The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 45

Clipboard, D6 SECTION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1979 The Ralm Beach Post-Times Seminoles Win, but Gators Happier 1V 'II 'i A. 1, 1 .1 VI 1 p. Florida Gets Moral Victory By Karl Gulbronsen Pott Staff Wrltor GAINESVILLE While walking off Florida Field yesterday after beating Florida 27-16, Florida State University's players were solemn. Despite the fact that the win allowed the Seminoles to cap a perfect 11-0 regular season and kept alive slim hopes for a national championship, FSU was not quite ready to celebrate. It seems the Gators, those winless Gators, gave Florida State almost too much to handle.

"When you play the Gators," said Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden, "you can always expect a tough game. But for a long time, it was a lot tougher than we thought it would be." Except for the final two minutes or so of the second quarter and the closing minute of the game, Florida, not FSU, was the team doing most of the celebrating. The Seminoles took a 3-0 lead with 6:23 left in the first quarter on a 42-yard field goal by Dave Cappelen. After that, about all that went on were exchanges of punts, until Jimmy Jordan connected with freshman wide receiver Hardis Johnson for a 21-yard touchdown pass with only 11 seconds remaining in the first half. The Gators, who have been decimated on de- fense by injuries, put together its best pass rush since tying Georgia Tech 7-7 early in the season.

Florida got to quarterbacks Wally Woodham, who. started the game, and Jordan five times for sacks. And several times the Seminole quarterbacks were hit just as the ball was released. "Their pass rush gave us fits," Bowden said. "We weren't getting very good protection.

It seemed like they were rushing 10 men at all times. But that wasn't the case. "They were doing a good job of doubling up on the outside and we were getting some time to throw, but their coverage was just real good." The Gators' pressure on the quarterback led directly to their 10 points in the third period, tying the game 10-10. After the Seminoles' initial drive of the half was stymied when Jordan was sacked on third down, Florida quarterback Larry Ochab directed a 50-yard drive which resulted in a 39-yard field goal by Brian Clark, cutting Florida State's lead to 10-3. Jordan, who seemed to be hearing footsteps all day, then threw the first of two interceptions, one which resulted in the Gators' first touchdown.

With a third and 6 at the FSU 11, Jordan threw a pass right to Florida linebacker Tim Golden at the 7-yard line. But the Seminoles forced the Gators into a field-goal situation and Clark missed the first of four attempts. Turn to SEMINOLES, D4 J1 "fx i FSU's Michael Whiting strains for yardage before being stopped by Robin Fisher and Tim Golden Gators Reinforce Pride in Defeat ballgame out of it. There wasn't a player on the team who didn't play his guts out." While the undefeated, Orange Bowl-bound Seminoles solemnly showered and dressed following their 11th victory of the season, the 0-9-1 Gators were beaming as they talked about togetherness and pride, and the future of Florida football. "I'd give a million dollars," said senior offensive tackle Bill Bennek, "if they'd let me stay here and play for the next 20 years." Charley Pell, still seeking his first victory as Florida's head coach after compiling a record of 51-17-2 Turn to GATORS, D4 By Chuck Otterson Post Staff Writer GAINESVILLE Anybody who didn't know better might have figured the University of Florida football team won yesterday's game with Florida State.

There was none of the gloom and despair one expects to find in a loser's dressing room following the Gators' 27-16 loss before a crowd of 58,263 at Florida Field. The atmosphere was more like that associated with a victory in the Super Bowl or the seventh game of the World Series. "We didn't win on the scoreboard," wide receiver Cris Collinsworth said. "They scored more points and they deserved to win, but I'd rather be in this locker room than over there in that one." Those seemed to be strange words coming from a member of a team which had just suffered its ninth defeat in 10 games, extending its winless streak to 12 since beating Kentucky 18-16 in 1978. But Collinsworth went on to explain why he was more than happy with this "moral victory" over the heavily favored Seminoles.

"We don't have the big studs," he said. "We don't have any superstars. We're playing five or six freshmen at a time and they're the No. 5 team in the nation. "We had no business being on the same field with them, but on guts alone, a lot of blood and a lot of scratching and kicking, we managed to make a Miller's Return Sparks Raiders In 23-0 Win eight games of the year, with a dislocated elbow in their 20-14 win over Atlantic.

But McFadden completed 10 of 23 passes for 61 yards. He completed them, that is, when he wasn't being chased from the pocket by Miller and the rest of the Glades Central defense. "They won it on the line," said Sutton, who watched his team lose in the fourth round of the state playoffs for the fourth consecutive year three times to Atlantic. "Our linemen broke down. We had people open but we just couldn't get the ball to them." Most of McFadden's passes were thrown in the direction of Richard Relford, who McCoy felt was the, man the Raiders most needed to shut off.

"We wanted to stop those short passes," McCoy said. "We tried as best we could to stop Relford, but, he's so big and strong that we couldn't do it completely." For Suncoast, however, passing was the only resort. The Chargers were held to just 49 yards on the ground and Bill McConnel who gained more than 200 yards last week in the Chargers' 28-26 win over Turn to RAIDERS, D2 By Pete Ebel Post Staff writer RIVIERA BEACH Before last night's game between Glades Central and Suncoast for the Region 7-AAA championship, most of the pre-game chatter was about the return of Raiders' halfback Greg Bain, who did not play when his team lost to the Chargers (7-6) earlier in the season. But Raider coach Ben McCoy cited a balanced offense, an offensive and defensive line which controlled the ball at will and the return of Charles Miller, a 5-foot-ll, 220-pound tackle as the most integral parts of Glades Central's 23-0 victory. "Bain just adds another dimension to our offense that we didn't have without him," said McCoy, intending to take nothing away from Bain's fine performance in which he rushed for 89 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns.

"We've got some good backs that can do the jobs and get us the yards we need. They did the job tonight. We wanted to come in and control the ball with the line and we did that too." "We also didn't have Charles Miller in there when we played Sun-coast the last time. That's where we got most of our yards over right tackle. He missed the first (Sun-coast) game with a bad ankle.

"We missed him a lot and we had to go through a lot of adjustments. You can't just replace a player of his caliber. I think he's probably the best lineman in this area." Though Miller was throwing blocks which enabled Raider backs tb gain 159 yards on the ground, the senior was equally' impressive with his defensive line play recording one sack and harrassing Suncoast quarterback Jonathon McFadden much of the game. Prior to the game, McFadden's inexperience was the cause of much concern for Suncoast coach Al Sutton. The Chargers lost first-string quarterback James Johnson, who threw for 1,200 yards in the first Mmirni'ii.

in in iWifiirf-ifiM-li'illT'ifW Wttfiiintf-frn Staff Photo by Grog Andtrson RAIDER SANDWICH Suncoast's Dwight Lewis (top) and Alvin Curtis (70) put a squeeze tackle on a Glades Central running back during second quarter action. Playoffs Inside Pahokee rallies to gain the state semifinals while the Benjamin eke out a 7-6 win over Miami Stories, D2 Desperation Pass Saves Lake Worth Lake Worth's offense was plagued by mistakes and stymied by Piper's aggressive de-j fense. The Trojans missed a scoring opportunity with 8:30 remaining after Derrick Brown recovered a fumble at the Piper 9. Lake Worth gained 4 yards on three running plays I and missed a chance for a tying field goal when a penalty for improper equipment cost the Trojans 5 yards and a fake-and-run by the holder on the next play was stopped for no gain. But Lake Worth's defense so controlled Piper throughout the game that the Trojans were able to survive their mistakes.

The Bengals, who were in the playoffs for the first time, earned just four first downs. Turn to TROJANS, D2 day's regionals at Merritt Island, the 1978 state champion and a 35-16 winner over San-ford Seminole last night. "That pass was supposed to be to me and Alonzo was supposed to be on the other side of the field," said Coleman, who also partially blocked a Piper punt earlier in the game and knocked down a pass on the Bengals' last play. "Both of us had it but it was supposed to be my play so I took it. I was thinking touchdown all the way." Coleman made it all sound easy but it could not have been more difficult to the Trojans, who managed just seven first downs and 123 total yards before the touchdown pass.

Both defensive units dominated play but the Bengals had the edge because of a blocked pui.t that set up a 31-yard field goal by Glenn Poole with 6:09 left in the first half. The Bengals appeared to have the game put away with 3:20 remaining when Ernest Merrell ran 16 yards up the middle for an apparent Piper touchdown. However, a clipping penalty nullified the score and the Trojans stopped Piper on downs to regain possession with 2:25 remaining and set up the winning play. "I got the feeling it was all over when they got that touchdown down there," Lake Worth coach Nate Collins said. "Both teams played so well defensively.

That last (Lake Worth scoring) play wasn't even supposed to be that way because somebody was in the wrong place. But it won it anyway." By Dave George Post Staff Wrltor LAKE WORTH Leonard Coleman, grabbed a desperation pass from John Gregory after the ball had been tipped by a defender and turned it into a 60-yard touchdown with 1:18 remaining to give Lake Worth a 6-3 win over Sunrise Piper last night in the opening round of the Class-AAAA state playoffs. The winning touchdown, which made up for a night of frustration for the Lake Worth offense, looked like something straight off the playground as Coleman and teammate Alonzo Allen struggled between themselves momentarily before Coleman stripped it away and ran the final 15 yards. But it was a thing of beauty to the Trojans, who advanced to Fri- Jt.