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Sports Update For Week Of Sept. 24
BEST FOOTBALL START SINCE 1994
With a 38-7 victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Parents' Weekend at Bowers Stadium, Sam Houston State upped its 2000 season record to 3-1, the best start by a Bearkat football team since the 1994 SHSU squad stood 4-0 after four games.
BEARKATS REST ON OPEN DATE
Sam Houston State will be open this week, having completed its 2000 pre-Southland Football League schedule. The Bearkats open SFL action on Oct. 7 at Jacksonville State.Traditionally, an open date has been a good omen for the Sam Houston State football team. Since moving up to the NCAA Division I-AA level in 1986, the Bearkats have won eight of their 12 games following an open date.
SAM HOUSTON DEFENSE LEADING SFL
The Sam Houston State defense ranks atop the Southland Football League in four statistical categories and stands second nationally in NCAA Division I-AA pass defense. SHSU leads the SFL in pass defense (85.3 yards per game), opponents fumbles recovered (7), scoring defense (13.00 points per game), and total defense (237.8 yards per game). The Bearkats are 14th in NCAA Division I-AA total defense.With more speed and depth and several outstanding players returning, the defense is expected to be a team strength for Sam Houston in 2000. Junior tackle REGINALD REDDICK appears ready to become a force in the Southland Football League. TRENT TAYLOR, who moved from running back to defensive end at mid-season last fall, also is expected to be a force in the defensive line. TOMMY TULL leads a talented group of linebackers. KEITH DAVIS, the top returning tackler for the Bearkats this season, is back to lead the secondary at free safety.
BEARKATS AT BOWERS STADIUM
The victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville Saturday gives Sam Houston State a 52-25-1 record in their 14 seasons in their home 14,000-seat Bowers Stadium facility. When Texas A&M-Kingsville converted a fumble return to the SHSU two into a fourth quarter touchdown, that ended a streak of 11 consecutive quarters without the Bearkats giving up a point on their home field. SHSU shut out Northwestern State 21-0 in their season home finale of 1999 and had blanked Southeastern Oklahoma State 44-0 in their home opener.
BEARKAT BLOCK PARTY
The Bearkat "punt block" unit has produced four punt blocks in as many games this year, returning two of the four blocks for touchdowns.The plays continue an SHSU special teams tradition that has seen the Kats block 41 punts during the past ten seasons. That includes a school record six punt blocks in 1992 and five during both the 1996 and 1997 seasons. In SHSU's victory over Northwestern State in 1992, the Bearkats set a school record with three punt blocks in one game. Sam Houston State has recorded two punt blocks in one game three times.
KEITH DAVIS, junor from Italy, Texas, who blocked three punts last season, picked up his first block of the 2000 season, batting down a punt attempt at the Texas A&M-Kingsville 32 yard line in Saturday's fourth quarter. CHRIS FOSTER, senior from Port Arthur Jefferson, picked up the loose ball just inside the 20 and ran in for the touchdown. Foster has two blocks this year. He returned his own block of a Louisiana-Lafayette punt 12 yards for a touchdown in Sam Houston State's 21-14 victory over the NCAA Division I-A Ragin' Cajuns to open the 2000 season. His second block came at Western Illinois.
REGINALD REDDICK produced the second punt block of the 2000 season in the first quarter of the Southeastern game. The play set up Sam Houston State's third touchdown.
QUARTERBACK ALBERT BRADLEY
Senior ALBERT BRADLEY (6-1, 222, Houston/Madison) directs the Bearkat offense from his starting quarterback position. Bradley has passed for 2,862 yards in 28 games during the past five years at Sam Houston State. Bradley, who started seven games as a freshman and sophomore in 1996 and 1997, missed the 1998 season after an ankle injury in the season opener. After receiving a medical red-shirt, he returned to play in seven games as the back-up to Walter Payton Award finalist Chris Chaloupka last year. Bradley has passed for 575 yards and three touchdowns this season. He passed for 197 yards and a touchdown against Texas A&M-Kingsville, his second best passing yardage game as a Bearkat. His career high was 231 yards against Southwest Texas as a freshman in 1996.
WIDE RECEIVER MATT DOMINGUEZ
At the other end of the Bearkats' passing attack is the top receiver in Southland Football League history, MATT DOMINGUEZ. The senior All-American wide receiver is 78 yards away from becoming the first Southland Football League player ever to gain more than 3,000 yards receiving in his career.Dominguez's career totals stand at 186 catches for 2,923 yards and 25 touchdowns. Cisco Richard, who played for Northeast Louisiana in 1987-1990, held the old SFL career catches record with 179. Joey Hamilton, who played for Jacksonville State in 1996-1999, held the previous SFL career pass receiving yardage record with 2,881.
Dominguez has been a first team All-SFL wide receiver the past two years and was SFL "Freshman of the Year" in 1998. Dominguez was a third team selection on two NCAA Division I-AA All-America squads in 1999.
Dominguez holds six Sam Houston State receiving records including career catches (186), yards (2,923), and touchdowns (25), season catches (67) and touchdowns (13), and single game catches (10), and touchdowns (4). He has caught at least one pass in 36 of 37 games as a Bearkat, including 34 in a row since the Jacksonville State game his freshman season. Dominguez has caught passes for 100 or more yards in nine games.
VOLLEYBALL HOSTS THREE SLC MATCHES
The Sam Houston State volleyball team will play host to three Southland Conference opponents this week at Johnson Coliseum. The Bearkats meet Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday, Stephen F. Austin State on Friday, and Texas-Arlington on Saturday. All three matches begin at 7 p.m.Sam Houston State stands 1-10 so far this season after dropping two three-game losses on the road last weekend at Lamar and McNeese State.
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Media Contact: Paul Ridings
Sept. 24, 2000
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