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SAN DIEGO -- Utah State allowed two 100-yard rushers all season long. Pat ODonnell Jersey . Jordan Lynch, the all-purpose Heisman Trophy finalist from Northern Illinois, failed to make it into that exclusive club. The Aggies swarming defence made Lynch look average during a 21-14 victory over No. 24 Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl on Thursday night. Safety Brian Suite intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble by Lynch, who was bottled up for only 39 yards rushing. That kept him from becoming the first major college player to rush for 2,000 yards and pass for 2,000 yards in the same season. Utah State stymied a Huskies offence that had averaged nearly 42 points a game. "The only thing we do every week is not stop the run game, but eliminate the run game," USU coach Matt Wells said. "But obviously he is a big part of the run game, so we were able to eliminate him, make him one-dimensional and then we were able to actually find a way to run the football, which makes them one-dimensional, and the ballgame is ours." Joey DeMartino, who went to high school and junior college in San Diego, carried 23 times for 143 yards and a touchdown for Utah State (9-5). He was the offensive MVP. "The feelings unreal," DeMartino said. "I couldnt ask for a better senior game to go out on and to be in front of my hometown, my family, my friends and everyone who supported me out here." DeMartino said the Aggies wanted to bounce back from a loss to Fresno State in the Mountain West Conference championship game. "We took a hard loss there," DeMartino said. "Thats not how we play. We just wanted to come back and prove to the nation that we can compete every game and we did just that." Lynch was third in the Heisman Trophy voting and made The Associated Press All-America team as an all-purpose player. He extended his major college record for yards rushing for a quarterback in a season to 1,920. He completed 20 of 35 passes for 216 yards and was sacked twice. Lynch ran for a touchdown and passed for another for NIU (12-2), which ended the season with two straight losses. The Huskies were coming off a 20-point loss to Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference title game that cost them a BCS bid. "We gave it the 24-hour rule," Lynch said. "The carpet got pulled out from under us losing to Bowling Green and thinking about going to a BCS game. But we got a chance to play a great opponent in Utah State. I thought we had a great three weeks of practice. We came out with a lot of energy and had fun. All the credit goes to Utah State. Lynchs pass was intercepted on the first play of the third quarter by Suite, setting up a go-ahead, 5-yard touchdown pass from Darrel Garretson to Brandon Swindall. The Aggies put it away when DeMartino scored on a 1-yard run with 4:14 to go for a 21-7 lead. It capped a 16-play, 80-yard drive that consumed 7:19. "We had to find a way to keep wearing them down and Im going to tell you what -- we imposed our will on them at the end of the game," Wells said. "On that one drive to make it 21-7, that was more of an issue that they had been out there all night because the offence couldnt do a thing," NIU coach Rod Carey said. NIU punted four times, had two turnovers, two missed field goals and relinquished possession on downs one time. "We werent able to move it like we normally do," Carey said. Lynch threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Juwan Brescacin with 1:44 left to pull NIU to 21-14. NIU tried an onside kicked that USU recovered. There were four turnovers and three missed field goals. The game drew only 23,408 to 70,000-seat Qualcomm Stadium, the lowest attendance in the bowls nine-year history. Suite also recovered Lynchs fumble in the first quarter. NIUs first five series in the second half ended with an interception, three punts and a missed field goal. "We had our chances," Lynch said. "We had our chances to make some plays and score some points. We were in the red zone three times or so and we didnt come away with points. We just didnt capitalize on it." The teams staggered through an unimpressive first half that included a missed field goal by each team, a shanked punt by NIU and a lost fumble by Lynch. Lynch scored on a 1-yard run with 8:17 left in the second quarter to cap a 15-play, 78-yard drive and give NIU a 7-6 lead. Lynch ended NIUs second possession by losing a fumble at midfield. Utah State responded with a 31-yard field goal by Nick Diaz. NIUs Mathew Sims was wide right on a 37-yard field goal attempt and DeMartino had a 58-yard run to set up Diazs 39-yard field goal. Gale Sayers Jersey . 31 as the deadline to submit an Olympic hockey roster, the deadline has changed. After appeals from some top European countries - namely Russia, Sweden, Finland and Czech - over the past 24 hours, the National Hockey League, NHL Players Association and the IIHF agreed to move the date to Jan. Jared Allen Jersey . Gooden is expected to sign the deal and join the team in time for Thursdays game against the Toronto Raptors.The first Game 7 of the second round is on tap for tonight, as the New York Rangers visit the Pittsburgh Penguins at CONSOL Energy Center for the decisive battle of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Pittsburgh once held a 3-1 lead in the series, but the Rangers staved off elimination in Games 5 and 6 to set up a final clash for the right to play in the conference finals. The Penguins are aiming for a second straight berth in the East finals, while New York is hoping to return to the third round for the second time in three postseasons. Pittsburgh is 7-6 all-time in Game 7s and the Rangers are 7-5. The Penguins are just 2-6 when hosting a seventh game, while New York is just 1-5 as the road team in this situation. At the center of New Yorks series comeback has been Rangers forward Martin St. Louis, who lost his mother to a heart attack on Thursday but managed to play in Fridays 5-1 victory in Pittsburgh. St. Louis then played a big role in Sundays Game 6 triumph, scoring the first goal of the contest to help his team earn an essential win on Mothers Day. St. Louis and Carl Hagelin scored within a three-minute span early in Sundays contest, while Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves to anchor the 3-1 victory. Derick Brassard recorded the other tally for the Rangers. "We wanted a chance and we have given ourselves that chance," said Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault. "It is what it is. Its going to be a lot of fun." Lundqvist is 9-2 in 11 elimination games with a 1.35 goals against average and .955 save percentage. He hopes to further improve that win/loss record on Tuesday to get his team back to the East finals after the Rangers lost to New Jersey in the third round of the 2012 postseason. The Swedish backstop is 2-2 lifetime in road elimination games and is 4-1 with a 1.00 GAA in Game 7s. New Yorks star goaltender did receive a $5,000 fine from the league after Game 6. Lundqvist was fined for unsportsmanlike conduct after spraying Pittsburghs Sidney Crosby with his water bottle during a scrum at the end of the second period and was Brandon Sutter provided the lone offense for the Penguins on Sunday. Pittsburgh netminder Marc-Andre Fleury struggled at times, taking the loss after stopping 26 shots. St. Louis scored just 3:34 into Game 6 to stake New York to a 1-0 lead. Rangers defenseman Anton Stralman wristed a shot from the high slot that was stopped by Fleury. The puuck then hit off the skate of Pittsburgh defenseman Matt Niskanen in front of the crease and trickled to Derek Stepan, who caromed a backhand shot off of St. Brandon Marshall Elite Jersey. Louis and into the net for a lead. "It was Mothers Day. My dads here, my sisters here, its been a tough time for my whole family ... it was a good moment," said an emotional St. Louis, still battling through the sudden death of his mother on Friday. New York road the wave of emotion from that point on with Hagelin scoring the eventual game-winner less than three minutes later. "When he scored, on the bench you could see everyone jumping around," said teammate Derick Brassard of the St. Louis goal. "After that we really took off." After getting blown out in Game 5 and falling behind early on Sunday, the Pens know they need to get off to a better start in Game 7. "Its pretty clear, we didnt show up," Crosby said. The last two games our starts have hurt us, again tonight. We knew it was something we had to improve and we didnt. We paid the price for it. Hopefully, next game we learn those lessons." Although Crosby has just one goal in this postseason, Pittsburghs captain has added eight assists over his teams 12 games. Crosby has two goals and one assist in three lifetime Game 7 appearances. Fellow superstar forward Evgeni Malkin, who lead Pittsburgh with 13 points on six goals and seven assists this spring, had no goals and three assists over three career Game 7s. Tuesdays clash marks the first-ever Game 7 between the Penguins and Rangers. In fact, prior to Sunday, the teams only played one previous Game 6 -- the Patrick Division finals, a 5-1 Pittsburgh victory at Mellon Arena to close out that series on May 13, 1992 Pittsburgh is 4-0 all-time in postseason series against the Rangers, who finished second in the Metropolitan Division this season -- 13 points behind the division champion Penguins. New York also has never come back from down 3-1 to win a series. In 16 previous playoff series the Rangers trailed three games to one, the franchise never rallied to win, and only reached a Game 7 once until this season, in 1939 against the Bruins before losing that contest in triple overtime . The winner of tonights game in the Steel City will face either Boston or Montreal in the East finals. The Bruins and Habs also are tied at three games apiece and Boston will host Game 7 on Wednesday. cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
