Scott Soltis, Sports Editor
Lauren Packer, Assistant Sports Editor
►send
thletic
Events
Saturday
Lck and Field CO Baldwin
Wallace Invitational TBA
Softball vs. Mt. Aloysius
(DH) 1 p.m.
Golf @ Allegheny
Invitational TBA
Sunday
Golf @Allegheny
Invitational TBA
Baseball vs. Fredonia
(DH) 1 p.m. TV game
Monday
Men's Tennis @ Alfred
TBA
Tuesday
Men's Tennis @ Fredonia
3 p.m
Baseball vs. Oberlin
(DH) 1 p.m
Wednesday
Softball vs. Bethany
(DH) 3 p.m.
Thursday, May 1
Golf Behrend Invitational
@ Peek n' Peak, noon
Friday, May 2
Baseball, AMCC
Tournament TBA
Softball, AMCC
Tournament TBA
Water Polo @ Division 11l
Collegiate National
Chamionships
TBA
Johnson plans
By Rick Gosselin
The Dallas Morning News(KRT)
There is so much to like about Penn State running
back Larry Johnson _ size, speed, productivity and
versatility. Superlatives gush from behind the closed
doors of NFL draft rooms.
But there's one overriding negative that hovers over
his draft status. His alma mater. The NFL has grave
concerns about those Nittany Lion runners.
Johnson is the top-rated halfback on many an NFL
draft board. And well he should be. He's 6-1, 228
pounds, runs a 4.45-second 40-yard dash and is com
ing off one of the greatest seasons ever by a college
running back.
Johnson became the first Big Ten back to rush for
2,000 yards. He led the NCAA in rushing and won
the Doak Walker Award as college football's top ball
carrier. His average of 8.0 yards per carry is the best
of the 10 2,000-yard rushers in NCAA history.
The NFL would love to declare Johnson as the next
Franco Haths, the greatest of all Penn State runners.
But there are three solid masons for skepticism: Blair
Thomas, Ki-Jana Carter and Curtis Enis.
They represent the recent history of Penn State run-
BEACON SPORTS BRIEFS
Baseball
The Lions stand atop the AMCC with a The Lions are on a 5 game win streak
conference record of 9-2. with a conference record of 4-8.
Senior Keith Lepionka aids Lions in Freshman Kim Raff, included in this
overcoming Pitt-Bradford with two week's Best of the Rest, claims two wins
home runs and 12 RBIs. over Fredonia and Hilbert.
Junior Mitch Reckner leads the confer- Becky Corbin leads the conference in
ence in batting average with .474 and saves, and with rounds out the leaders in
RBIs with an average of 1.52
momentum
The races for intramural point system
champions are heating up as the year
draws to a close. The point system is a
year-long tally of how teams did in all
intramural sports for the year.
Itains get points for entering teams
and individuals in sports, wins in the
events, and bonuses for championships.
There are 17 sports for teams to earn
points in throughout the year.
The point system is split up into four
divisiorts: fraternity, independent,
women's, and coed.
Gone is the residence hall division
that was very tightly contested last year.
Lawrence Hall beat out perrennial
champs, Ahoy Hall by approximately
14 points..-lb put it into perspective,
that is just three wins in individutd bad-
BEHREND SPORTS SCENE
PHOTO BY HEATHER MYERS/BEHREND BEACON
Lions are turning things around just in time for AMCCs.
Intrarnurals heating up as year comes to a close
by Scott Soltis
Sports Editor
to outrun a jinxed Penn State history
ning backs. All were top-five picks in NFL drafts:
Thomas second by the New York Jets in 1990, Carter
first by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1995 and Enis fifth
by the Chicago Bears in 1998. All failed miserably.
There wasn't a Pro Bowl appearance or 1,000-yard
effort in their combined 15 NFL seasons.
Thomas played seven years for four teams, rush
ing for 2,236 career yards and seven touchdowns.
Carter played five years with two teams, rushing for
1,055 yards and 19 touchdowns. Enis played only
three years with the Bears, rushing for 1,497 yards
and four touchdowns.
In hindsight, all were draft-day mistakes. The NFL
is reluctant to repeat that mistake with another Penn
State running back. So Johnson could slide out of
the top five, out of the top 10, maybe even out of the
first round.
That would be the mistake, Johnson cautions. He's
different from Thomas, Carter and Enis.
"I'm the only Penn State running back who had only
one full starting season," Johnson said. "Those other
guys had more wear and tear than I did _ two or three
seasons where they started and took most of the
pounding.
"My case was different. We had a good quarter-
triples with an average of .11 per game
SPORTS
Friday, April 25, 2003
trying
minion where teams can enter up to 15
individuals.
With residents constantly moving
from location to location, it is hard to
sustain interest in hall intrmumls.
The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity has
its division pretty much locked up with
1,741'1%11114: edistent second is the
Kappa Delta Rho fraternity.
The other three divisions are still up
in the air with two sports remaining.
Both badminton and soccer are under
way, and it is in these sports that the
champions for the year will be crowned.
In the highly contested independent
division, Fockers a 213-point lead over
Super Delta Five. The Fochts, Super
Delta Five, and the XXX Men have
been in a tight , race throughout the sea
son. There are a lot of points to go
around between all of the entry points,
win points, and championship points.
Softball
o gain
AMCCs
Contributed Article
The Behrend Lions
gained two victories over
winless Lake Erie this
week. The Lions demol
ished Lake Erie in the first
game 11-2.
Following that amazing
show they went on to
outscore Lake Erie 12-3
in only five innings.
Earlier on in the week
the team also defeated
Hilbert in a doubleheader
5-2 and 12-3.
The five-game winning
streak has helped to boost
the team's morale after a
rough start to their sea
son. It is also by far the
team's longest of the sea-
The Lions now sit fifth
out of seven teams in the
AMCC standings.
AMCC action contin
ues this weekend with the
championships.
Penn State Altoona is
ranked No. I going into
this important event.
back, and it opened up things for me, so I didn't get
knocked around a whole lot."
Johnson has a valid point. He enters the draft with
167 fewer college carries than Carter, 294 fewer than
Enis and 335 fewer than Thomas. So his body will
be fresher in the NFL than those of his predecessors.
Carter was a two-year starter who left Penn State
after his junior year. Enis also was a two-year starter
who left school early. Thomas was the only one who
stuck around to complete his eligibility. Counting
1988, when he was awarded an injury redshirt, Tho
mas spent five years on campus and finished as the
school's No. 2 all-time rusher.
Johnson also spent five years on campus but didn't
start until his final season. Which feeds the skepti
cism if he had special traits, why didn't coach Joe
Paterno start him before then?
It's not like Patemo didn't know what he had in
Johnson. His father, Larry Johnson Sr., coaches the
defensive line on Paterno's staff, and Larry Jr. played
his high school ball in State College. He was a 2,000-
yard rusher as a senior in high school, too.
Yet Johnson was never coddled as an elite player
and that's one of his best selling points to the NFL.
He developed into a football player at Penn State,
NATIONAL SPORTS NEWS
NHL NBA
In the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Tampa Playoffs start out with a series tie in the
Bay Lightening knocked out the Wash- East, with Indiana and Boston at 1-1.
ington Capitals and take on New Jersey
next. Also tied in the East are New Jersey
and Milwaukee, both with one game.
Philadelphia Flyers take out Toronto
Maple Leafs in first round. They will
face Ottawa Senators in the second The series in the West are also tied,
round. with Minnesota and Los Angeles
Lakers both with one game.
BASEBALL
CONTINUED FROM BACK COVER
This time, Brent Gabel got the win for Behrend with four innings
of work as well as one hit, no runs, no walks, and three strikeouts.
Gabel has a 6-3 record with a 3.80 ERA and 47 strikeouts. Jason
Shaffer threw for the last half of the game with six hits, three runs,
no walks, and six strikeouts. Shaffer is 4-1 with 39 Ks.
On Tuesday, the Lions hit the road again to play Fredonia.
Things looked good for the squad with a 3-I lead going into the
bottom of the sixth. Fredonia came out with bats blasting, though,
and accumulated nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
Behrend tried to stage a rally in the final innings, but four more
runs weren't enough. Fredonia won the game 10-7.
Errors were once again a glaring problem for the Lions. They
racked up five more in the game against Fredonia. The offense
continued to perform, though. Reckner and outfielder Tim Stafford
both had a double and Shane Elzer had a triple.
The pitchers were unable to contain Fredonia's offense. Tony
Kordecki pitched for 5 2/3 innings with five hits, five runs, four
walks, and two strikeouts. McCartney pitched 1 2/3 innings and
gave up four hits, five runs, one walk, and had two strikeouts.
Ray DeVaul finished the last inning with one strikeout.
The loss dropped the Lions' record to 23-9, but didn't affect
their AMCC record, where the team is performing very well.
Lepionka was named the AMCC Player of the Week. He batted
.500 with 12 RBl's, hitting .373 with 38 hits and four homeruns.
Reckner and outfielder Adam Best are the owners of the top
two batting averages in the league at .474. Reckner also has 54
hits, four home runs and a league-leading 47 RBIs and five triples.
Best has 45 hits and 21 stolen bases, best in the AMCC.
As the season winds down, games increase in importance. Next
up for Behrend are twin bills against Fredonia and Oberlin on
Sunday and Tuesday.
The Lions hope to also give their best effort every game because
at this point in the season, every game is extremely important.
"We have to maintain a high level of play for each entire game
from here on out," said Seyler. "Consistency is very important
and players need to step up in key situations. Everyone on the
team has to be involved."
Eleven teams in total collected points
in the independant division and is the
largest and most competitive division.
The Fockers and XXX Men have
been competing with each other for a
few years along with the now defunct
Qutta the Blue. •
of last year's Ou ; "4tiam
started the year as Monkey's With Guns,
but later merged with the Fockers.
This is Super Delta Five's first com
petitive intramural year, it is in races in
the women's and coed divisiotis as well
as the Independent.
The women's division is also very
tight The sorority Theta Phi Alpha cur
rently is in the lead with 665 points fol
lowed by the women of Super Delta
Five, 548 points.
With 50 points going to the women's
singles badminton champion and 50
going to the doubles champs, 100 points
The Behrend Beacon
is not a very comfortable lead.
Finally in the coed division, Super
Delta five is currently in the lead with
764 points. The Altny Hall coed Minn
SDS's heel( 753
vision will receive t-shitts for all of
their members as a reward for their
hard work. With the popularity of
intramurals remaining steady, and
friendly rivalries between teams de
veloping, it ltioks like tight races will
becothe a trend in the near fliture.
not just a running back. He did it all for the Nittany
Lions before becoming an All-America catching,
blocking, returning kicks, blocking kicks and cover
ing kicks.
"That's going to help me big time, because I never
did stop playing special teams, all the way through
my senior year," Johnson said. "The NFL is looking
for more than somebody who can just run and catch.
They're looking for someone who can contribute in
all areas. I believe I can."
Johnson posted four of the NCAA's top 10 indi
vidual rushing games last fall, paced by his 327-yard
performance against Indiana. He slapped 279 yards
on Michigan State in one half, sitting out the second
half of the season finale against the Spartans. His
2,015 yards was the ninth-best season in NCAA his
tory.
"It comes down to what you do on the football
field," Johnson said.
And no Penn State running back not Enis nor Carter
nor even success stories like Harris, Lydell Mitchell
or Curt Warner ever brought the credentials to the
draft table that Johnson brings.
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