kings sport betting
As a matter of routine last spring, University of Montana graduate student Erin Dozhier would settle into their home office on the north end of Missoula and prepare for a barrage of questions about houseplants and parrots. The queries came from public school kids hundreds of miles away, their worlds temporarily connected to Dozhier’s through a version of Zoom often utilized by therapists for virtual counseling. Usually, Dozhier would start with their most tried-and-true strategy for building rapport with young clients. “Number one, if you want students to talk to you, ask them about their pets or show them your pet,” said Dozhier, whose parrot Alfie often made appearances in such sessions. Dozhier is one of a growing number of students from UM’s social work, school counseling and mental health counseling programs who have delivered such services for K-12 children in Montana’s far-flung rural districts. What began as an experimental effort to address the mental health side of school safety has, over the past five years, evolved into a fixture both for the university’s Safe Schools Center and for the small schools it serves. Dubbed VAST — short for Virtually Assisted School Teams — the program now boasts six grad students and 22 participating districts stretching from the Bitterroot Valley to the North Dakota border. The free counseling services VAST has made available to young Montanans highlight a growing focus among leaders across the state’s education continuum on student mental health. According to Montana’s latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 43% of responding high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row, and more than a quarter had seriously considered suicide — the highest annual rate since 1991. Educators often point to rising rates of youth anxiety and depression as a contributor to the steady decline in statewide academic performance, and for schools large and small, financial and hiring difficulties frequently stand in the way of providing robust mental health resources. Even outside the K-12 system, such support for students in Montana’s more rural communities may be dozens if not hundreds of miles away. RELATED COVERAGE These Native tribes are working with schools to boost attendance Native American students miss school at higher rates. It only got worse during the pandemic Tensions rise as teachers remain on the picket line in 3 Massachusetts communities For program leader Tammy Tolleson Knee, who serves as school support liaison for UM’s Safe Schools Center, the issues VAST was crafted to address have only become more pressing since the pandemic and speak to social and societal forces at work well beyond a school’s hallways. She told MTFP that as of this week, 53 K-12 students in Montana have been referred to the program for one-on-one counseling, with more than a dozen more referrals expected. “One of the great hardships for families is just what’s happening with the economy,” Tolleson Knee said. “And when families are stressed, kids become stressed.” Some districts, including in the northeast Montana town of Bainville, have been relying on VAST for years to meet the needs of their most vulnerable students. Other districts such as the Broadus Public Schools have only recently joined the program but are already reporting an impact. Broadus school counselor Dori Phillips told Montana Free Press that in the two months since the district formalized its participation, she’s already referred six students to one-on-one tele-counseling through VAST. “I don’t know where I would be without the help with those particular kiddos,” Phillips said. When Dan Lee first envisioned the VAST program in 2019, he saw tele-counseling as the preventative prong in a larger effort to address student safety. As then-head of UM’s Safe Schools Center , Lee heard time and again from educators that shortages of mental health professionals in rural communities posed a significant hurdle to getting children the help they needed before their personal struggles reached a critical level. The challenge, Lee told MTFP, was in developing an initiative that didn’t reinforce misconceptions — tied to school shootings — about mental health as a public safety concern. “One of the concerns we had was we can’t criminalize mental health,” said Lee, now the dean of UM’s College of Education, which houses the campus’ various counseling programs as well as the Safe Schools Center. “We can’t say if you are depressed, you are a threat. You can’t do that. When you’re depressed, it doesn’t mean you’re a threat to anybody. So we didn’t like the idea of classifying mental illness as a threat to schools because it’s not.” VAST, which kicked off during the 2020-21 academic year with two participating schools, fit neatly into a collection of services Lee and his cohorts developed for Montana schools, providing a compassion-centric therapeutic tool to complement the center’s more site-specific threat assessments, staff training and its 24/7 school safety hotline. At the same time, Lee said, the initiative began giving UM students greater access to the clinical hours needed to obtain their degrees and licenses, hours that can be difficult to get. In the years since, VAST has increasingly filled a void in rural communities with participating schools. Tolleson Knee recalled the story of one student who had previously received counseling in a community an hour away from home, until the family’s finances could no longer sustain the costs of travel and treatment. Her colleague, Safe Schools Center Director Emily Sallee, added that even if families are able to sustain private mental health services, outside professionals may not be effective at coordinating with in-school staff. By comparison, VAST relies on teachers and school counselors — the latter a state-mandated position in public schools — to coordinate with UM-side practitioners and keep them informed about any developments in a student’s life that may go unseen or unacknowledged in a tele-counseling session. “There’s this huge wraparound piece that’s often missing when kids are accessing counseling outside of schools,” Sallee said, “and it’s a huge part of how all these people can be supporting this kiddo, not just the counselor.” For Deborah Ith, the team-centered aspect of the program has been an important facet of her VAST experience this fall. A doctoral student in UM’s school psychology program, Ith currently has three teenage students in rural schools that she meets with remotely at least once a week via a paid, HIPAA-compliant version of Zoom. Their struggles have primarily been interpersonal ones, Ith said, and on a couple of occasions have risen to the level that Ith has reached out to the school counselor and parents to develop a group plan of support. “Sometimes that means trying to support parents because that’s really scary,” Ith continued. “When you’re a parent and you have somebody call you up and be like, ‘Hey, this came up, this is going on, you need to know about it, this is what we talked about as a way to support and this is what you can do to support them,’ that’s really hard to hear sometimes.” Even as VAST participants continue to provide such day-to-day services for a growing collection of rural schools, Tolleson Knee is identifying opportunities to expand the program’s offerings even further. She told MTFP that starting this spring, the Safe Schools Center plans to try out a hybrid version of VAST in one Bitterroot Valley school that will include a monthly in-person counseling session for students on top of three monthly tele-counseling sessions. The University of Montana isn’t alone in recognizing the challenges rural schools face in providing adequate mental health support for their students. The nonprofit Montana Small Schools Alliance has developed its own 24/7 crisis support app , which mental health resources director Cindy Fouhy said has so far been accessed by more than 20,000 students across the state. In addition, the alliance — in partnership with the Montana Professional Learning Collaborative — has developed a free tele-counseling model of its own. Like VAST, the focus is primarily on Montana’s smallest and most resource-starved schools where dedicated one-on-one intervention simply isn’t available. “You go to these small schools and they may not even have a certified counselor,” Fouhy said. “If they do, he or she is also teaching classes and doing 500 other things.” The factors that make mental health support in rural communities so difficult can also fuel the very stressors that necessitate such support in the first place. Consider Broadus, a town of fewer than 500 people anchored to the vast prairie of southeastern Montana. The local K-12 school boasts a student population of roughly 225, some of whom travel up to 70 miles one way to attend Power River County’s sole high school. According to data from the Office of Public Instruction, more than a third of the student population is classified as economically disadvantaged. Politics, drought, alcohol use — there are a lot of issues influencing local families, said Broadus school counselor Dori Phillips, and those pressures “trickle to our students.” Professional help is more than 80 miles away in every direction. Stress and geographic isolation are exacerbated by a persistent social stigma around seeking mental health treatment, one that Phillips has struggled, family by individual family, to overcome. “Getting our families to commit to taking their kids for help is almost impossible in many cases,” Phillips said. “I have very few students on my caseload. I think there’s three total that actually travel out of town to get help.” Broadus Public Schools used to offer more robust mental health services for students through the state-sponsored Comprehensive School and Community Treatment program, or CSCT. But the district’s access dried up about two years ago following legislative changes to how services were administered , and the availability of a part-time school psychologist has largely served during emergencies or as a backup on days when Phillips isn’t working. So when Phillips heard of VAST in a statewide association email, she instantly saw the prospect of free, in-school tele-counseling as a carrot for local families. “I can work with kids on friendship issues, I can help kids if they’re having trouble managing homework or learning organizational skills, those types of things,” said Phillips, whose school counseling license is distinct from the licenses granted to clinical therapists. “But when you have a family who deals with the loss of a parent or a caregiver, you have a family who goes through even a nasty divorce or a child who has a lot of trauma from their early years, those are things that they really need a private counselor for. Someone who’s licensed and knows how to work with kids.” In just two months, the number of Broadus students receiving tele-counseling services through VAST has grown to six, and Phillips said she’s working to connect three more students with the program. A few hundred miles to the north, Bainville school counselor Amy Iversen said the number of students she’s referred to VAST has grown from two students in 2022 to seven last school year. She described the ag-and-oil community as similarly small, with 172 students across all grades, and similarly isolated, with the closest larger population center lying across the state line in Williston, North Dakota. For Iversen, UM’s program came along at a critical time for several students who showed signs of behavioral issues or depression and whose families lacked the resources for private counseling. “They can come in and talk to me about it, but then you know what? They’re going to see me again in class in two days and they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, crap, is she going to say something?’” Iversen said. “They probably don’t want me to know all their secrets. I’ve got kids in the school, some of them are friends with my own kids. It’s awkward for them, so when you’re in a small school, it helps with that confidentiality.” In some cases, parents have commented to Iversen on a noticeable difference in their child’s confidence, self-esteem or coping skills as a result of ongoing therapy. And while school-based counseling has its limits — like the services provided by traditional school counselors , VAST is not offered during the summer break — Iversen hopes the mental health skills students glean during the school year can see them through the off months. “That’s better than not getting anything,” Iversen said. Dozhier, the UM grad student, didn’t have to look much farther than their own childhood in a small Oregon timber town to understand the issues facing the young Montana clients they counseled last spring. Kids are smarter and more observant than people think, Dozhier said, which means when pressures like joblessness, food insecurity or substance abuse weigh on a household, children pick up on it. They may act out or isolate themselves, sometimes without knowing why, and the last thing such a student can focus on is learning. “Their thinking brains are off,” Dozhier said. Dozhier’s parrot Alfie may help break the ice, but helping a child navigate issues they may not fully understand requires more than just talking about pets and plants. In sessions with VAST, Dozhier said they primarily utilize a style of counseling called play therapy, allowing a student to play freely with whatever toys they choose. Their actions may give the counselor some subtle insight into what’s going on in their lives, Dozhier said. Fighting between toys could, for example, be indicative of difficult relationships with siblings or other family members and help guide a counselor’s questions. “Even though it looks like play, we find that pertinent themes come up in play, even without specifically saying, ‘Hey, how’s your relationship with your brother?’” Dozhier said. “It’s almost like watching a theater play that doesn’t have a lot of words and kind of using that to draw conclusions.” Ith’s work with older students this fall has also underscored the added stress coming to age in a smaller community can place on a 21st-century teen. She acknowledges that the rural nature of the schools she serves through VAST can help reinforce a sense of support, giving some students an awareness that others around them recognize the experiences they’re going through. But it’s a “double-edged sword,” she said, one that can make it difficult to find new peer groups or move past incidents of bullying. At the Montana Small Schools Alliance, Fouhy notes that social media and technology can exacerbate such issues in ways older generations may not fully understand. “The kids can’t get away from stressors,” Fouhy said. “In the 80s, kids could go home and if they had to fight at school, they wouldn’t have to worry about it again ’til Monday. But now it just goes on and on, and the conflict and the stress that’s just in their pocket is significant.” Remote delivery of the one-on-one services that can help students process such situations does pose challenges, and leaders at VAST are quick to note that the program isn’t a solution for budgetary shortfalls or hiring challenges. Dozhier and Ith both credit the effectiveness of their work to individuals in the communities they’ve served — school counselors, teachers, parents. Tele-counseling initiatives haven’t sought to replace those voices but rather to create oases in Montana’s rural desert of outside mental health services, and Tolleson Knee has heard from past participants that the anonymity of therapy was a key motivator. “When you do live in those small communities, it’s just so hard to be objective,” Tolleson Knee said. “I heard students and family saying it was so nice to know we weren’t going to like have this intense session where we’re talking about really personal stuff and then run into (the counselor) in the grocery store.” The experience of meeting such a need fits well with Dozhier’s long-term professional goal of returning to rural Oregon as a counselor, and they are slated to return to the VAST cohort of practitioners-in-training this spring as it branches into in-person service. But while the program is great at doing what it’s doing, Dozhier recognizes even private counseling has its limits. A few sessions with a therapist won’t erase the issues that arise for a child when, say, a parent is overworked, stretched thin and struggling just to put food on the table. When it comes to improving mental health, Dozhier said, the challenge is far more systematic than one school, one university or one counselor can handle alone. “The answer to all of this kid’s woes is maybe not counseling for a year,” Dozhier said. “The answer maybe to so many of these woes would be to reduce stress on the family, and that’s something that our systems aren’t set up to do.” ___ This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.United States shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.35%AP Business SummaryBrief at 6:02 p.m. EST
Ohio State Goes Viral for Trolling Indiana After Week 13 BlowoutKeir Starmer to set out ‘plan for change’ with ‘milestones’ for key missionsMichigan, Ohio State fight broken up with police pepper spray after Wolverines stun Buckeyes, 13-10Keir Starmer to set out ‘plan for change’ with ‘milestones’ for key missions
Spread holiday cheer with these fun and festive stocking stuffer ideas
Notation Labs Secures $2 Million Credit Facility to Accelerate Production of QwelTM, a Cutting-Edge Lead Detection and Prevention System
BOZEMAN — For the first time in program history, the Montana State football team finished a regular season unbeaten. The No. 2-ranked Bobcats improved to 12-0 overall (8-0 in Big Sky Conference play) with a 34-11 win over No. 9 Montana (8-4, 5-3) in the 123rd Brawl of the Wild on Saturday afternoon at Bobcat Stadium. The victory gave MSU the outright Big Sky title and most likely secured a top-two seed in the FCS playoffs. It’s the first outright conference championship for the Cats since 1984. MSU is credited with a solo Big Sky title in 2011, although it initially shared it with UM before the NCAA vacated several UM wins due to extra benefits. MSU opened Saturday's game with a 14-play, 75-yard drive that Tommy Mellott capped with a 5-yard touchdown run. The home team has now scored first in six straight Brawls, and the home team has won each of the last five Cat-Griz games by at least 19 points. After both teams traded punts, UM got to MSU’s 25-yard line on a 21-yard run from Xavier Harris. The Grizzlies settled for a 47-yard field goal after an Eli Gillman run for no gain, a false start and an incomplete pass caused by pressure from McCade O’Reilly and Rylan Ortt. On the next drive, Mellott completed a 35-yard TD pass to Rohan Jones on third and 8 to put the Cats ahead 14-3 with about 10 minutes left in the first half. MSU’s Myles Sansted put MSU up 17-3 with a 27-yard field goal at the 1-minute, 40-second mark. UM turned it over on downs with 25 seconds on the clock. MSU set up a 49-yard field goal attempt five plays later, and Sansted drilled it as time expired to give the Cats a 20-3 halftime lead. It’s the longest field goal MSU has made since a 50-yarder from Blake Glessner against William & Mary in the 2022 FCS quarterfinals. Both teams opened the second half with punts. The Griz stuffed Mellott on 4th and 1 at the 5:14 mark, but they went three and out on the next drive after Sawyer Racanelli couldn’t hold onto a 28-yard pass from Logan Fife. MSU went up by 24 points on the next drive, thanks to an 88-yard run from Adam Jones. The Missoula Sentinel grad scored on a 3-yard TD run. The Cats led 27-3 going into the fourth quarter, two seasons after they held a 41-7 lead over UM in Bozeman through three quarters. The Griz scored their only TD of the game with 11:02 left. Eli Gillman scored from 1 yard out and Fife completed a two-point pass to Racanelli after a 17-yard pass to Aaron Fontes on fourth and 8. MSU took a 34-11 lead with 4:49 left on a 2-yard TD run from Adam Jones, who finished with 197 rushing yards. The Cats out-gained the Griz 420 to 234 in total yards, including 326 to 117 on the ground.
Betty White Forever: New stamp will honor the much-beloved 'Golden Girls' actor
Maharashtra Election Results: Nilesh Rane Defeats 2-Time MLA Vaibhav Naik In Kudal Constituency With Over 8,000 VotesLocal level by-election: Voting continues peacefully
LG funds: Worrisome expenditures on yam, pepper initiativesPremier David Eby promises to press the 'reset' button with B.C. businessA Denver City Council committee on Wednesday advanced a measure that would ban sales of most flavored tobacco and nicotine products in the city, despite strong objections from the industry and retailers that sell e-cigarettes and vapes. The council’s Safety, Housing, Education & Homelessness Committee voted 6-1 to move the ban on for consideration at the full council. The final vote would be the second attempt to pass a flavored tobacco ban in the last three years. The measure would ban nearly every kind of flavored tobacco and nicotine product from being sold within the city’s borders, including menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes and vapes. The goal, according to the ordinance’s sponsors, is to protect the health of young people. Retailers — including Phil Guerin, the owner of vape shop Myxed Up Creations, which has a Denver location — argued the ban would punish law-abiding business owners who do not sell to underage customers and would deprive the city of millions in sales tax revenues. Colorado law sets the minimum age for tobacco products at 21. The proposed ordinance was introduced in late October , but its progress was delayed through November while sponsors met with industry representatives and incorporated feedback. The updated ordinance discussed Wednesday exempts flavored tobacco smoked out of hookah pipes, a common practice in Middle Eastern and North African cultures. The ordinance, including the hookah exemption, closely mirrors the progress of a similar ban that the council passed in 2021. Then-Mayor Michael Hancock vetoed that law , arguing that Denver acting alone — while surrounding municipalities continued to allow sales of flavored products — would not keep tobacco out of the hands of kids. His successor, Mike Johnston, has affirmed his support for the flavor ban if it passes. A public hearing is possible later this month before the full body votes on the measure. Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.The San Francisco 49ers are not in a good place right now, and that includes the status of Christian McCaffrey. The All-Pro running back after in Sunday's blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills. The loss was a low point for the 5-7 Niners, who have been beset by injuries in a season that began with clear Super Bowl aspirations. McCaffrey was initially said to be out at least six weeks — with five weeks left in the season. Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan provided some reason for hope Wednesday when asked if McCaffrey could conceivably return during the playoffs, saying " ." The player himself, however, seemed a little less optimistic on Instagram hours later. McCaffrey didn't specifically say he was out for the season, but the past tense "This wasn’t my year" and his pledge to "work smarter and harder than ever to come back better from this" certainly make it sound like he's accepted he's not playing again this season. McCaffrey's full caption: Football is the greatest game on the planet to me. I love that you can find out exactly who you are without ever saying a word. It lifts you up and breaks you down and it can happen fast. It’s humbling in the best ways. You can do everything right and still fail. Thats life and that’s football. It’s a constant test of wills and those who just keep going tend to reap the benefits of their perseverance. This wasn’t my year, and sometimes when it rains, it pours. You can feel sorry for yourself and listen to the birds, or you can hold the line. I’m grateful for the support of everyone in my corner and promise I’ll work smarter and harder than ever to come back better from this. I love my teammates, I love the 9ers, and I love football. God doesn’t miss. Onward ➡️🙏🏼 If this is really it for McCaffrey, 2024 will be nothing more than a lost season for one of the best running backs in football. The 28-year-old was a late scratch before Week 1 with a calf and Achilles injury and didn't make his debut until Week 10. McCaffrey ended up playing only four games, with progressively fewer yards from scrimmage in each one. Backup running back Jordan Mason — also set to go on IR with a high ankle sprain — did an admirable job of filling in, but McCaffrey's absence was still noticeable for an offense dependent on high-octane players in skill positions. Assuming he's done, McCaffrey will be back next year, .
Trump has flip-flopped on abortion policy. His appointees may offer clues to what happens next
From road closures, power outages, weather declarations and nonstop shoveling, Muskoka residents were faced with nearly a metre of persistent snowfall this weekend. According to Environment Canada, storm accumulations reached 140 centimetres of snow in Gravenhurst and 125 centimetres in Bracebridge. Near-whiteout conditions near Orillia Ont., on Sat., Nov. 30, 2024 (CTV News/David Sullivan) The heavy snowfall led to the closure of Highway 11 in both directions between Orillia and Huntsville on Saturday, with the closure persisting through to Monday morning. OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said police expect the northbound lanes along Highway 11 to reopen around noon Monday from West Street in Orillia to Highway 60 in Huntsville. "There will be limited access. Not every exit and entrance will be open in that stretch," he explained. Except for Luigi Road, all ramps are cleared. Schmidt noted southbound lanes are expected to reopen sometime around 4 p.m. on Monday. Additionally, a dozen trucks were trapped on Country Road 6 in Cooper's Falls near Washago Monday morning. Emergency crews and motorists confirmed to CTV News that hundreds of vehicles were stranded without food or water, some for nearly 30 hours. On Saturday, fire crews helped bring motorists to Gravenhurst Town Hall via side-by-side transports for access to generators amid power outages.Lakeland Power and Elexicon Energy – the respective suppliers of electricity for Bracebridge and Gravenhurst – and Hydro One all indicated via their outage maps that tens of thousands of customers were without power on Saturday. The Town of Gravenhurst declared a state of emergency on Sunday after the District Municipality of Muskoka had declared a ‘Significant Weather Event’ on Saturday. Premier Doug Ford posted to social media Monday morning stating the province was working closely with authorities in Gravenhurst and across Muskoka to ensure they have everything they need. “Provincial resources are on hand and more are en route to help where needed. I’m relieved that there are no injuries or fatalities reported.” Ford encouraged residents to stay home until power is restored and roads and highways are safely reopened. Beaver Creek Institution isn’t immune to the power outage, having to switch over to its generator. “We are closely monitoring weather conditions and are prepared to make adjustments as needed to ensure secure access to essential services,” Correctional Service Canada noted in an email to CTV News. Meanwhile, drivers who are low on fuel are advised to find a safe place to park until they can safely access a gas station, or until fuel can be brought to them. OPP add that locals should only dial 911 for life-threatening situations and should contact the non-emergency line at 1-888-310-1122 for all other situations.Betty White Forever: New stamp will honor the much-beloved 'Golden Girls' actor
NoneA Chinese film set during the Covid-19 pandemic won the top prizes in Taiwan's prestigious Golden Horse Awards, which saw the highest number of entries from China in recent years despite political tensions. Beijing banned its entertainers from joining Golden Horse -- dubbed the Chinese-language "Oscars" -- in 2019 after a Taiwanese director voiced support for the island's independence in an acceptance speech in 2018. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, which the Taipei government rejects, and Chinese A-listers and big commercial productions have largely avoided the event ever since. Despite the sensitivity of the awards, more than 200 Chinese films entered this year's competition, which Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said was the highest number in "recent years". Acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye was awarded best director late Saturday night for his docu-drama "An Unfinished Film", which was also named best picture. Lou was absent from the ceremony but his wife Ma Yingli read his acceptance speech, describing the film set during China's lockdown of Wuhan in the earliest stages of the pandemic as "the most special directing job I have ever done". Chinese actor Zhang Zhiyong, who also did not attend the awards, won best actor for his performance in Chinese director Geng Jun's same-sex drama "Bel Ami". Hong Kong's Chung Suet-ying was named best actress for her role in "The Way We Talk", which is about the deaf community. Neither "Bel Ami" nor "An Unfinished Film" has been released in China. Ahead of the awards, MAC spokesman Liang Wen-chieh told reporters that these films "may not be able to be screened in mainland China, but they still hope to have a free platform to participate and express themselves". "We welcome (them) very much," he said. After several years absence, Chinese stars began trickling back to the awards in Taipei last year, with actress Hu Ling the first to grace the red carpet since the ban. On Saturday, Geng Jun and some of his cast were among the few Chinese entertainers to join stars and filmmakers from around the region, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, on the red carpet. While Geng missed out on best director and best picture, his film "Bel Ami" won the awards for best cinematography and best film editing. Despite political tensions, Golden Horse remained a stage for independent Chinese films that have no distribution space on the mainland, Taiwanese film critic Wonder Weng told AFP. "This spirit remains unchanged. I think the Golden Horse Awards have always insisted on being the benchmark" that is open to all subjects, said Weng, who is a board member of Taiwan Film Critics Society. Weng said "An Unfinished Film" by Lou, who has previously taken on forbidden subjects such as gay sex and the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was "a work of conscience". Lou's latest offering is about a film crew trying to resume shooting a movie during the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, as the city was placed in an unprecedented lockdown. "Lou put images that are banned or blocked into his work and reminds us that there is a director who is willing to preserve historical images for us to see... and let us know there is a different voice," Weng said. aw/amj/dhc
ABILENE, Texas (AP) — Sam Hicks scored on a 53-yard run in the fourth quarter and finished with 171 yards on the ground to lead Abilene Christian to a 24-0 victory over Northern Arizona on Saturday in the first round of the FCS playoffs. The Wildcats (9-4), ranked No. 15 in the FCS coaches poll and seeded 15th, qualified for the playoffs for the first time and will travel to play No. 2 seed and nine-time champion North Dakota State (10-2) on Saturday at the Fargo Dome. The Bison had a first-round bye. Abilene Christian grabbed a 7-0 lead on its second possession when Carson Haggard connected with Trey Cleveland for a 37-yard touchdown that capped a 10-play 97-yard drive. Northern Arizona (8-5), ranked 17th but unseeded for the playoffs after winning five straight to get in, picked off Haggard on the Wildcats’ next two possessions but could not turn them into points. NAU went for it on fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line with 9:30 left before halftime, but Jordan Mukes tackled Ty Pennington for a 4-yard loss. That led to a 46-yard field goal by Ritse Vaes and a 10-0 lead at halftime. The score remained the same until Hicks’ big run with 10:16 left to play. Haggard passed 6 yards to Blayne Taylor for the final score with 2:16 to go. Haggard completed 23 of 29 passes for 244 yards with three interceptions. Abilene Christian’s defense allowed at least 20 points in every game during the regular season and yielded at least 30 six times. The Wildcats lost their season opener to FBS member Texas Tech 52-51 in overtime. Abilene Christian’s last shutout came in a 56-0 victory over Lamar on Sept. 25, 2021. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up . AP college football: and
Mexico shares lower at close of trade; S&P/BMV IPC down 1.44%