More Aggies

Beginning Wednesday, the Enterprise will feature a UC Davis page devoted to those sports you may not hear as much about. The page will feature a notebook, standings, statistics and things to watch out for in the Big West Conference.

For example, the UCD men's water polo team is 14-5 overall and 11-0 in the Western Water Polo Association. Are the playoffs on the horizon for the Aggies? Men's and women's soccer and volleyball will also be featured.

Make sure to check it out.

Aggies fight way back to draw

Jake Mogelson latched onto a Dan Campbell cross in the 85th minute Friday as eight-man UC Davis battled No. 10 UC Santa Barbara to a 2-2 draw down on the Central Coast.

The key word there, of course, would be battle. There were 39 fouls called in the game and referee Martik Mirikian issued four red cards in the match, three in the 27th minute after a fight broke out that, according to UCSB's press release, involved all 22 players on the pitch. UCD lost Nicholas Lind and Dylan Curtis in the fracas. Santa Barbara, however, lost all-everything defender Andy Iro. Iro is 6-foot-5, so maybe he counts as two people. Aggie midfielder Christopher Beville was expelled in the second overtime for his second bookable offense.

Taking a draw against UCSB on the road is a pretty big deal for the Aggies, and probably as impressive as any of the Aggies' six victories so far this season. The goes especially true given than the Gauchos came north and administered a 4-0 beatdown two weeks ago. It's also pretty clear that when these teams get together, they're pretty intent on kicking each other as much as the ball. The previous match included 28 fouls, which UC Davis coach Dwayne Shaffer felt was too few.

It will be interesting to see if the Aggies can start putting together victories now to make a case for the postseason.

The Mud Bowl

Normally, the month of October is dry in this part of Northern California and high school football is played under normal conditions. But Mother Nature has been at work early this year, and Halden Field was a soupy mess on Friday for Davis High School's first Delta Valley Conference game.

The Blue Devils (5-1, 1-0) made the best of the conditions, rolling to a 33-0 win over Valley. The two teams combined for six turnovers, but four were by the Vikings (2-4, 0-1). One of those was an interception by Sean Richards, who returned it to the house for the second straight week. Oh yes, Richards was named Homecoming King at halftime.

Running back Jake Lubisch scored twice and finished with 78 yards on the ground. Cody Keefer scored on a 19-yard run and Mauricio Davidson caught a 13-yard touchdown from Scott Malinoff (5-for-9, 45 yards, no picks).

For a complete report, check out Sunday's Enterprise.

In other DVC action, Franklin edged Nevada Union 21-20, handing the Miners their fifth straight defeat, and Elk Grove beat Laguna Creek 25-13. For other area schools, it was an 1-for-4 night: Woodland fell to Inderkum 44-9, Pioneer lost to Yuba City 29-18, Dixon was downed by Center 14-0 and Winters snapped a five-game losing streak by beating Orland 6-0.

- Chris Saur

Killer crossover

Can you believe that it's already basketball season?

Well, the games don't start for another couple of weeks, but UC Davis' teams take to the court Friday night for the formal start of practice. Both squads have been allowed two hours a week of full-team workouts since school started, but the work begins in earnest after Friday's Aggie Jam.

And there's plenty to chatter about between now and Nov. 11's men's-women's doubleheader at The Pavilion. On the men's side, Gary Stewart thinks he's found the right formula to bring the Aggies back from last year's frustrating five-win campaign. And on the women's side, there are some seriously high hopes for success as the seniors Jessica Campbell and Ellen Porshneva rejoin a young group that used last season to gain important experience.

Engle to start Saturday

Matt Engle will start at quarterback Saturday for UC Davis against Cal Poly, in place of the injured Tim Plough.

For the full story as well as a complete UCD injury report, check Thursday's Enterprise.

Good morning from the Dome

FARGO, N.D. – I’m an Easterner at heart, which means I have a whole closet full of honest-to-goodness Winter clothes that I never get to wear. So I was probably the only person who was excited to see this game on the schedule. Then I wake up on Saturday morning at the Fargo Forum reports that the high is supposed to be 82 degrees. That’s right, it’s going to be warmer here than in Davis (although, admittedly, we’re not measuring the temperature on the Aggie Stadium turf). We’ll be inside at the climate-controlled Fargodome, so that shouldn’t matter one way or the other. But if strange things start to happen today on the field, note that we were the first to identify the phenomenon.

Here are a couple of pregame notes:

--There is absolutely no pre-game angst in Fargo for this one. From fans to media, just about everyone is convinced that the Bison are the better team and could run the Aggies out of the gym. They have reason to be confident given the way the year has gone. This is the fourth consecutive full house, at the Fargodome, which is an NDSU record

--Emmanuel Benjamin will handle the punting duties for UCD. Brett Dickinson is here, but isn’t expected to play.

--I’ve been informed that a one online gambling site is giving the Aggies 15 points this week. That seems a little high, leading me to the conclusion that Bison fans must gamble on their team’s games a lot. This blog doesn’t encourage gambling, but 15 points? As a frame of reference, other offshore gambling sites were giving the Aggies 6 1/2 points last week against San Jose State.

'Dogs have mean bite

VACAVILLE - Even though Friday was a battle of two unbeaten teams, Vacaville High might be on just a little different level than Davis High. The Bulldogs, ranked No. 2 in Northern California by calhisports.com, smoked the Blue Devils 56-14, blitzing DHS 35-0 in the first quarter alone.

University of Washington-bound Terrance Dailey rushed for 192 yards and five scores, including a 73-yard jaunt in the first quarter. Johnny Feaster added 135 yards and two scores.

The carnage did not stop there. DHS quarterback Scott Malinoff was picked off four times and did not find the end zone. Running back Jake Lubisch had 89 yards on the ground, including a 20-yard touchdown. The Blue Devils' only other score came on a Sean Richards' 75-yard interception return.

Will this loss have any carry-over effect on DHS in the Delta Valley Conference? Or is Vacaville simply that good? These are questions that will play out over the final five weeks of the regular season.

Check out Sunday's Enterprise for a complete report.

In other area action, Dixon beat Natomas 25-14, highlighted by 67- and 63-yard runs by running back Mike Mercado. On Thursday, Woodland edged Rio Linda 26-24 to improve to 3-2 overall. Pioneer fell to 1-4 with a 42-7 loss to defending section champ Del Campo and Winters began Butte View League play with a 21-14 loss to Gridley.

- Chris Saur

Trombetta a late scratch

FARGO, N.D. -- Running back Joe Trombetta attempted to practice on Thursday and couldn't do it. So he hasn't made the trip to the Upper Midwest. Brandon Tucker will start and be backed up by Demario Warren. True freshman Corbin Cutshaw is the emergency third running back and has traveled, although UC Davis' preference will be preserve his redshirt year.

Wide receiver Chris Carter, who was officially called "questionable," is on the trip. We'll check in from the Fargodome tomorrow morning. UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs said this week he expected Carter to play 10 to 15 plays against the Bison, although Carter probably would like to see more.

Debate class

I chose to punt on a full-blown Great West Football Conference preview this week. It seemed not to fit given that UC Davis' real goal this year was to make the postseason and the GWFC is about to swap out two members. But UCD's league opener at No. 3 North Dakota State corresponds with the halfway point of the season. It's as a good a time as any to try and forecast the rest of the season. Even at 2-3 and inconsistent, it's not necessarily difficult to see the Aggies stringing together some victories in the coming weeks. I don't even have to frame my argument with a bunch of "if" statements or demand wholesale changes to personnel to do it.

UCD matches up pretty well with all the teams in the Great West. Three of them -- the Bison, Cal Poly and South Dakota State -- are essentially ground-oriented teams. This is not to belittle those passing games (especially NDSU's with Steve Walker), but those teams would rather control the game on the ground. The Aggies are pretty good at pretty good at preventing teams from doing that. Meanwhile, the defenses UCD will face are all really skilled, but not necessarily physically overwhelming the way San Jose State was. The Aggies are as balanced as they've been in the past three years and as long as they can maintain that, they can be a difficult team to stop.

Of course I can also argue the other side equally strongly. This is a mistake-prone UCD team that hasn't shown on any consistent basis it can kill off games. The Bison are ranked third and are too good. Cal Poly has a big-play passing game to Ramses Barden that can hit the Aggies where they've struggled. And South Dakota State just has UCD's number after the last two seasons. The Aggies could be 3-6 by the end of the month.

The reality is probably going to be somewhere in between. From my point of view, at least it won't be boring.

Saturday wasn't really an audition for the WAC

San Jose State announced its two-game contract with UC Davis back in 2004, when there were legitimate questions about the whether the program would survive in its current form. In fact, the Spartans announced multiple two-game contracts with I-AA schools them (Cal Poly was one of the others, I believe). I remember wondering if the Aggies would be welcoming San Jose State into the Great West and the Big West any time soon. For what it's worth, I think both leagues would jump at that opportunity. But SJSU's program appears healthy enough not to have to face that decision any time soon.

It's more likely now, that SJSU will one day welcome the Aggies in the WAC. Just don't expect that to happen any time soon.

For one thing, the NCAA has a moratorium on teams moving to Division I or between football subdivisions in place until 2011. For another, most people in the UCD department are still exhausted from all the heavy lifting it took to get to Division I. Also, everyone on campus seems to like the Big West. The central administration likes that the UC campuses involved win Nobel Prizes. And the athletic department likes that Big West offers 17 sports, which is good for most of its teams. I would offer this: If UCD could only attract 7,200 people for Northeastern, what makes anyone think it could do any better for Louisiana Tech?

But with plans in place to eventually have a 30,000-seat football stadium, it's hard to think Bowl Subdivision Football (formerly I-A) hasn't crossed someone's mind.