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Monday, Sept. 9 |
Big fourth-quarter comeback
sends Bears fans home happy
By Greg
Taylor
[SEPT.
9, 2002]
For
most of the game on Sunday in Champaign, it appeared the Minnesota
Vikings would upset the favored Chicago Bears in their first
regular-season game in Champaign. However, led by Jim Miller, Marty
Booker and an inspired defensive unit, the Bears rallied from 10
down in the final nine minutes and won 27-23 in dramatic fashion.
Miller found second-year receiver David Terrell for a 9-yard
touchdown with just 28 seconds left in the game to give the Bears
their first lead of the second half and their first season-opening
victory in three seasons.
Click here for more
photos
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The Bears, now 1-0, will travel to
Atlanta next Sunday to face the Falcons, a 37-34 overtime loser to
the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. Game time is set for noon, and the
game will be televised by Fox.
The Bears showed Sunday they still have
much to work on, as they struggled to run the football for much of
the game, and their vaunted defense looked like the Bears defense of
the late ’90s, as Minnesota made several big plays in the first half
to score 20 points on the Bears. Last season, the Bears gave up
double-digit points in the first half only four times, and the most
an opponent scored was the 14 points by San Francisco, seven of
which the 49er defense tallied.
The Vikings drew first blood as Doug
Brien booted a 30-yard field goal midway through the first quarter
to give the visitors from the north a 3-0 lead. Chicago responded
quickly, as Miller found Booker from 30 yards out, giving the Bears
a 7-3 lead.
![](../images/090902pics/bearsart2.jpg)
[Photos by Tom Seggelke]
The Bears seemed to focus so much on
Randy Moss and the so-called "Randy Ratio" (a ploy to get Moss 40
percent of the offensive touches in a game) they forgot about
Michael Bennett and Byron Chamberlin. Bennett ran for most of his
yardage in the first half, and Chamberlin broke free for a 61-yard
reception that Minnesota turned into their first touchdown early in
the second quarter — a Dante Culpepper 3-yard run.
The Vikings would relinquish the lead
until the final minute of the game. Minnesota and Chicago traded
field goals over the next two possessions, Brien from 22 yards out
and Chicago’s Paul Edinger hitting from 49, before Culpepper found
Moss from 34 yards out in the final minute of the first half to give
the Vikes a 10-point lead at the break, 20-10.
The Bears could manage only another
49-yard field goal from Edinger in the third quarter, and when Brien
nailed yet another 3-pointer with just over nine minutes left in the
game, Jeff Mayfield and I headed for the field, wondering what
excuses we would find in the Chicago locker room.
![](../images/ads/Ymca/giveaway.jpg)
[to top of second column in this
article] |
![](../images/ads/ALMH/laya.jpg)
However, what Jeff and I found was a
Chicago team that would refuse to lose. First possession after the
final Minnesota FG found Miller connecting with Booker for 54 yards
and the A-Train, Anthony Thomas, running well, getting a 1-yard TD
at the 6:13 mark of the game to pull the Bears within three points.
Next, it was the Bears defense that
decided to step up. With Minnesota facing a third and 13 from
midfield at the 2:45 mark, Culpepper decided to go for the home run
to Moss. However, Chicago hero and safety Mike Brown intercepted the
ball around the Chicago 20 and returned the pick 30 yards to
midfield.
From there, Miller took over, hitting a
variety of receivers, including Booker, who finished the day with
eight catches for 198 yards and a touchdown. Miller worked the clock
to perfection, and when he found Terrell in the end zone with just
28 seconds left, the Champaign crowd exploded with a noise few NFL
staffers claim to have heard from an outdoor stadium. Roosevelt
Colvin caused and recovered a Culpepper fumble on the second play of
Minnesota’s last chance, and the Bears were on their way to victory.
After the game, the resounding theme in
the Bears locker room was "we really wore them down." Minnesota was
outscored 17-3 in the second half, and the Bears head north to
Chicago happy and victorious.
![](../images/090902pics/bearsart1.jpg)
While the Bears won the game 27-23 in
dramatic fashion, many questions were raised about the 2002 Chicago
team. Will the defense dominate as in the past? It did not look so
on Sunday. Will the A-Train avoid the sophomore slump and become yet
another in a long line of excellent Chicago running backs? The Train
really struggled for most of the day but got it together when it
mattered most. Will offensive coordinator John Shoop open up the
offense? Sunday told us maybe yes, maybe no.
The bottom
line is this: BEARS WIN! But efforts like this will not get it done
against Green Bay, Philadelphia and New England, not to mention St.
Louis.
[Greg
Taylor] |
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How
do you like us now?
Bears move Houdini act to Champaign
By LDN sports staff
[SEPT.
9, 2002]
Probably too much has been made of the
Bears’ bashing of central Illinois up to this point in the
proceedings. They sure seemed to like the Memorial Stadium crowd on
Sunday.
Click here for more
photos
|
The reported crowd of 63,226 was as
loud as we’ve heard since the Illinois-Michigan game two seasons
ago.
A former NFL ref sitting right in front
of the LDN/FIX 96 staff told the LDN that the noise level was the
loudest he has ever heard outside of a domed stadium!
So, despite the fact that David Terrell
has issues with Champaign and Decatur (what does he know anyway?
where did he play college football?) most of the players and coaches
felt pretty good about their surroundings on Sunday.
Defensive coordinator Greg Blache went
so far as to call the crowd "unbelievable." He told us that he just
didn’t expect it to get that raucous and that he thinks the Bears
will really have a "12th man" in Champaign this season.
![](../images/090902pics/bearsart3.jpg)
[Photos by Tom Seggelke]
This is the second time this year that
the LDN has had an opportunity to hook up with Blache. Let us just
see that he is one of the real rising stars in the NFL. We really
like his no-nonsense approach.
Example: Instead of giving us
coach-speak for the many breakdowns on defense as the Vikings ran
over and around the Bears, when asked how they did it, he said,
"They blocked us!" That was the end of the explanation. And as a
somewhat impartial observer, I think it would have been hard for him
to have been more accurate.
One guy that we think deserves more
kudos is Bears place-kicker Paul Edinger. We felt he kept the Bears
in the game and gave them a chance to win even though he did miss
one field goal attempt of 40-plus yards. When the kicking team and
all special teams for that matter rise above just an average
performance, they give you so many more ways and chances to win a
football game. We felt Edinger and the kick coverage teams did just
that on Sunday.
Hats off to the offensive line as well.
In the first half they seemed to get manhandled by Minnesota’s
defensive push. But the O-line stayed with it and kept punishing.
They wore the Vikes down in the second half and made some nice holes
for Anthony Thomas.
![](../images/ads/logan_cty_health_dpt/smokefreemain2.gif) [to top of second column in this
article] |
![](../images/ads/Lincoln%20College/LCregad.gif)
We asked Thomas if he could have ever
imagined so many Illini fans ever cheering for him. He got a big
laugh out of that!
We felt Thomas gave the Bears a huge
lift in the second half. He seems to be developing a Michael
Jordan-type attitude, where he really wants the ball late in games.
We mentioned to him that his knees seem to be pumping and driving
higher and stronger in the third and fourth quarters, and he told us
that is a result of conditioning and getting inspired by his
offensive line.
QB Jim Miller told the LDN that there
is no panic on the Bears even when they weren’t playing well for
most of three quarters. He went on to say that they are really
comfortable playing in tight ballgames and feel that they will
always find a way to win. He believes that the character on this
team is what gives them an edge over most teams in the NFL.
![](../images/090902pics/bearsart4.jpg)
Bulletin to NFL teams for immediate
release: You cannot cover Marty Booker one-on-one! We don’t know who
suggested that idea anyway. And after the Vikes saw how bad it was
in the first half, why didn’t they change that up in the second
half? And why are they throwing the football when running it eats up
the clock and forces the Bears to burn their precious timeouts?
Those are just two of the many questions we would ask if handed the
microphone.
All in all, a great day and a great
start for Bears football in central Illinois. The LDN did receive
several exclusive interviews with Bears players, and we’ll provide
some morsels later on. But hang on, this season could be a wild
ride!
Several
Lincoln and Logan County folks were on hand at the Bears’ home
opener, including a new bride and groom, several Lincoln
businessmen, a local doctor, two ministers that we saw (how did they
get out of church that fast?) and a few others who asked to remain
anonymous!
[LDN sports] |
9-11-01 |
Fallen but not
Forgotten |
9-11-02 |
Sponsored by
Lincoln Daily News
and:
Clean Sweep Janitorial Service |
First Wok |
Logan County Title Company |
Diane Schriber Realty |
Key
Printing |
Meier Accounting |
Edward Jones Investments, Robert F. Neal |
Lincoln Cycle Center |
Werth & Associates, Realtors |
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Lincoln’s
wooden bats split doubleheader with Normal
[SEPT.
9, 2002]
NORMAL
— Lincoln split a doubleheader with Normal in the wood bat league at
the Illinois State baseball diamond Sunday afternoon, winning the
first game 3-1 before losing the second game 5-3. Lincoln, 2-2, will
play at Clinton Sept. 15 at noon.
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Lincoln High School
senior Ryne Komnick had a big day at the plate with four hits in
seven official trips, while Jason Williams, a junior at LCHS, had
three hits in five official trips. The only other Lincoln player
with two hits was Kyle Atteberry, a junior; while Hartem senior Matt
Gleason collected two hits in five official trips.
Paul Phillips picked
up the victory in the first game with two scoreless innings. Komnick
hurled the first three innings, and Trent Kavelman also pitched two
innings.
Lincoln scored a pair
of runs in the top of the seventh to break a 1-1 tie. Kavelman led
off with a single and Steve Shanle beat out a bunt to put runners at
first and second. John Peters hit into a force play with Kavelman
retired at the plate. With runners at first and third, Peters was
thrown out stealing second; however, Shanle scored on the front end
to give Lincoln the lead. Atteberry then reached base on a two-base
throwing error and scored on a double by Komnick.
In the second game Gleason hurled the
first three innings and had a 2-1 lead; however, Williams was unable
to hold the lead, and Normal scored four times in the fourth to make
a 5-2 margin. Lincoln scored a run in the seventh but was unable to
make up the difference. Kevin Carroll hurled 2 2/3 scoreless
innings, and Shanle pitched the final frame for Lincoln.
[Bill Martinie] |
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LC vs.
Cincinnati State in final of soccer classic
[SEPT.
9, 2002]
Cincinnati
State handed Lincoln College a 4-2 setback in the championship game
of the Bonanza-Domino’s Classic men’s soccer game at Lincoln Sunday
afternoon. East Central defeated South Suburban 8-2 in the
third-place game.
|
Coach Mark Howard
said, "We had one six-minute stretch that just killed us. We gave
them a gift goal when one of our kids was not expecting a kick, and
after that we let our heads down a little and we got frustrated. We
played them even in the second half, but the 3-1 margin at halftime
was too much to overcome."
Piotr Chrobak scored the first Lincoln
goal, and Maceo Guy got the final goal on a penalty kick.
[Bill
Martinie,
Lincoln College
sports information director] |
![](../images/ads/Key%20Printing/key.gif) |
|
LC scores winning goal
in overtime
[SEPT.
9, 2002]
Lincoln
College defeated South Suburban of Chicago, 6-5, in overtime of the
opening game of the Bonanza-Domino’s Pizza Classic men’s soccer game
at Freesmeier Field in Lincoln Saturday afternoon.
|
The Lynx victory came
as Isaiah Bishop scored with a header in overtime, taking a 40-yard
kick from Steve Cimbaljevich. Coach Mark Howard said, "It was an
incredible goal, with Bishop streaking downfield and heading the
ball into the net after a long kick. The game went back and forth,
and it was a very entertaining game from a fan standpoint."
Lincoln scored the first two goals of the
game, with Maceo Guy netting the first on a penalty kick and Matija
Bileskovic scoring the second unassisted. South Suburban came back
with two goals in the final nine minutes of the first half to knot
the score at 2-2 at halftime.
[to top of second column in this
article] |
Guy put Lincoln on
top with another penalty kick, only to have the Chicago team score
the next two goals. Bileskovic then knotted the score at 4-4 with an
assist from Piotr Chrobak. With 13 minutes left, South Suburban
scored another goal before Javier Castillo sent the game to overtime
with seven minutes left on an unassisted goal.
The Lynx advanced to the title match at
1:30 p.m. Sunday. Cincinnati State advanced to the title game with a
3-2 win over East Central.
[Bill
Martinie,
Lincoln College
sports information director] |
![](../images/ads/Library/librarybannertaylor.jpg) |
|
LC plays in 16-team
volleyball tourney
[SEPT.
9, 2002]
Lincoln College played in a 16-team
volleyball tournament at McKendree College over the weekend,
defeating Lewis and Clark before losing to John A. Logan, Vincennes
and Meramac Community College.
|
Lincoln, 2-6, will play a home match
against Parkland College at 6 p.m. Wednesday. That match will be at
the Lincoln Christian College gym, due to a conflict at the Lynx
gym. Lincoln will be at Carl Sandburg Thursday and will again call
the LCC gym home on Saturday in a tri-match with Rend Lake and the
Millikin JV team.
Coach Mark
Tippett said, "We lost to some good teams and played very well in
our last match against Meramac. The high level of competition at the
tournament gave us a clear indication of what we need to work on and
I believe will make us a stronger team later in the season."
Lincoln College defeated Lewis and
Clark 30-22 and 30-28 before losing to John A. Logan 30-19 and
30-16. The Lynx then lost to Vincennes 30-16, 30-27. Lincoln
then bounced back to beat Meramac 30-23 in the first set before
losing the next two 30-28 and 15-10.
Amanda
Hansen collected 13 points, 10 kills and nine blocks to pace the
Lynx, while Beth Guy contributed 50 set assists, eight digs, 24
points and six aces. Janine Buettner had 19 kills, 12 points and
seven digs.
[Bill
Martinie,
Lincoln College
sports information director] |
![](../images/ads/prairie_years/Prairie_years_small_ad.gif)
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Articles from the past week |
Saturday:
Locals have a swingin’ time with the Aussies down under
High school
football
LC cross
country
Illinois releases men’s basketball schedule
Friday:
-
Lady Railers refuse to lose
-
LC
cross country begins competition
-
Ball State
game postponed
Thursday:
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LC soccer
clinic to benefit Pettijohn family
-
LC vs. Springfield College in volleyball
-
LC vs. Springfield College in women’s soccer
-
LC women’s golf
results
-
Redbirds meet two top 20 teams in Wisconsin
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Wednesday:
-
Lady Railers smoothly dominate in
home opener
A new brand of
football -- Program kicks off on 32 campuses, including the U of I
Tuesday:
-
Illini disappoint in a big way
Missouri hands Illinois a 33-20 whopping
-
Illinois-Mizzou
notes
-
Labor Day mutterings
-
Lincoln College men’s soccer vs. Yavapai
-
Lincoln College men’s soccer vs. Iowa Central
-
Lincoln College women win soccer opener
-
Lincoln College plays in volleyball
tourney in Mattoon
Saturday:
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We win! We win! We win!
By Jeff Mayfield
[SEPT. 9, 2002]
I think that sentiment best
describes the emotions and feelings we’ve been able to pick up from
area residents describing this past weekend. With the exception of
one hiccup and too much heat, everything else went pretty well this
past weekend. Our only regret is that you can’t be everywhere and
you can’t do everything. |
For instance, we wanted to go to the
Railer game on Friday. But when you try to be involved in the
community and support the town and county, sometimes schedule
conflicts do arise. Before we even realized that the game was in
Chatham, we had already promised some friends that we would meet
them in Mount Pulaski for the good ol’ fall festival. It didn’t feel
much like fall, but it’s a great festival and we had a great time
over there in the Mount!
Congratulations, Railers!
At any rate, we still want to offer up
congratulations to all of the Railer football players and to the
coaching staff and to anyone else who has anything to do with the
program. If you’ve never played or been around a high school
football program, you probably have no idea how much work goes into
the entire operation. These people spend hours practicing, working,
poring over game films and scouting reports, going to scout other
teams; it’s an incredible procedure. That is why we are so happy for
this group of Railers! They have weathered lots of storms and now
are finally seeing some of the fruit of their labor.
It is encouraging to see that many fans
have not turned their backs on the Railers and have ridden the
proverbial wagon through thick and thin. I’m sure that has been a
great source of encouragement to players and coaches alike. We were
always taught to root for "our" team whether they were 10-0 or 0-10.
I guess for some people that’s just not fashionable enough nowadays.
Whatever, we here at the LDN are always proud of our hometown teams,
and we couldn’t be prouder of this group of Railers! We look forward
to the next win come Friday nite!
![](../images/ads/Tourism%20Bureau/tourism8.jpg)
Speaking
of local high school sports squads
We sometimes get accused of only
reporting on the so-called major sports of football or basketball,
etc. Let’s be clear on what happens here. We get so many reports on
this stuff from coaches, parents and sometimes even the players that
it makes it easy to do the reporting. In an ideal world where
budgets are no object, we would simply assign a reporter to cover
every sport, and then every local athlete would get covered in
some way. However, we don’t even have a budget to cover the stuff
that we’re covering! Virtually everyone that works here already has
a full-time job. They cover sports on the side. So, If you’re
involved in an individual sport, write us at
ldneditor@lincolndailynews or fax 732-9630 and let us know how
you did or how you are doing. Make sure that we have a schedule of
your stuff, a team roster and a phone number to reach YOU or your
coach. You can mail that stuff to LDN Sports, 601 Keokuk St.,
Lincoln, IL 62656.
[to top of second column in this
article] |
![](../images/ads/neal_tire/neal_04_01_oillube.gif)
To my knowledge no one who has followed
this prescription has been denied yet. And not only that, it is good
for you. I found out in my days as a player and a coach that the
best promoter of YOUR team is YOU!... or YOUR mom! So, call us and
send us your stuff, including pictures, and you’ll see your smiling
face on the cover of the LDN. What’s really great about that is that
your grandparents and your family and friends around the country and
around the world can just click on the LDN to see you; isn’t that
great?!
How ’bout
those Redbirds?
Not those Redbirds! We’re
talking about the ISU Redbirds! ISU put a 55-10 hurtin’ on Quincy
Saturday night in Normal before an excitable crowd of 8,234. The
home-opening rout featured 210 yards rushing and two touchdowns by
Quincy Washington. Vito Golson grabbed four catches, 63 yards and
two touchdowns. And how ’bout the kicking of sophomore Stephen
Carroll? Carroll booted a 48-yard field goal but later added a
53-yarder, which is the longest in Hancock Stadium history. The
record is now even at 1-1, while Quincy slipped to 0-2. Carroll and
Washington have already been rewarded for their efforts by being
named Gateway Conference Players of the Week! Lots of Lincoln and
Logan County fans were on hand for this one.
Our new favorite player is ISU
punt-return specialist Dennis Butler. This kid can shake and bake
you before you can shake hands with him. Talk about exciting. Every
time he touches the ball something exciting is just waiting to
happen. We see good things in this young man’s future!
Another
big shoe?...
Isn’t that what Ed Sullivan used to
say? We’re sure our show will never reach that level of performance,
but it is a lot of fun nonetheless. Tonight, we’ll be talking about
the Bears’ exciting win, the Railers’ exciting victory at Chatham,
the ISU win, the woes of the Illini, the incredible St. Louis
Cardinals, and we hope to do a feature on Railer volleyball. So log
on this evening at 6 p.m. to "Hear it Here!" or tune your TV to CITV
Channel 15 or your radio to FIX-FM 96.3 if you want to talk sports.
More giveaways and more trivia questions coming right at you.
Cardinals
take three from the Cubs
If the records were reversed, we would
want the Cubs to win these three. Why? Because we don’t want to see
Houston or Cincinnati winning the division. It’s just that simple.
We’ve been waiting for the Cardinals to collapse all year. It’s hard
to mourn the loss of so many loved ones and then try to do something
as meaningless as playing a game. Then try playing 162 of them. No
matter how far these Birds go, we will always remember their gritty
determination. BTW, nice article on former redbird Mark McGwire in
ESPN. I don’t usually recommend articles, but this is a good one!
Lot’s more going on, but we’re outta
time. Hope things cool off for everyone so that ya all have a great
week. See you in the funny papers!
[Jeff
Mayfield]
[Sept. 3 column: "Labor
Day mutterings"] |
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