Jordan Jackson scored two first half goals and added an assist to help lead the Nebraska women’s soccer team to a 4-0 win over IUPUI. Morgan Marlborough scored her fourth of the season and Colleen Goetzman added her first in the second half as the Huskers improved to 4-0, playing in front of their largest crowd since October of 2008.

NU is becoming one of the more dominating teams on their home pitch. They are 13-0-2 since their last loss on October 17th of 2008.

The baseball season is officially over for our pro teams in Nebraska. The Omaha Royals finished the season with back to back 9-1 wins at Oklahoma City. The Royals finished 81-63, one game behind Iowa and Memphis as the Redbirds won their division. Next season, the Royals move to their new ballpark in Sarpy County with a new team name, they’ll still be affiliated with the Kansas City Royals, but they are having fans help select a new team name.

The Huskers came out of the Western Kentucky game relatively healthy. The one issue was defensive end Cameron Meredith who went down with a shoulder injury. He’s hoping to be back this week against Idaho.

The Huskers got back to work on the practice field on Monday getting ready for their 11:30 game against Idaho this Saturday. According to coach Bo Pelini, a day off from school work.

Now, when you think of the state of Idaho, the first school you’re going to think about is Boise State who came back to beat Virginia Tech 33-30 last night, but the Idaho Vandals also of the WAC are quietly starting to make a name for themselves after they won the Humanitarian Bowl on Boise State’s smurf turf 43-42 over Bowling Green. This coming from a team that usually wins one-three games a season. Pelini certainly sees some talent from the Vandals.

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Pittsburg State scored touchdowns on two of  its first three possessions and Chadron State managed just 256 yards of offense losing to the Gorillas 14-3. PSU scored after just three plays when redshirt freshman Solomon Watkins ran 34 yards down the sideline with less than a minute gone off the clock.

Pittsburg State added another touchdown on its third possession when quarterback Zac Dickey went 13 yards up the middle on an option keeper to conclude a 44-yard drive. Chadron State put together a nine-play, 40-yard drive early in the second quarter that ended when redshirt freshman Michael Ziola booted a 46-yard field goal. It was his fifth field goal in just two games.

After the field goal, the Eagles were unable to get closer than the Pittsburg 39-yard line the remainder of the game, and the Chadron State defense held PSU out of the end zone the rest of the game.

The Nebraska-Kearney Lopers rallied for a 32-29 win over No. 12 Nebraska- Omaha in the Maverick’s home opener Caniglia Field. UNK QB Jake Spitzlberger found WR Kyle Kaiser for a 59-yard touchdown with 7:28 left in the fourth quarter for the game-winning score.

UNO led most of the game until early in the fourth quarter when Spitzlberger found Rustin Dring for a 30 yard TD to give UNK its first lead of the ball game. It was all Mavs early in the second half when they blocked a UNK punt and took it in for a touchdown to make the score 23-10 before UNK mounted their big comeback.

UNO tallied 476 yards of total offense to UNK’s 463. The Lopers won the battle of turnovers, forcing three (2 fumble, 1 INT) while UNO was unable to force any in the game.

Shows what I know. I thought for sure Bo Pelini would name Zac Lee as the starting quarterback. Good thing I was wrong. Taylor Martinez, became the first freshman to start at QB for a season opener at NU and what a debut he had. “T-Magic” ran for 127 yards and three touchdowns and threw for 136 as the 8th Huskers rolled over Western Kentucky 49-10.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for Martinez and for a freshman to do what he did was pretty remarkable, but let’s remember, this was Western Kentucky. They are in their fourth season in the FBS, they have a new coaching staff and went winless last season. In fact, this loss made it the Hilltopper’s 21 defeat.

I guess when you schedule teams like this, it will allow Nebraska to have the longest streak of season opening wins in the nation. The Huskers won their 25th in a row.

Let’s get back to Martinez and the night he had. He is the first QB since 2003 to run for more than 100 yards in a game. He led NU to scores on the first two drives of the game and four of the eight for the game. Then he turned the game over to Cody Green who worked a couple of series and drove the Huskers down for scores. Zac Lee, last year’s starter, now third on the depth chart, handed off twice and ran out the clock in the last four minutes.

Martinez averaged just over 18 yards in his seven runs with scores of 46, 19 and 15 yards. Again, while this was Western Kentucky, the thing about Martinez that makes him good is how explosive he is in his first steps. He’ll be the type of quarterback who could make up for busted plays or eliminate throwing mistake by running out of trouble.

Just as impressed as I was with the offense (even though it was Western Kentucky), I’m scratching my head how the NU defense gave up ten points, and let the Hilltoppers’ Bobby Rainey rush for 155 yards on 30 carries. Last year, NU was ninth against the run. Pelini called the defense an “embarrassment.” The Black Shirts were “red” faced after the game.

However, Pelini offered this assessment after game one of the season. “I’ve never been around a football team that played its best football in game one. You play that first one and move on. We have to make a big jump between game one and game two.”

Let’s hope there’s more to come from the “T-Magic” show.

The Lincoln Saltdogs fought to the finish in the final game of the season on Friday, falling 4-3 in 12 innings to Sioux Falls at Haymarket Park.  The Pheasants swept the best-of-five series, with all three games being decided by one run.

Sioux Falls plated the series-winning run in agonizing fashion in the top of the 12th.  With men on first and second and two out, Reggie Abercrombie came up with a broken-bat infield hit that loaded the bases.  Lincoln reliever Tycen PoVey then looked to retire Beau Torbert, but on a 2-2 count, the league’s leading hitter hit a slow roller up the third-base line for the game-winning single. 

The Saltdogs did get the tying run into scoring position with two out in the bottom of the 12th, but were unable to extend their season.

The Saltdogs had trailed 3-0 in the game after the top of the sixth, but fought back in the bottom half of the inning with two out and nobody on base.  Phil Hawke hit a single, and Brandon Jones followed with a triple to put Lincoln on the board.  Albenis Machado followed with an RBI single to make it 3-2. 

In the eighth inning, Machado hit a one-out solo home run, his second of the playoffs , to tie the game at three.

Lincoln out-hit the Pheasants 12-10, but the Saltdogs were unable to take advantage of multiple scoring chances for the third straight game.  The ’Dogs left 14 men on base in the game and stranded 33 runners over the three-game series. 

Machado ended the night 4-for-5 with two RBI and hit .500 in the series.  Hawke, Jones and Pat Trettel each had two-hit nights for Lincoln.

Despite the loss, Lincoln closes out another successful season.  The Saltdogs finished the regular season with a 51-45 record, the ninth time in ten seasons they ended above .500 and the seventh time they reached the 50-win plateau. 

Lincoln also made the playoffs for the seventh time in ten seasons.

Former Husker standout, Ndamukong Suh, now with the Detroit Lions was fined $7,500 by the NFL for his roughing-the-passer penalty on quarterback Jake Delhomme in an exhibition game against the Browns.

Suh grabbed Delhomme’s face mask and twisted it, wrapped his arms around Delhomme’s head and then threw him to the ground. In his defense, Suh said, “I was just going after the ball, and I had no clue that he had gotten rid of it.”