No. 8 Longhorns, Sooners play to a draw in soccer
Tie moves unbeaten Texas to 11-0-1 and 3-0-1 in Big 12.
Texas and Okl a homa played to an all-nil tie Sunday afternoon at the OU Soccer Complex in Norman, Okla.
The eighth-ranked Long- hor n s held a 19-6 shot advantage, including a 7-0 advantage in shots on goal, but couldn’t find the back of the net even with two periods of extra time.
Texas moves to 11-0-1 and 3-0-1 in the Big 12 with Sunday’s tie and are among three unbeaten teams in the country. UCLA and Wisconsin-Milwaukee are the others.
Goalkeeper Nicole Curry moved into a tie for third place with Abby Smith and Alexa Gaul for UT’s all-time single-season shutouts with her eighth this season.
The Longhorns had a great chance in the final period of extra time when Kayra Dollas tried to put a header past Oklahoma goalkeeper McKinley Crone off a Texas corner kick from 13 yards. The ball hit the crossbar and came back to Mikayla Flores, but her header went right into Crone’s arms.
Oklahoma had a pair of tries later in the period, but they were stuffed by the Longhorns defense.
Cyera Hintzen had four shots on goal for Texas and Katie Glenn had two.
The Longhorns return to action Friday at home a gainst TCU. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Tennis: John Mee won twice Saturday to advance at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla.
Mee defeated Alex Reco of Arkansas 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the round of 256 in prequalifying. He topped Ammar Alhoqbani of Virginia in the next round with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 win.
The UT senior was to face Santiago Cevallos of San Diego State in the third round of prequalifying on Sunday. Two wins would advance him to the qualifying singles draw.
Colin Markes also competed at the event, winning a match before bowing out in the round of 128.
Markes defeated Nathan Reekie of Omaha 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 before he fell to Ferran Calvo of Oklahoma. The Sooner defeated Markes 6-2, 6-1. half, that,” Herman said. “But if we want to win and win cham- pionships, we’ve got to find a way to run the football.”
Start with the offensive line, a unit that’s down two injured starting tackles and now woefully thin after several trans- fers. Freshman Derek Kerstetter started at right tackle against Iowa State over soph- omore Denzel Okafor, a surprising move that spoke volumes about both players. “He practiced better,” Herman said of Kerstetter.
The line had a disastrous third quarter, picking up four holding penalties in that period. Still, the line mashed Iowa State’s defense in the fourth quarter as Texas ran off the final 7 minutes, 35 seconds for the win.
Who should be getting the carries? Four games in, Kyle Porter has a team-leading 46 carries for 3.1 yards per attempt. Chris Warren III has 42 carries and averages 6.1 yards per attempt.
Porter has shown little dynamic playmaking abil- ity to warrant so many carries in the first four games. Warren is a player who historically gets better as the game grinds on. He got only four carries against USC for 15 yards but 16 carries against Iowa State for 44 yards.
“I feel like Chris and Kyle are interchangeable backs, believe it or not,” offensive coordinator Tim Beck said on Sept. 13. Warren, a junior, is a 1,000-yard rusher; Porter, a sophomore, has 307 career yards.
Keep an eye on freshman Toneil Carter going forward.
“It’s obvious that Toneil is probably our most twitched-up, explosive, topend speed tailback,” Herman said. “It was never a talent issue with Toneil; it was a trust issue as a true freshman. Is he going to go left when he’s supposed to go right?” the coach added. “Is he going to block the right guy when he’s asked to block people? Is he going to protect the football, because quite honestly, he’d been a bit inconsistent with that in practice.”
And there’s the issue of how Texas will run its quar- terbacks.
The Longhorns announced on Saturday t hat s opho- more Shane Buechele suffered an ankle injury against Iowa State. He was wearing a protective boot but is not expected to miss any prac- tice time this week.
Buechele, with a 6-8 career record as a starter, has suffered rib, hand, concussion, shoulder and ankle injuries. He’s never been a dynamic runner, averaging 1.6 yards in 14 games.
Freshman Sam Ehlinger, 1-1 as a starter, is a far better runner, to hear his teammates tell it. Ehlinger averaged 2.2 yards per carry against San Jose State and USC. He’ll likely try to run through a linebacker rather than run out of bounds, never mind the wisdom of such a decision.
In four games, UT’s two quarterbacks are averaging 13.5 rushing attempts per game. Take the sacks out of that total, and the number drops to 10.5.
If Beck is content to use the zone read, Ehlinger may be a better fit long term. The politics of changing quarterbacks requires a higher degree of calculus, though.
Texas has capable blockers and a plethora of runners. This is an issue that can be solved. The offense simply cannot rely on the passing attack alone to win games.
“It’s difficult as a play-caller when you’re making one yard or two yards,” Herman said. “You want to just say, ‘Forget it, let’s just throw it every snap.’ That’s not the answer, either.”