Sunday, September 05, 1999

MIAMI 28, NORTHWESTERN 3

---

Prentice scores twice against former coach

BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Miami's Travis Prentice runs against Northwestern defenders Conrad Emmerich, rear left, Kevin Bentley (2) and Billy Silva (44) as teammate Joe Costello (78) follows. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

SET AS WALLPAPER: Click here for bigger image, then right click to Set As Wallpaper

        EVANSTON, Ill. — Saturday's Miami-Northwestern game was a typical Big Ten versus the little MAC matchup.

        One team was bigger, stronger, deeper and faster.

        The twist: Miami, the Mid-American Conference team, pushed around Northwestern, the Big Ten team, all day long in a 28-3 victory before a crowd of 28,108.

        “I don't know what Big Ten team means,” said Miami linebacker Dustin Cohen. “We came here expecting to win. We'll go to West Virginia expecting to win next week.

        “Are (the Wildcats) a Big Ten team?”

        Travis Prentice was standing next to Cohen when he said that. Prentice gave Cohen a signal to cool the trash talking.

        Miami, coming off a 10-1 season, came in as the favorite and played like it. Miami players, almost to a man, were disappointed with the way they played, particularly in the first half.

Miami coach Terry Hoeppner and ex-coach Randy Walker shakes hands after the game. | ZOOM |

        Prentice, who had 151 yards and two touchdowns on 33 carries, admitted this was no stunner.

        “Each season we have have games we call Tomahawk wins,” he said. “We didn't count this as one because we expected to win.”

        The coaching situation was not a factor. Randy Walker, the former Miami coach, was coaching his first game at Northwestern against his former assistant Terry Hoeppner, in his first game at Miami.

        “We forgot about it after the first play,” Prentice said. “We were playing against Northwestern, not Randy Walker.”

        Miami started so impressively that emotion never entered the equation.

        Miami won the toss but decided to kick off. The RedHawks stuffed Northwestern's Damien Anderson for no gain on first down and dropped him for a yard loss on second down. Then Cohen sacked quarterback Nick Kreinbrink for a loss of eight on third down.

Northwestern's Sam Simmons turns upfield as Miami's Brandon Godsey follows. | ZOOM |

        On fourth down, Michael Anderson tipped J.J. Sandring's punt. It went only six yards.

        Miami took over at the Northwestern 17. Mike Bath hit Marcus Smith for eight yards on a screen.

        Then Prentice ran nine yards for the touchdown.

        Six plays, all completely dominated by the RedHawks.

        “That's why we deferred and kicked off,” Cohen said. “We wanted to stop them and then pound it in for a quick score. I couldn't have scripted any better.”

        The game was just more than three minutes old, but it was over.

        “They gave us no breathing room,” Walker said.

        Prentice made it 14-0 with a 23-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. It was the kind of play that gets the attention of pro scouts. Prentice took a pitch, lost the one man between him and the goal line with a fake, then bolted in with a burst of his 4.3 speed.

        Prentice has 58 career TDs. He moved past Marshall Faulk into third on the NCAA's all-time list.

        Northwestern got on the board with a field goal with 4:03 left in the half. The Wildcats had the statistical advantage at half, in fact.

        “We didn't play as well in the first half as I would have liked,” Hoeppner said. “We regrouped at halftime. We controlled the game in the second half like I hoped we would.”

        Miami marched down the field behind Prentice early in the half, only to be stopped by a Northwestern goal-line stand. Miami wasn't deterred, only detoured.

        Bath and Sly Johnson hooked up on 15-yard touchdown to make it 21-3 with 4:19 left in the third quarter. On the next drive, a 52-yard, Bath-to-Johnson TD was called back for offensive pass interference.

        The clincher came shortly thereafter. Prentice ran for nine yards, then four.

        Northwestern decided to stop the run.

        “They put nine men in the box to stop Travis,” Johnson said. “That leaves me one-on-one. I feel I can beat anyone one-on-one.”

        Northwestern has that feeling, too.

        Johnson ran by everyone — he was 10 yards from anyone in purple when the ball hit his hands — on a 73-yard TD pass to make it 28-3.

        “Sly is seriously fast,” Hoeppner said. “He's going to do that to a lot of people.”

        Johnson, a junior, finished four catches for 166 yards. That's nearly his yards total from all of last year.

        “We had fun today,” Hoeppner said. “Fun, fun, fun.”

MIAMI NOTEBOOK
        Miami ....... 7  7  7  7—28

        Northwestern ....... 0  3  0  0—3

        First Quarter

        Mia—Prentice 9 run (Brumbers kick), 3:39.

        Second Quarter

        Mia—Prentice 23 run (Brumbergs kick), 2:44

        NU—FG Long 21, 10:57.

        Third Quarter

        Mia—S. Johnson 15 pass from Bath (Brumbergs kick), 10:41.

        Fourth Quarter

        Mia—S. Johnson 73 pass from Bath (Brumbergs kick), 4:33.

        A—28,108.

        INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

        RUSHING—Miami, Prentice 33-151, Little 4-13, Monk 2-10, Bowman 2-9, Gaylor 1-5, Smith 1-1, Bath 7-minus 19, McCullough 1-(minus 25). Northwestern, Anderson 32-129, Simmons 4-51, Miller 3-20, Ayeni 6-19, Kreinbrink 6-(minus 38).

        PASSING—Miami, Bath 11-18-0-252, Schacke 0-1-0-0. Northwestern, Kreinbrink 9-29-1-126.

        RECEIVING—Miami, S. Johnson 4-166, Saxton 2-40, Gaylor 2-30, Smith 2-4, Prentice 1-12. Northwestern, Simmons 3-59, Burrell 2-15, Schweighardt 1-20, R. Johnson 1-15, Tant 1-9, Thompson 1-8.

                        Miami  Northwestern 
First downs                  19          16 
Rushed-yards             51-145      51-181 
Passing yards               252         126 
Sacked-yards lost          3-23        5-38 
Return yards                 31           1 
Passes                  11-19-0      9-29-1 
Punts                    7-34.1      8-37.8 
Fumbles-lost                0-0         1-0 
Penalties-yards            2-20        5-55 
Time of possession        28:23       31:37 

MIAMI NOTEBOOK

---

Sports Stories

I want my, I want my E-S-P-N UC football still running in place MIAMI 28, NORTHWESTERN 3 LOUISVILLE 56, KENTUCKY 28 UK NOTEBOOK Mt. St. Joseph 35, Olivet 13 Thomas More 32, Anderson 18 Conference USA ready to welcome TCU, SMU Villa Madonna nickname soon to be changed OHSAA fights court on player's eligibility Moeller 19, Warren Harding 0 Ryle 25, Covington Catholic 20 Toledo Scott 25, Withrow 0 Logan County 41, Grant County 26 SATURDAY HIGH SCHOOLL HIGHLIGHTS

REDS 22, PHILLIES 3
Box, runs
REDS NOTEBOOK
Astros 5, Expos 2, 10 innings
AL wild-card race will be, well, wild
Dillon ready to run
Francis, Sargent might be waived
BENGALS NOTEBOOK
UC 41, KENT 7
Game summary
UC NOTEBOOK