September 22, 1997
For Immediate Release
Contact: Judy Willson, SID
505.562.4309 or 356-4755

Saturday, September 27
Eastern New Mexico at Southeastern Oklahoma State University 1:30 pm
Paul Laird Field, Durant, Oklahoma

The Teams...Eastern New Mexico and Southeastern Oklahoma come into this Saturday's game with big wins last week. The Greyhounds upped their record to 3-0 on Saturday with 21-12 LSC crossover win against Southwestern Oklahoma. The Savages come into their Homecoming game with a close 15-14 win over perennial LSC power Texas A&M-Commerce, upping their record to 1-3. This will be a crossover game and will count in the conference standings, not in the divisional standings. SOSU leads the North Division at 1-0.

The Series...will get its start this week. The Hounds and Savages have never faced off before. The first meeting will be a key matchup of North vs. South in the LSC.

Against Southwestern Oklahoma...the Greyhounds kept things simple scoring touchdowns the old-fashioned way - rushing. (ENMU's last second touchdown by kickoff return in the previous week's game was featured on ESPN's Thursday night "Hidden Video" segment during halftime of the Miami/Pitt game.) Redshirt freshman Brady Bazzell (Mineral Wells, Texas) made the most of his first collegiate game. On his first series late in the first quarter, Bazzell engineered a Todd Wallis (Lewisville, Texas) 3-yard run to put ENMU on the board, 7-0. Bazzell took the ball into the end zone himself in the third quarter to put the Hounds up 14-0. Bazzell also quarterbacked the drive that gave Bruce Hatch (Bloomfield) a chance to run 20-yards into the endzone for the Hounds third touchdown of the game.

Hatch finished the game as the Hounds leading rusher with 12 carries for 97 yards. Bazzell was close behind with 92 yards on 10 carries. Starting quarterack Cam Sanders (Arlington, Texas) connected on five consecutive passes but finished the day 5 of 9 through the air with two interceptions.

Defensively for the Hounds sophomore defensive tackle John Williams (Earth, Texas) had two key quarterback sacks, two tackles for loss and blocked a PAT in addition to his three tackles. Strong safety Tony Cavalier (Jr., Pampa, Texas) picked off his third interception of the season for a 23-yard return late in the first half.

About Southeastern Oklahoma State (1-2, 1-0 LSC)...the Savages are coming off of a big win over Texas A&M-Commerce, 15-14, on Thursday night on the road. SOSU is led on offense by sophomore quarterback Chris Enloe, who is also the starting punter. Enloe has thrown 106 times this season completing 44 of the passes for 514 yards and 3 TDs. He is also the third leading rusher on the team with 29 yards and is averaging 39.2 yards per punt. His favorite target has been junior receiver Anthony Terrell. Terrell has caught 20 receptions for 235 yards and 1 touchdown. On defense, linebacker Steve Hohenberger leads all tacklers with 33 (12 solo).

Any Recognition Yet?...for the second week in a row the Greyhounds have been listed as a team under consideration for the NCAA Division II West Region poll.

Out with the old, in with the new...two ENMU records were set in Saturday's game. Senior Charlie Ragle has set a new Greyhound record for career punt return yardage. With his 54 yards of punt return this week, Ragle upped his career total to 655 yards, surpassing Mario Smalls who had 609 career punt return yards from 1988-90.

A second record fell with regard to knockdowns by the offense. The offense recorded 154 knockdowns against Southwestern Oklahoma, 111 by the offensive line alone. The old record was 105.

Grounded Hounds...linebacker James Perez (Jr., Albuquerque) will be out for this week's game with a soft tissue injury to his back that he suffered in the first quarter of ENMU's game against N.M. Highlands. Senior quarterback Andy Cavalier (Pampa, Texas) will still be out for as many as the next twogames following orthoscopic knee surgery in late August. Cavalier has had several knee surgeries throughout his career. Three players will be out for a while following surgery - defensive lineman Dan McNally (Carrollton, Texas) had shoulder surgery two weeks ago, while defensive back Adrian Adams (Clovis) will have shoulder surgery some time this week; defensive lineman Jeremy King (Clovis) is also out for this week's game following knee surgery several weeks ago.

Quotes from Bud...About the Southwestern game - "I am pleased with the way we continue to improve. Except for one play (54-yard touchdown pass) our defense played very well. It is very important that we continue to get better."

About Southeastern Oklahoma State - "They are a very well-coached team. Their quarterback (Enloe) is very dangerous. He has very good foot speed and their offense is very well-planned. They have a defense that never quits and a special teams that will be as good as any we've already faced. It will be hard to play at their place on Homecoming."

Coaches Awards for SWOSU Game...

Leader of the Pack (offense) - Brady Bazzell, QB, Fr.-R, Mineral Wells, Texas

Mean Green (defense) - John Williams, DT, So., Earth, Texas

Hungry Hound (special teams) - Charlie Ragle, HB, Sr., Playas

Hustler - Randall Harris, OG, Fr., DeSoto, Texas; Floyd White, LB, So., Pampa, Texas

Pride (scout team) - Bart Notaro, LB, Sr., Hobbs; Jason Dudley, DE, Fr., Portales; Cain Cardiel, LB, So., Levelland, Texas

The New LSC...the 1997 season begins expanded conference competition with 15 schools competing for the Lone Star Conference title. ENMU will compete in the South Division with Abilene Christian University, Angelo State University, Midwestern State University, Tarleton State University, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Texas A&M University-Kingsville and West Texas A&M University. The Greyhounds were picked sixth in the 1997 LSC-South Division Pre-season Football Poll with 136 points behind Texas A&M-Kingsville (334), Angelo State (274), Texas A&M-Commerce (248), Abilene Christian (210) and Tarleton State (144). They will play each team in the South Division once, with two crossover games thrown in against North Division opponents. Each division will name a champion with the conference champion being determined on a combined divisional and crossdivisional record.

Hounds on the Airwaves...107.5 KSMX-FM will carry all the Greyhound football games at home and on the road. Don Elder will call the play-by-play as the "Voice of the Greyhounds" for the 1997 season. He will be joined on home broadcasts by color man Travis Barger. ENMU Sports Information Director Judy Willson will provide the color for the SOSU broadcast. Elder will also host the weekly Coaches Show on Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm from Juanito's Restaurant in Portales. The Coaches Show will be a weekly interview with Greyhound Head Football Coach Bud Elliott and special appearances by other ENMU and Portales High School coaches. KSMX is a member of Bergman Broadcasting, Inc.

Hounds on the Tube...the weekly television sports show, Sports Look, will air every week on Thursdays at 9:00 pm on KENW-TV, Channel 3. Dallan Sanders will host the program that takes a look at all the college and high school sports action in the eastern portion of New Mexico.

Coming Up for the Hounds...ENMU will host Abilene Christian University in their Homecoming Game on Saturday, October 4 at 2:00 pm at Greyhound Stadium.