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Monday, October 2, 2000

Javs defense sinks teeth into Texans
Secondary shuts down touted Tarleton QB
By Javier Becerra
Caller-Times
KINGSVILLE - Tarleton State University quarterback Steve Kelly had little trouble exploiting the defenses of the Texans' first four opponents.
   Last Saturday night, it was Texas A&M-Kingsville that had little trouble defending Kelly in a 31-19 win over the Texans at Javelina Stadium.
   Tarleton State had the Lone Star Conference's best record entering the game, but fell to 2-1 in the South Division and 3-2 overall. A&M-Kingsville, banned from the playoffs this season by the NCAA, improved to 2-1 in the LSC South Division and 2-3 overall.
   Though A&M-Kingsville allowed Kelly to pass for 226 yards and two touchdowns, he was intercepted four times - all by cornerback J.R. Turner - and was sacked twice on consecutive plays in the fourth quarter. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Kelly had four interceptions and had been sacked just twice in Tarleton State's previous four games.
   "The secondary played its best game of the season," A&M-Kingsville first-year coach Richard Cundiff said. "We knew their quarterback was not a scrambler and that if we could flush him out of the pocket we could get to him. J.R. was overdue."
   Turner set a new school record for interceptions in a game. The previous record of three, set by Butch Riley in 1967, was equalled seven times, most recently by Henry Smith in 1988.
   The first interception led to a 32-yard field goal by Victor Sauceda, which cut Tarleton State's lead to 12-10 with 6 minutes, 34 seconds left in the second quarter.
   Turner's second interception set up a four-play, 11-yard scoring drive capped by a 4-yard run by Darrell White to keep the Javelinas within two points, 19-17, with 4:40 left in the third quarter.
   Taking advantage of the momentum created by its defense, A&M-Kingsville quarterback Abel Gonzalez scored twice in the final quarter on runs of 5 and 4 yards to secure the win.
   The Javelinas produced 339 yards of total offense, and both White and Gonzalez finished with more than 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns each. White had 110 yards on 25 carries, while Gonzalez had 22 carries for 104 yards, much of which came on effective use of the option in the second half.
   "They had a good defense, but the coaches made some good adjustments. We know how to run the option and we were able to hurt them with it," said Gonzalez, who was 13 of 25 for 117 yards passing with one interception.
   A&M-Kingsville hadn't relied on the option much this season, holding firm on Cundiff's decision to shy away from the play, a Javelinas staple during Ron Harms' tenure as head coach.
   "It's in our offense and we do run it some but not as much," Cundiff said. "With our personnel, we don't try to force feed anything. We ran it a little more because we were able to take advantage of what they were doing on defense. It kept us from having to play catchup."


Staff writer Javier Becerra can be reached at 886-3734 or by e-mail at becerraj@caller.com

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