Published: September 30, 2008 12:17 am            

Ramblin' Reck: For Tampa kicker Matt Bryant, it was one tough weekend

There were tons of big stories during the weekend in college and pro football, baseball and golf.

Tampa Bay beat Green Bay in the NFL 30-21 in one of the lesser events, but what Matt Bryant did in the game was special.

Bryant kicked three field goals for the Bucs and they proved to be the difference in the contest. He did it one day after his 3-month-old son, Matthew Tryson, was buried. He was found dead in their home Wednesday and the cause of death has yet to be determined.

Bryant choked back tears after the game.

“I don’t know what I needed today. It worked out OK … I will always miss him,” he said.

Aaron Rodgers had two touchdown passes for the Packers but threw his first interception following 157 attempts without a pick.

Brian Griese has had six passes picked off in the last two games but the Bucs have won both of them.

Chicago rebounded from its loss to Tampa Bay to beat Philadelphia 24-20. Kyle Orton had three touchdown passes in the first half.

• • •

• Big game in Linton — The three undefeated high school football teams in the area remained that way last week with Casey beating Martinsville in Illinois and Linton and Rockville earning hard-fought victories in Indiana.

The Miners and North Knox, also undefeated, meet this week at Linton in a game that likely will decide the Southwest Seven championship. It should be a good one.

Mickey Tosti had another touchdown for the Miners in their victory at North Daviess and should be among the leaders in the state. He had six touchdowns after two games.

Edgewood turned back West Vigo in another hard-fought contest to clinch at least a share of the Western Indiana Conference title. The Mustangs can win it outright by beating Brown County next month.

It will be the first football championship for the school in its nine seasons in the league and its first football conference title since winning one in the West Central Conference in 1982.

North Central got its first victory in football last week and Sullivan will try to do the same Friday in its home game against Brown County, 1-4 after being blanked by Monrovia 31-0.

In boys soccer, Brown County is 4-0 in the WIC.

• • •

• Hoosier hoopla — Indiana has gotten another commitment in men’s basketball, the latest coming from 6-foot-11 Bawa Muniro, who had been attending a private school in Alabama.

IU Hoosier Hysteria is slated Oct. 17 to tip off the start of practice. Volleyball between IU and Ohio State will get things started at 7 p.m.

IU lost to No. 19 Purdue in volleyball in five games last week. Earlier in the week, the Boilermakers lost 3-0 to No. 1 Penn State.

Purdue received another commitment in women’s basketball when Carmel sophomore Terrie Thornton said she will sign with the Boilermakers.

She averaged 7.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists as a freshman.

• • •

• Tom-Cattin’ It — Northwestern is off to its best start in football in 46 years and takes a break this week after beating Iowa.

The last time Northwestern was 5-0 was 1962 when Ara Parseghian coached the Wildcats and they went 6-0 before losing and finished 7-2.

Penn State and Northwestern both are 5-0 and the Nittany Lions are at Purdue this week for a game that will be shown on ESPN at noon. Ohio State is at Wisconsin and it will be a night game on ABC.

• Northview will have a new coach in baseball for the first time in about 20 years.

Scott McDonald has been named the new coach.

Kyle Kraemer at Terre Haute South or Steve DeGroote at West Vigo now have the longest tenure of baseball coaches in the area at the same school.

• Fans of the Chicago Cubs will have a chance to watch their favorite team in the National League playoffs but will have to stay up late to watch some of the games.

The Cubs and Los Angeles will play Wednesday and that one starts early at 6:30 p.m. EDT; the game won’t start until 9:30 the next night and not until 10 at LA on Saturday.

All games will be on TBS.

Mike Mussina of the New York Yankees finally won 20 games and, at 39 years of age, is the oldest pitcher in recent history to reach the milestone.

Randy Johnson won his 295th for Arizona in the last day of the season.

• Willie Jeffries was honored by the Black College Hall of Fame recently.

He was the football coach at Wichita State for five years.

n Sloane Engle of Terre Haute South and Rachel Welker of Terre Haute North will represent the area in the high school girls golf finals starting Friday.

Engle’s tee time is 8:30 a.m. at The Legends of Indiana and Welker is slated to tee it up at 9:15.

Former ISU golfer John Blickenstaff handled scoreboard duties at Foxcliff, site of regional action at Martinsville. He has retired after teaching at Martinsville for more than 30 years.

His father, John Blickenstaff, was a trainer at ISU and is in the Athletics Hall of Fame.



Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by e-mail at tm_reck@yahoo.com or by mail at 4284 S. Fifth Street, Apt. 3, Terre Haute, IN 47802.

        

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