SANDALS: BIG TE BLUES HIT HARD, PAGE 2B
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UThe Michigan Daily I michigandaily corn( September 15, 2008
HOW LOW7
NOTRE DAME 35, MICHIGAN 17
QB and
RB
shine
By DAN.FELDMAN
Daily Sports Editor
SOUTH BEND - Most of the Michigan
football players somberly walked through
the tunnel of Notre Dame Stadium after
Saturday's loss to the Fighting Irish, but a
few talked with each other as they turned
toward the locker room.
"Anybody got something to bitch
about?" Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez
barked at them as he jogged past.
About an hour later, Rodriguez sat in
the first row of the Wolverines' bus with
his hand under his chin, leaning forward
and frowning. He looked about as unhap-
py as could be after his team's loss in a
highly charged rivalry game.
But even though the Wolverines turned
the ball over six times in the 35-17 loss to
the Fighting Irish, Rodriguez may have
found his quarterback and running back.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Ste-
ven Threet played with poise, leading the
Wolverines to 330 total yards when he was
behind center. Michigan averaged just 242
total yards in its first two games.
And freshman running back Sam
McGuffie had 60 percent of the Wolver-
ines' rushing attempts Saturday. He led
the team in attempts in its first two games,
but never had a majority of the attempts.
McGuffie ran successfully inside and
out,butusually tried to bounce to the edge.
The 5-foot-11, 185-pound back showed
See THREET, Page 4B
Ffth-year senior safety Charles Stewart attempts to tackle Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate in Saturday's loss at Notre Dame Stadium..
Fumbles ruin road debut
By COURTNEY RATKOWIAK
Daily Sports Editor
SOUTH BEND - Another fumble
shouldn't have been a surprise. The
sight had started to become familiar -
at least, about as familiar as witnessing
seven Michigan fumbles in one game
could be.
Butlate in the third quarter, the Wol-
verines were five yards away from pull-
ing within four points of Notre Dame
when it happened again.
The ball was forced out of running
back Kevin Grady's arms and bounced
away on the soggy turf, starting a five-
second free-for-all.
Notre Dame cornerback Terrail
Lambert, arms outstretched, dove for
and almost grabbed the ball. Michigan
wide receiver Greg Mathews trapped it
under his chest for half a second before sive plays.
it popped loose again, ricocheting away Fromtwo consecutive fumbled kickoff
from the pile of sprawled-out players returns in the game's first 10 minutes to
toward the Fighting backup quarterback
Irish sideline. Nick Sheridan's
And then Notre two consecutive
Dame safety Ser- "It waS interceptions in
gio Brown real- the last 10 minutes,
ized nobody was a nwg htmare," Michigan consis-
around the ball, ran tently looked sloppy
over and grabbed it, Rodriguez said in its 35-17 loss to
untouched. * the Fighting Irish
"It was a night- Saturday at Notre
mare," Michigan Dame Stadium.
coach Rich Rodri- After the Fight-
guez said about the game. ing Irish had four fumbles in last week-
And the statistics were just as fright- end's opener against San Diego State,
ening. Six turnovers (including four the Irish were all too happy to quickly
lost fumbles). Seven penalties for 79 capitalize on Michigan's mistakes.
yards. Twenty-one Notre Dame points "All over the locker room and in all
allowed in just seven first-quarter offen- of our meetings, last night, this morn-
ing and before we went out, is turnovers
were going to determine the outcome
of the game," Notre Dame coach Char-
lie Weis said. "Fortunately, we won the
turnover ratio fairly significantly."
The Wolverines looked out-of-sorts
from the opening kickoff. The ball hit
freshman cornerback Boubacar Cissoko
andbouncedaway, leavinghimspinning
around in confusion.
That mistake didn't cost Michigan
the ball, but on the same drive, running
back Brandon Minor dropped a lateral
pass that was recovered by the Fighting
Irish at the Michigan 11-yard line.
Fifty seconds and one Notre Dame
touchdown later, the Wolverines again
fumbled the kickoff - but this time, the
ball hit freshman running back Michael
Shaw and was scooped up by Notre
See IRISH, Page 4B
RODRIGO GAYA/Daily
Freshman Sam McGuffie separated himself as
the No.1 running back with 131 rushing yards.
L I;
.Fuzetti sparks
Wolverines
Bauer ties school
record as Michigan
wins home tourney
By NICOLE AUERBACH
DailySports Writel'
SALINE - The Michiganmen's
soccer team missed its spark plug.
After scoring a thrilling game-
winning goal last weekend to
defeatSanDiegoStateinovertime,
junior forward Mauro Fuzetti
received a red card in the team's
double-overtime tie on Sept. 7.
The penalty forced him to sit
out Michigan's next game - Fri-
day's 4-1 loss to No. 16 Illinois-
Chicago.
But yesterday was a different
story.
Michigan (4-1-1) edged Buf-
falo, 2-1, thanks to another
game-winner by Fuzetti, scored
with just 6:16 left in the contest.
Fuzetti pulled off his jersey and
ran around in the torrential rain
after his shot into the right side of
.the net.
"It's always exciting after sit-
ting out a game," Fuzetti said. "I
wanted to get back out there and
help my team out."
Fuzetti seemed rusty at the
start of the game, leading Michi-
gan coach Steve Burns to bench
him for a while. Burns said he was
waiting for Fuzetti to prove he
deserved to be on the field after
his red card - a wait that took.
almost 84 minutes.
With just over 12 minutes left
in Sunday's game,; Buffalo con-
nected on a free kick to tie the
game.A deflated Michigan crowd,
already soaked from the constant
rain, braced for overtime.
"To be honest, I expected that
we'd play better today coming off
a real solid beating by UIC," Burns
said. "They did respond. A win is
a win at this point. They had the
legs of pianos and the hearts of
lions to figure that one out."
one thing that remained con-
stant through the two games was
the less-than-ideal weather.
On Friday, the Wolverines
played through light rain at their
temporary home in Ypsilanti and
By ROGER SAUERHAFT.
For theDaily
Though 13 teams and 75 women
participated in the 19th Wolver-
ine Invitational, the tournament
belonged to Wolverines junior
Ashley Bauer.
After rain completely wiped
away the 36-hole first day on Satur-
day, the tournament was reduced
to just 18 holes yesterday rather
than the usual 54. ominous clouds
on Sunday held off just long enough
for players to finish. In the 18-hole
format, the Wolverines were vic-
torious with an aggregate score of
293, highlighted by a career day for
co-captain Bauer.
After making par on the first.
two holes, Bauer did something
on the 505-yard third hole that
she wouldn't do the entire rest of
the day: make a bogey. Bauer then
locked in, making the turn at one-
under-par and finishing her day
at three-under. The Grand Blanc
native hit a near-flawless 16 out
of 18 greens in regulation and tied
the Michigan school record of 68, a
record shared by four others.
After a tap-in on 18 as the rain
picked up, Bauer walked off the
green to embrace her father. She
called this round one of the high-
points in her golf career.
"I've never shot in the 60s
before, but, after the seventh hole,
I just started rolling," Bauer said.
"I played almost perfect today,
minus those first three holes. I def-
initely could have made some putts
out there, the back nine especially,
but I couldn't have hit the ball any
better today."
Although she may have hit the
ball as well as she ever has, Bauer
showed the potential to score sig-
nificantly lower than her record-
tying 68. She estimated that she
had put at least 10 approach shots
See BAUER, Page 6B
suffered their first loss of the sea-
son.
The bright red UIC jerseys
stood out against the dark gray
clouds hovering around the game.
The Flames struck first, just over
eight minutes into the game, with
a goal off a deflected shot.
After a controversial penalty
kick was awarded for a handball
five minutes into the second half,
UIC added another goal. Less
than two minutes after that, the
still-reeling Wolverines gave up a
third marker.
"We 'tried to build that up
for our team as a real statement
game," Burns said. "There's dis-
appointment, but it's the lessons
in the loss that they have to take
- those are the big things."
See MEN'S SOCCER, Page 2B
A