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sports columnTRANSCRIPT
Sportsget yourSPortS newS at gazette.com
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VerSatile HagganBroncos’ LB will be Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside Monday. Page 3
FRIDAY ❘ November 19, 2010719-636-0250 or [email protected]
rockieS >
Barmes shipped to houstonThe Rockies traded the veteran infielder to the Astros for pitcher Felipe Paulino, Page 6
Playing giVeawayNuggets succumb to the Blazers in the Rose Garden, Page 4
mueh leftlookingfor quicksolutions
LAS VEGAS • Air Force ath-letic director Hans Mueh received an e-mail late Wednesday, telling him Air Force men’s b a s k e t b a l l had lost to Division III Colorado Col-lege.
“And I didn’t sleep last night,” Mueh said at Sam Boyd Stadium be-fore Air Force’s football game against UNLV on Thursday. “I just feel for the kids. I love our team. I can’t explain it. I honestly can’t explain it. It’s only the second game, but we should not have lost to a Division III team, with all due respect to CC. They ob-viously played a great game. But we should not have lost to them.”
Mueh, an unwavering sup-porter of coach Jeff Reyn-olds through the past two seasons, even as the Falcons went 1-31 in Mountain West
by frank [email protected]—
college basketball
Loss to CC has Air Force AD not ruling out change
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SEE Air forcE • PAGE 3
NeXtTennessee State at Air Force, 7 p.m. Saturday, 740 AM
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david ramseydavid.ramsey@ gazette.com / 476-4895
Reynolds is now out of excuses
LAS VEGAS • For the past two seasons, while the Fal-cons fell to the depths of college basketball, one word has been used by Air Force officials to excuse and ex-plain everything about Jeff Reynolds:
Rebuilding.The basketball team, said
AD Hans Mueh and super-intendent Mike Gould, was rebuilding. This implied — virtually promised — better days were ahead.
On Wednesday at Clune Arena, Reynolds offered a look at what he has built. Remember, this is his fourth season as head coach. Remember, he was the lead
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SEE rEynoLdS • PAGE 3
LEWIS-PALMER FULLbACK KEEPS IT SIMPLE gazette preps FOOtBaLL QUarterFINaLs
Schooled at home, Colton Goeas had options when it came to choos-ing a football team.
Lucky for Lewis-Palmer, it was an easy call.
“It was always a done deal for me to go to Lewis-Palmer,” said Goeas, who followed the footsteps of his older brother Matt, who played for the Rangers in 2006. “Other people
tried to get me to go to their school but I always wanted to be here.”
Lewis-Palmer is happy to have the bruising sophomore, who could have chosen to play at any school
within District 38 (Technically that limited his options to Lewis-Palmer or Palmer Ridge, though a loophole likely could have been found).
The fullback still doesn’t have a driver’s license, but he ranks in the top 16 in the state in both rushing yards and touchdowns (1,477 and 20) and plays linebacker as he’s led Lewis-Palmer to the 3A quarterfi-nals.
“He earned the respect of the older kids immediately, and they’re
by JUSTIN [email protected]—
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see GOeAs • PAGe 5
Home-schooled sophomore finds success up the middle INsIde
• Several of the best cross country runners from the Pikes Peak region will finish the season in Arizona.• See previews of all five games this weekend involving area teams. Page 5
Lewis-Palmer’s Colton Goeas has scored three or more touchdowns five times, including the first three games of his varsity career.
BRYAN OLLER, THE GAZETTE fiLE
afa marches in like lamb, out like lion
college football air force 35, unlv 20
Calhoun compliments Falcons for ending regular season with commanding finish
LAS VEGAS • Troy Calhoun didn’t like what he saw out of his Air Force team for most of the first half, and rightfully so. The Falcons didn’t play well.
But the Falcons have some re-solve, and they showed it after falling behind 17-7. Air Force beat UNLV 35-20 at Sam Boyd Stadium on Thursday night to finish the regular season 8-4, and 5-3 in the Mountain West. The Rebels are 2-9 and 2-5 in conference.
For a while, a third straight win to finish the season was in doubt.
“You wonder how much is in the tank,” said Calhoun, whose team didn’t have a bye week this
season. “To dig down and find a little more was incredible.”
There were reasons the Fal-cons weren’t dominant for 60 minutes. They had a short week of preparation. Starting line-backers Patrick Hennessey and Brady Amack were out with injuries. Defensive linemen Zach Payne and Bradley Con-nor joined them on the side-line with knee injuries. Playing in front of a stadium that was probably less than a quarter full didn’t help.
Air Force looked fine in the first few minutes, when line-backer Andre Morris caught an interception that went through Phillip Payne’s hands and Tim Jefferson hit Zack Kauth for a 4-yard touchdown.
But Air Force gave up 17 unan-swered points after that. UNLV put together a pair of long drives after falling behind 7-0. At the end of an 11-play, 62-yard drive, Tim Cornett rushed for a 2-yard touchdown to tie the game. Then the Rebels went on a marathon drive. They picked up 83 yards on 21 plays. The drive lasted for 10 minutes, but ended in just a field goal.
Later in the quarter, Payne
by FRANK [email protected]—
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SEE fALconS • PAGE 4
inside• Zack Bell takes over place-kicking duties. Page 5
LAS VEGAS • This is a city with a fake Eiffel Tower, a fake Statue of Liberty, a fake Brooklyn Bridge, a fake Egyp-tian sphinx and, for the past several seasons, a fake college football team.
But the UNLV football team, so bad for so long, placed a scare in the hearts of Air Force’s football team.
The Falcons escaped with a 35-20 victory, but this was not their finest hour. They struggled mightily and for a few tense moments looked as if they might even wander to a loss.
Yes, the Falcons rallied to a victory, but they never should have had to rally.
A defeat would have been
humiliating, almost as devastating as the Air Force basketball team’s Wednesday night loss to Colorado College. UNLV had lost four previous Mountain West games by an average of 38 per contest. The Rebels have lost 16 of their last 23 MWC games.
Eventually, Air Force remem-bered it was Air Force, and
UNLV remembered it was UNLV.
But only before a few mo-ments of drama. This was not a resounding sendoff to Air Force’s upcoming bowl game.
With 12 minutes left in the third quarter, UNLV led 17-14 and had possession at the Air
Falcons escape a ‘fake’ performance with win
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david ramseydavid.ramsey@ gazette.com / 476-4895
Air Force’s Andre Morris Jr. intercepted a UNLV pass during the first quarter. For more photos, go to gazette.com
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SEE rAmSEy • PAGE 4
Air Force quarterback Tim Jefferson scored a touchdown against UNLV during the third quarter making it 28-17. Jefferson threw a touchdown pass and had three short scoring runs to help Air Force win its regular-season finale late Thursday night. Jefferson ran for 64 yards.
phoTos by bRyAN oLLER, ThE GAZETTE