The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 65

I I III Westminster wins big D7 Peters is co-champ D13 Bear season to open D16 The Pittsburgh Press Section to MA scBaarsIlo alt nnniigflhiti: mrarit lb safie ft By Bill Heltzel ATHLETES AT Sunday, November 19, 1989 get fawt $32,000 a year for a full-time trainer, equipment and supplies. But Center principal Phil Kanfush said a lack of money should be no excuse. Schools are obligated to buy safe equipment, train athletes properly and provide a professional to oversee their safety, he said. "Money is always the stumbling block. Frankly, I don't care.

Money is paper and you cannot equate it with health. I understand that dollars are an economic good in scarce supply, but given the number of children involved in sports today, clearly there is an obligation to look after them." Every year approximately 1.3 million high school athletes are injured, according to a nationwide studv bv the National Athletic Please see Trainers, D14 mm, Pittsburgh City League schools. St. Joseph in Natrona was the only school that refused to participate. A recent national study estimated that more than one in every five high school athletes becomes injured every school year.

Sports medicine experts say hiring a certified athletic trainer is the best way for school districts to address the problem. Yet many school districts in Pennsylvania have inadequate provisions for the safety of high school athletes because there are no state laws requiring them to do so. Parents "would be shocked to know there is no standard," said Dr. Stephen Rice, a University of Washington sports medicine expert. "It would astonish people.

And it doesn't come out of any malice (by the coaches to know first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). 22 do not provide ambulances at any events. 53 (37 percent) do not have emergency plans or other written health and safety policies and procedures. 71, or nearly half, do not advise parents about the risks of sports or tell them how the schools handle safety. State laws in neighboring states require school districts to do more.

All high school and junior-high football teams in West Virginia will be required to have athletic trainers by 1991. Ohio requires all coaches to to be trained in first aid and CPR. Health care is expensive. Center High School in Beaver County budgets $30,000 to The Pittsburgh Press Thirty-nine percent of Southwestern Pennsylvania's 145 high schools do not have any type of athletic trainer to help prevent or treat sports injuries, The Pittsburgh Press found in a survey. The survey also found that only 16 percent of the schools have full-time trainers, 15 percent use trainers who are not state-certified and 15 percent do not provide ambulances at any athletic events, including football ganies.

Participating in the survey were athletic directors of Western Pennsylvania Inter-scholastic Athletic League schools and George Cupples, the athletic director for the schools). It comes out of ignorance." The Press survey found: 88 high schools have athletic trainers, 23 full-time, 65 part-time. 56 schools have no trainer, 22 have trainers who are not certified. 113 schools (78 percent) do not require Notre Dame strong-arms Penn State, 34-23 A A. '-7i 4 7T P7 I' liiliiiiwiiililiai A l-1 -A 1 Penguins picked up by Coffey in 5-3 win By Dave Molinari The Pittsburgh Press Paul Coffey has begun to play hockey the way he can.

The Penguins have begun to win games. It is not a coincidence. Coffey had two goals last night in the Penguins' 5-3 victory against the New York Islanders, their third victory in a row. He has five goals in seven games and has been playing the fluid, flashy style that is his forte. Flyers lose in overtime, D4 "It's a team effort," Coffey said, "but if I'm doing what I do best, it definitely helps." "He's been trying to give us everything he's had," Coach Gene Ubriaco said, "but he's really picked it up.

He's getting results for his work." The three-game winning streak is the Penguins' longest of the season and comes after a 2-8-1 slump. The Islanders (5-14-3) are 2-11-2 in the past 15 games, 1-7 in the past eight. Kevin Stevens steered a Rob Brown pass between the legs of New York goalie Glenn Healy at 1:13 of the first period for a 1-0 lead and his ninth goal of the season. At 9:33, Mario Lemieux set Coffey up 45 feet out in the slot and he lashed a shot past Healy for a power-play goal. Forty-seven seconds later, Coffey scored again when his centering pass to Bob Errey caromed into the net off one of defenseman Jeff Norton's skates.

That 3-0 lead might have been too comfortable for the Penguins. "We had guys stop skating," Ubriaco said. "Stop hitting." Islanders defenseman Doug Crossman made it 3-1 at 11:54 of the first period when he beat Wendell Young from the left faceoff dot. An apparent goal by the Islanders was disallowed at 2:17 of the second period, after Penguins defenseman Gord Dineen tipped a pass by New York left winger Don Maloney toward the net. Young reached back to cover the puck and referee Dan Marouelli, after consulting with goal judge Ron Harris, ruled the puck had not crossed the goal line.

Still, the Islanders pulled to within a goal when Bryan Trottier scored on a power play at 14:55. The Penguins finally put the game, out of reach at 14:55 of the third period on a strong individual effort by Jock Callander. He took a pass from Lemieux and broke down the right side, then faked around Norton and threw a backhander behind Healy for his fourth goal of the season. "It's like he was saving his big play for the right time," Ubriaco said. Islanders center Pat LaFontaine added a measure of suspense at 16:59, when he steered a Norton pass behind Young for a power-play goal to make it 4-3, but Errey scored into an empty net at 19:43.

(Brown struggles in slump, D4) tfilllli By Mike DeCourcy The Pittsburgh Press UNIVERSITY PARK Penn State is going backward. Penn State was going backward. Choose your tense, present or past. Either could apply after seeing how Notre Dame blew through the Nittany Lions, 34-23, before a crowd of 86,025 at Beaver Stadium yesterday. The No.

17 Lions (6-3-1) have failed to win three of their past four games, losing two and tying one, after a five-game winning streak had carried them to within a breath of college football's top 10. UCLA ties Southern Cat, D8 Temple finally wins one, D9 And yesterday, the Lions were backed up by a Notre Dame running game that was simply overwhelming. In winning their 23rd consecutive game, the top-ranked Irish (11-0) ran for 276 of the 318 yards on their six scoring drives. Their 425 rushing yards was a record for a Penn State opponent, obliterating the Lions' defense and the 399 gained by Kentucky in 1976. Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice gained a career-high 141 yards rushing and tailback Ricky Watters ran for 128 on 16 attempts, doubling the number of Penn State opponents who had 100-yard games this season.

Penn State's defense was uncharacteristically passive, the Lions trying to read the play instead of breaking it, trying to play off blocks instead of fighting through them. "We didn't attack their ballcarriers," Coach Joe Paterno said. "Not that that's the answer alone. They're good and have a lot of different options. There's an awful lot of people in there who can really run." Rice threw only 10 passes, completing 5 for 47 yards.

Notre Dame only once needed two passes to score. Penn State scored on its first possession, only the fifth first-quarter touchdown against the Irish during their streak. Sophomore quarterback Tony Sacca moved the Lions 79 yards, hitting 3 of 4 passes for 40 yards and setting up tailback Blair Thomas' 2-yard score. The Irish answered, though, with a drive that consumed 65 yards and ended with Rice's 5-yard run. When the Lions could get only a 38-yard Ray.Tarasi field goal next time despite driving to the ND 13, it was apparent they were in trouble.

Watters made it 14-10 with a 12-yard run and fullback-Anthony Johnson scored on a 1-yard run. Sacca completed 4 of 6 passes for 46 yards but was relieved in the second quarter by redshirt junior Tom Bill, who completed 6 of 14 passes for 56 yards. Penn State's last shot at staying in the game was ended when reserve tailback Gerry Collins fumbled at the ND 14, leading to Rice's 1-yard touchdown and a 28-10 lead. Thomas was one Penn State player who performed at his accustomed level, rushing for 133 yards on 26 carries. He became the first Notre Dame opponent to run for 100 since he did it himself in 1987.

(Irish line outmuscles Penn State with a rush, DS) Manene KarasTne Piitsourgn Press Notre Dame's Tony Rice wards off Sherrod Rainge on 5-yard touchdown run in first quarter Sacca might do well to move on ik Gene Collier and fueled drives to a touchdown and a field goal and leads of 7-0 and 10-7 against the No. 1 team in the country. Before this goes any further, I should point out that not with Joe Montana at quarterback would Penn State have beaten Notre Dame yesterday, as its defense was in the process of getting itself paved and painted into a stretch of open highway. But Paterno's handling of Sacca was at its most curious, even dubious. Paterno's record on quarterback controversies is brief and rather stunning.

In his two prior full-scale dilemmas the Matt Knizner-John Shaffer and Jeff Hostetler-Todd Blackledge issues Paterno won national Please see Collier, D6 If TNIVERSITY PARK -III Tony Sacca heard the question posed 10 different ways, countered with four or five different packagings of the same answer, and firmly established nothing except that the same nerve impulse that makes him raise his eyebrows also makes him shrug his shoulders. As nerve impulses go, you had to like it. It was better than screaming. Sacca's ability to suppress the scream impulse was the only thing Penn State suppressed yesterday. He was the Penn State quarterback when this potentially compelling football game started.

By halftime, he was not the Penn State quarterback. The reason was not apparent. "The reason I made the change was that we had a pass on and Tony got a little confused about the protection," said Joe Paterno. "Instead of staying in the pocket, he got out of there." Oh. So with 2:29 to go in the half, Sacca had used his allotment of mistakes.

One. "You can say what you want," Sacca, "I was only out there for a couple possessions (four, actually). It's his decision. There's nothing I can do. (But) you can't really get your rhythm when you're feeling you're going to get yanked." To that point, Sacca was 4 for 6 passing.

Of the six, one was dropped, one was batted away at the line of scrimmage, and the remaining four went for 46 yards Richards runs to the rescue in Panthers' 47-42 victory Brister wary of Chargers After hearing Burt Grossman say that the San Diego Chargers hope to knock him out of today's game, Steelers quarterback Bubby Brister said he won't be surprised if Grossman tries. But Brister said some of the Chargers' other players are more likely to present problems for the Steelers. Story, D12. ordered it, the Panthers would have been hard pressed to play a worse first half. Cornerback Robert Bradley was beaten badly twice by Wilson for touchdowns, Pitt had a 31-yard field-goal attempt returned 61 yards for a touchdown, and the Panthers fumbled twice.

Fortunately, Pitt mixed in Van Pelt's 67-yard touchdown pass to Henry Tuten on its second offensive play, and Crossman's 67-yard interception return, to salvage a 21-14 deficit. (Pregame boasts catch up to Pirates star, D6) 29. Richards gained 31 yards on two carries and Alex Van Pelt hit Dave Moore with a 47-yard scoring pass. Richards' 5-yard run increased the Panthers' margin to 40-29, 2:35 into the fourth quarter. But Wilson caught his third touchdown pass, a 6-yarder, on the Pirates' next possession to cut Pitt's lead to 40-35.

Van Pelt ran 8 yards for a touchdown to give the Panthers a seemingly comfortable 47-35 advantage with 6:30 remaining. Wilson, however, completed a 67-yard drive with his fourth touchdown reception, a 5-yarder, to bring East Carolina within five points. If Pitt Coach Mike Gottfried had By Scott Newman The Pittsburgh Press Fortunately for Pitt, its 47-42 victory yesterday against East Carolina was not witnessed by many. It was not televised. It came in front of an announced crowd of 21,862, few of whom braved 30-degree temperatures coupled with 24 mph winds for more than a half.

John Fulmer, the chairman of the John Hancock Bowl's selection committee, probably was the only important person present. And Fulmer is not about to enlighten many in El Paso, Texas, with the consensus among both participants the Panthers were fortunate to defeat 15- with seven seconds remaining. Trailing 21-14 at halftime, the Panthers eschewed the pass and returned to Richards, who was one of the few successful Panthers in the first half when he rushed for 76 yards on 13 carries. Richards carried 25 times for 158 yards in the second half to help Adam Walker score on runs of 2 and 4 yards to give Pitt a 26-21 advantage, 7:56 into the third quarter. The Pirates (5-4-1) came back three minutes later with Hunter's 1-yard run and Hunter's conversion pass to help the Pirates regain the lead, 29-26.

Pitt needed only three plays on its next drive to move back in front, 33- point underdog East Carolina. Senior safety Dan Crossman knew exactly what he would tell the John Hancock Bowl. "The offense was exciting," he said with a laugh. Indeed, Pitt (6-2-1) managed its largest offensive output this season and electric sophomore Curvin Richards gained 264 yards on 38 carries for his fourth career 200-yard game. East Carolina receiver Walter Wilson was far off from his prediction of a 17-14 victory by the Pirates, but he did make good on another boast, beating the Panthers' secondary badly.

He caught seven passes for 172 yards and a school-record four touchdowns. His 26-yard recep-tion moved East Carolina to Pitt's 22 iHI Tl. IT.