach Tommy Amaker feels that in order to be successful this sea- son, lapses like that cannot take place.. "If we can be consistent and we can get w