October 17, 2004 in Sports

Rough day for Purdue QB Orton

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Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton sat alone on the bench after fumbling away what seemed a certain victory in the final minutes in West Lafayette, Ind.

Orton was hard-pressed to find solace. In his mind, the responsibility for the Boilermakers’ gut-wrenching 20-17 loss to No. 10 Wisconsin on Saturday belonged to one man — himself.

“That was really on me for fumbling the football, you can’t do that as a senior,” Orton said softly after the game. “We should have killed a lot of time, we probably had the win.”

Instead of celebrating another big victory that might have put Purdue in position for a Big Ten title run, Orton was forced to second-guess his decision to stretch for a first down with 2:36 to go.

It was a rare mistake for the senior from Iowa.

In the Boilermakers’ first five games, Orton made all the right reads, all the correct decisions and all the plays Purdue needed to reach No. 5 in the Top 25. He’d led Purdue to its best start since 1945 and positioned himself for a late-season charge at the Heisman Trophy.

On Saturday, he even rallied the Boilermakers for 17 second-half points against a defense tied for the lowest scoring average in the nation.

But in the blink of an eye, Orton’s storybook season turned nightmarish.

For Orton, it was not just another bad moment in his toughest game of the year. It was a mistake he knew he shouldn’t have made.

“Every loss is tough and we were real close,” he said. “We had so much momentum. I don’t want to say it’s gone, but it’s tough for me because I want to win a championship.”

Black Knights on a roll

Army rallied to beat South Florida 42-35 in Tampa, Fla., for its first winning streak in seven years.

Army snapped a school-record 19-game losing streak with a 48-29 win over Cincinnati on Oct. 9. The Black Knights last won consecutive games in 1997, when they beat Rutgers and Colgate.

Army also snapped a nine-game road losing streak and ended a 12-game losing streak in night road games that dated to a 41-14 victory at Kansas State in 1987.

Mount Union’s streak hits 100

Zac Bruney passed for six touchdowns, including two each to Drew Hanley and Joe Bugara, as Mount Union (5-0) beat Marietta 57-0 in Alliance, Ohio, for its 100th consecutive regular-season victory.

It also was the 90th Ohio Conference win in a row for the Purple Raiders, who have captured seven Division III national championships since 1993.

Bruney completed 20 of 26 passes for 252 yards without an interception or a sack.

The Purple Raiders’ last regular-season loss was a 23-10 setback on Oct. 15, 1994, at home against Baldwin-Wallace.

Since then, the Purple Raiders have gone 126-4, with six perfect 14-0 seasons.

The only losses came in the NCAA quarterfinals in 1994, the semifinals in 1995 and 1999 and the championship game last season.

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