GM dropping zero percent financing Business B6 Sports JOURNAL AND COURIER SPORTS EDITOR D. STAFFORD Phone 420-5235 Fax 420-5246 E-mail Journal and Courier online: www.jconline.com prop Gene Keady roast EZZJ Bird says yes to Cardinal on Great Wall By Jeff Washburn Journal and Courier Brian Cardinal's small Tonight 6 p.m. Banquet and Gene Keady roast at West Lafayette's Cumberland Place Exhibition Center, 1780 Cumberland Ave. Note: Banquet tickets $50 each or $400 for a table of 10 may be purchased tonight at the Cumberland Place Exhibition Center doors. 1 1 town roots haven't curbed a natural flair for the dramatic.
Cardinal asked former Bird Cardinal women's player Danielle Bird to marry him two weeks ago Inside B4 Lavin torn between two basketball reunions daily enjoyed spending time with Cardinal and others who've played for Keady during the past 15 years. Lewis Indiana's 1984 co-Mr. Basketball from Anderson lives in Dayton, Ohio, where he is a sales rep for Victory Wholesale Grocers. "This is a great thing," Lewis said. "I wish we could do this more often.
It's good to see everybody older guys like Sichting and younger guys like Cardinal, Miller and Carson Cunningham. "It's a family thing, and when you play basketball at Purdue, you feel like you are part of one big family." when the couple visited China's Great Wall. The engagement was a popular topic of conversation Friday during the Purdue Men's Basketball Family Reunion golf outing. tons, invited longtime girlfriend Bird to accompany him. When she accepted, he determined the Great Wall would be the perfect site for a marriage proposal.
Bird was a member of Purdue's 1999 NCAA championship team. Cardinal was among approximately 160 golfers who participated in Friday's Florida Scramble at the Birck Boilermaker Complex. The event whose proceeds benefit the Lyn Treece Boys and Girls Club included a "player auction." Cardinal, Indiana Pacers center Brad Miller, former NBA guard Jerry Sichting and Keady were auctioned as more lives than just the basketball players. He has influenced the fans and everybody associated with Purdue. This is an unbelievable tribute to him." Cardinal, the 6-foot-8 forward who has one year remaining on a contract that pays him approximately $500,000 a season, is hoping for a breakout season with his vastly improved NBA team.
"It's just a matter of plugging away and waiting for an opportunity," Cardinal said. "I'm waiting for a shot. Hopefully, I will get it this upcoming year. "We improved drastically from my first year to my second. I'm hoping we can make a huge jump during this coming season.
For me, it's about getting a chance, and once I get that chance, taking advantage of it." Former Purdue standout Troy Lewis, who played for Keady from 1984-88, espe- The Tolono, 111., native and bonus players for four foursomes. At $1,400, Cardinal's company was the most aggressively sought. Miller went for $800, Keady for $650 and Sichting for $450. "It's a wonderful event," Cardinal said of the reunion. The 'Fastbreakers' have done a great job raising money.
They're doing all of this for one man Gene Keady. "It shows he has influenced former Boilermaker spent two weeks in China as a goodwill ambassador representing the NBA Players' Cardinal, entering his third season with the Detroit Pis IT fj JU fr n. It ft American League Boston 4, Anaheim 1 Texas 6, N.Y.Yankees 2 Oakland 9, Detroit 1 Baltimore 1 1 Toronto 7 Cleveland 4, Seattle 2 Minnesota 9, Kansas City 2 Tampa Bay 8, White Sox 2 National League Houston 6, Cincinnati 4 Pittsburgh 6, Milwaukee 3 Philadelphia 5, St. Louis 4 (14) Colorado 10, N.Y. Mets 4 San Diego 18, Florida 2 Arizona 3, Chicago Cubs 2 Los Angeles 4, Atlanta 3 Montreal at San late See roundup, Page B2 Wisconsin rallies past Fresno State MADISON, Wis.
Bernard Berrian didn't stick around long enough to burn Wisconsin again. With Berrian sidelined by an injury, Mike Allen's 34-yard field goal with 2:05 left gave the 25th-ranked Badgers a 23-21 victory over Fresno State on Friday night in the second annual John Thompson Foundation Classic. Sophom*ore strong safety Jim Leonhard, the anchor of the Badgers' retooled secondary, had two interceptions and added a game-saving breakup on the Bulldog's last-gasp pass. On fourth-and-19 from his 41, Fresno State quarterback Jeff Grady, who replaced David Carr, the top pick in the NFL draft, threw a laser pass that Leonhard knocked from Marque Davis' hands. Otherwise, the Bulldogs would have had a first down at the 35 and a chance for their second straight victory at Camp Randall Stadium.
Last year, Berrian racked up 300 all-purpose yards against the Badgers and it was his 96-yard touchdown return of the second-half kickoff that sparked the Bulldogs to a 32-20 victory, one of the biggest in school history. He was off to another fine start Friday night when he sprained his right knee on the final play of the first quarter and didn't return. i A 7 4 v. a McCutcheon overcomes slow start in 55-27 victory Tr. "ifr J- V.
fl I H. i' 4 .1 1 A -p sin 11 I. 4 JJi 1 TODAY'S GAMES By Frank OliverJournal and Courier ON THE RUN: McCutcheon's Andy Ferrer (left) congratulates Curtis Asay after Asay rushed for 142 yards and scored five touchdowns Friday night against Lafayette Jeff at Crawley Field. Showdown at Jeff matched pregame hype Friday night's McCutcheon-at-Lafayette Jeff season opener arguably arrived with as much anticipation as couple of Big Ten schools. There were a handful of other top season openers last night namely No.
1 Ben Davis (Class 5A) against No. By Mike Carmin Journal and Courier Lost in the hype of all the talented high school football players in Friday night's showdown between McCutcheon and Lafayette Jeff was a 160-pound running back named Curtis Asay. Asay stole the spotlight, outshining Division I prospects Clayton Richard, Mike Vlahogeorge, Dustin Keller and Kelly Martin in the much-anticipated 2002 season opener. The 5-foot-10 Asay scored five touchdowns as the Class 4A third-ranked Mavericks ran away from the Bronchos 55-27 before an overflow crowd of 4,123 at Crawley Field. Asay gained 142 yards on 18 carries, and caught five passes for 77 yards as McCutcheon beat Jeff for the fourth straight year.
Asay also had two kickoff returns of 45 and 61-yards to give the Mavericks excellent field position. "He looks like he's stopped, but then he's going again," McCutcheon coach Kevin O'Shea said. "A lot of people thought our running game would be hurting, but we knew it wasn't going to be. He did better than expected." Thanks to a powerful offensive line, Asay had plenty of room to run against the undermanned Broncho defense. Once the Mavericks settled into a rhythm on offense, Asay became the star of the night.
"We weren't having a good passing game right off the bat, and the line just picked it up," said Asay, who had touchdown runs of 9, 6, 27, 10 and 9-yards. "They opened up some big holes, and I just wiggled through some of them." Asay said the openings created by the offensive line paved the way for a success ful night. "The holes were some of the biggest I've seen," Asay said. "They got the linebackers blocked too, and after that, it was easy running." The question on offense for the Mavericks this season was finding a replacement for the departed Neal Stall, who carried the rushing load last season. "We knew how good a running back Curtis is," said Richard, who completed 16 of 24 passes for 181 yards.
"He's a great kid. Every play, he goes 110 percent and never takes a play off." Jeff struck quickly in the first quarter as Vlahogeorge connected with Justin Russell on a 24-yard touchdown pass and hit Dustin Keller with a 12-yard pass for a 14-Olead. A pair of Asay touchdown runs tied the game early in the second quarter, starting a string of 35 points in 12:59 for the Mavericks, who held a 35-27 halftime advantage. Richard threw a TD pass to Kelly Martin, and two more Asay scores rounded McCutcheon's points. The Mavericks rushed for 257 yards on 39 carries.
"It took us about a quarter to get used to Jeff's speed," O'Shea said. "What won out was we were able to wear them out up front. Our defensive line was able to get pressure to where we didn't have to blitz and take ourselves out of coverage." Down by two touchdowns early didn't faze the Mavericks. "It has a lot to do with our seniors," said Richard, who completed 9 of 11 passes for 111 yards in the second half. "We knew we had to hang in there the first quarter.
We finally got clicking, and our defense played excellent in the second half." See MAYS, Page B2 Texas Tech at Ohio State 1:30 p.m. TV: ABC New Mexico at N.C. State 3 p.m. Arizona State at Nebraska 6:45 p.m. TV: ESPN Florida State vs.
Iowa State (at Kansas City) 7:30 p.m. TV: Fox Sports Chicago Gordon wins pole for tonight's race any area high school regular season 6 Cathedral (Class 4A) and a couple of Class 5A powers, No. 2 Valparaiso versus No. 3 Penn. But on this night, the Mavericks and the Bronchos didn't, have to take a backseat to anyone.
While both O'Shea and Kutruff said they like the game being the opener, because a football game recent memory. The matchup seemingly had it all. McCutcheon entered the game ranked No. 3 in the Class 4A preseason poll. The game featured two of the state's top quarterbacks in McCutcheon senior Clayton Richard and Jeff junior Mike Vlahogeorge both attracting Tom Kubat Columnist quality opponent gets their Friday's area results LOCAL Central Catholic 21 Whiting 7 Harrison 36, West Lafayette 6 McCutcheon 55, Lafayette Jeff 27 AREA Riverton Parke 34, Attica 0 Benton Central 40, Tri-County 0 Carroll 45, Northwestern 38 Clinton Central 48, Taylor 14 Clinton Prairie 24, Frontier 7 Covington 13, South Newton 0 Crawfordsville 14, North Putnam 7 Delphi 32, Cass 8 Southmont 19, Fountain Central 6 Frankfort 14, Western 7 Zionsville 17, North Montgomery 6 Rensselaer 33, North Newton 7 North White 33, Indiana Deaf 0 Seeger46, Rockville 14 Twin Lakes 39, Peru 16 Culver Community 32, West Central 20 Inside B2 Defense fuels Central Catholic Twin Lakes dominates Peru State scoreboard Jeff Gordon, winless in 31 straight races, took the first step toward ending his drought Friday by winning the pole for the Sharpie 500.
Gordon ran a lap in the No. 24 Chevrolet around Bristol Motor Speedway at 124.034 mph to earn the top starting spot for tonight's race. See story, Page B3 NFL training camp updates online attention from major college scouts. But the individual talent didn't end with the quarterbacks. A pair of senior wide receivers, Jeff's Dustin Keller and McCutcheon's Kelly Martin, received scholarship offers on the same day this summer from Western Michigan.
McCutcheon coach Kevin O'Shea predicts that before the season is over that his two senior behemoth offensive tackles, 6-foot-8, 300-pound Matt Winger and 6-6, 270-pound Chris Holle, will have college recruiters knocking on their doors. Jeff coach Fred Kutruff says his two wingbacks, Justin Russell and Dan Schultz, have received letters from a kids' attention right out of the gate, they want to focus on their respective conference races later in the season. But based on Friday's performance, it's too bad these two teams couldn't meet at midseason after they've had a chance to work out some of the kinks. Most season openers are a bit ragged, and this one was penalty flag-infested and both defenses were tackling challenged. While both teams feature run-and-shoot offenses, the difference in McCutcheon's 55-27 victory was that the Bronchos were all shoot and no run, while the Mavericks displayed a balanced attack.
See KUBAT, Page B2 Visit jconline.com for a link to daily training camp reports including news of note, fea tures, columns and statistics on all 32 NFL Lata sir Me ifil Hit liiN teams. Inside "I knew our line was really yards 13.03 yards a carry. If those numbers don't grab your attention, try this one. At halftime, West Lafayette had By Jeff Washburn Journal and Courier By anyone's standards, the Harrison offense's opening night num High school football B2 Baseball B3 Auto racing B3 Sports in brief B3 Scoreboard B4 TV listings Question of the week bers are staggering. But considering the Raider football team is coming off a 2-8 season, its statistical output borders on remarkable.
Senior running back Russell Sherman carried 13 times for 271 yards and two ft run 34 plays to Harrison's 17. Yet the Raiders enjoyed a 23-6 lead. Harrison added a pair of fourth quarter TDs to complete the romp. "I kept running, and the yards kept piling up," said Sherman, who finished the 2001 season with 714 rushing yards. "I had one for 20, pumped up," Sherman said.
"They were ready to go. They've improved all summer, and in this game, they were just great. They knocked (West Lafayette) around all game." Each of Harrison's five touchdowns including Troy Layton's 98-yard kickoff return covered at least 19 yards. West Lafayette actually led 6-3 on Matt Hilton's 29-yard, second quarter touchdown pass to Scott Curry, but the Red Devils were stopped twice inside the Harrison 10-yard line, shifting the momentum. "They kept driving, but our defense held them," Sherman said.
"Then we would get one big play and put it in the end zone. That was the difference in the game." See RAIDERS, Page B2 How many victories do you think the Purdue football team Sherman touchdowns Friday night will have this season? 11-12 leading Harrison to a 36-6 victory against rival West Lafayette at Stra-ley Field. Sherman averaged 20.8 yards a carry yes, 20.8 on a night when the Raiders averaged 11.7 yards each time they snapped the ball. Harrison rushed 33 times for 430 and then I broke a couple. My line kept working for me." Sherman had eight carries of 11 yards or more, including five of at least 20 yards.
He scored on runs of 68 and 33 yards. The Raider senior said he isn't surprised by his final total. 9-10 7-8 5-6 3-4 1-2 By John TerhuneJournal and Courier CROSSING THE LINE: Harrison's Jon Evans heads to the end zone on a 19-yard run in the second quarter. Vote at jconline.com.
