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Salukis' special teams step it up again

By Les Winkeler, The Southern

Sunday, October 12, 2008 9:12 AM CDT

CARBONDALE - Special teams play had a major impact on Southern Illinois University's 60-7 win over Indiana State - even before a second ticked off the clock.

With the explosive Larry Warner positioned near the goal line, Sycamores kicker Braulio Martinez angled the ball toward the sideline. The ball took an SIU hop, rolling out of bounds.

As the result of the infraction, the Salukis put the ball in play at their own 40.

"I get that feeling (they aren't kicking to me), but it's helping our offense out, giving us great field position," Warner said. "I look at it like this, them not kicking to me and kicking it out is better than a kickoff or punt return.

"If they take a chance of kicking to me, they might stop me. If they kick it out every time, they're giving us great field position. I'm excited about that."

And SIU coach Dale Lennon was excited about the overall special teams play Saturday.

The special teams put points on the board: Lance Caldwell blocked a second quarter punt, scooped up the ball and lunged into the end zone for a touchdown.

Special teams gave the Salukis great field position: Travis Bloomfield recovered a muffed punt in the third quarter. And Blake Sims downed a Scott Ravanesi punt at the Indiana State 1.

Ravanesi's punt bounced straight up in the air at the goal line, giving Sims time to run under it.

"That's something we actually did work on this week, kicking from the 45 to the 50," Lennon said. "Scott's leg is so strong, a lot of times he's just been kicking them into the end zone.

"He did a good job today of toning down his kick. Not that he's that good he can make it stick at the 1, but that in itself was somewhat of a tone-setter that things were bouncing our way today."

The Salukis made big special teams hits all day, particularly Kyle Walker and Chauncey Mixon.

"We really have a bunch of guys on the team that love to play hard and they love to play football," Walker said. "That's one thing that helps out. People just like to be out there and play the game."

And, even when things didn't work out as planned, the Salukis made the best of it.

SIU had a bad snap on a conversion attempt. The ball sailed past Ravanesi, the holder, but bounced right to kicker Kyle Dougherty.

Dougherty rolled to the right sideline, leaped into the air and tossed a floater that came down in the hands of backup defensive end Jason Seaman.

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com

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