The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 21

fo ffiMelpfiia Inquirer sports Scoreboard 2 High schools 3 Horse racing 4 Classified 5 section Saturday, Sept. 25, 1976 By BILL LYON 17" 1 Phils smit with Montrea 'Number' reduced to three Number One in scheduling Some facts to help you get your running game together and be the hit of the next tailgate Michigan is No. 1 and Michigan will stay No. 1, at least until the end of the season, because of a cushy schedule. "If anyone beats us," crowed tailback Rob Lytle, "you'll know they lucked out." The Wolverines' three non-conference opponents are Stanford, Navy and Wake Forest.

They don't play a Top 10 team until Ohio State. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, faced Penn State last week, get Missouri this week and UCLA the next. The combined record last year of Michigan's opponents for 1976, not counting OSU: 47-60-3. The schedule sometimes means as much as the talent. Which is a fact that has not escaped Mark Manges, who is in the process of quarterbacking Maryland to an undefeated season.

"We figure we have to go 11-0," he said, realistically, "because if we do have a loss it will really affect us in the ratings. We don't have the toughest of schedules. "When I came here two years ago, we looked at this schedule and figured it would be our best chance to WW I fcr- Associated Press Penn's Michael Welch (82) closes in but the Lehigh pass falls wide and short of intended receiver Mark Weaver (42) at Franklin Field Lehigh tips Penn in last minute straight over the Quakers after 34 straight losses dating back to 1889. The last 20 minutes were an exquisite microcosm of complex improbability. Begin with Penn, trailing by 17-7 at the half after surrendering the 97-yard touchdown, the longest pass play against the Quakers in the century they've been playing football.

Enter fortune swinging against Lehigh when center Rick Adams swung his snapping arm and skidded the football 33 yards behind Jim McCor-mick, his punter, the ball bouncing to a halt at the Lehigh 5. In one bolt, Johnny Mason scored and it was 17- 14. Then, after a 39-yard Mason punt return, enter Tim Mazzetti, the side-winding soccer-style place-kicker, who drilled a Penn record 54-yarder and with 11 minutes 24 seconds left, the game was tied, 17-17. Next, Lehigh's Mark Weaver circled a Quaker punt at his own 20 and saw it skitter out of his arms to Penn's Bob Nix at the Engineer 14. A 27-yard Mazzetti field goal gave Penn the lead, 20-17, with 4:33 left.

"We knew we had to throw the ball on them," said Lehigh coach John Whitehead. "I let our quarterback call most of the plays. If I don't have confidence in him, no one else will." Quarterback Mike Rieker justified the confidence, unloading passes of 25, 10, 17, 10, and 18 yards in the winning 80-yard drive, Rod Gardner squirming through a red wall of Penn defenders for the final yard as the clock blinked inside the last minute. "Their linebackers were flaring out," Rieker analyzed, "and we went to the wide receivers on curls in the middle. Then that opened the outside, too." Indeed, the floating 18-yarder to Steve Kreider, who fell inches from (See PENN on 4-C) By Bruce Keidan Inquirer Staff Writer MONTREAL The question no longer is whether the Phillies will win the National League's Eastern Division.

The question now is: When? The Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates both split doubleheaders last night. That is cause for elation in the Phillies clubhouse, for gloom among the ranks of the second-plaije Pirates, because the Phillies' "magic number" for clinching the division flag fell from five to three. That the joy in the Phillies locker room was less than boundless was more a comment about the nature of the evening than the state of the pennant race. The Phillies routed the Expos in the first game of the twi-nighter here, 9-3, while the Pirates were losing their first game at St. Louis.

But in the nightcap, they could gain no ground: Don Stanhouse checked them on 10 hits for the Expos, 3-2, while the Pirates were beating the Cardinals. Baseball players call it "stuttering." It is the act of marching in place while the finish line, and first place, are close enough to reach out and touch. That is what the Phillies did in the second game, but they will try to stop stuttering when they meet the Expos in a nationally televised contest this afternoon. The Phillies now have a powerful ally in their race for the title. That ally is time, and it is the Pirates' worst enemy.

The Phillies lead by six games and have nine games remaining. The Pirates have just seven games left in which to make up those six games. The first-game victory was the Phillies' 93d of the season, a club record. The 1964 Phillies won 92, in a year when that total was worth second place. Greg Luzinski paced the Phillies' 16-hit attack, collecting four singles and driving home a pair of runs.

Mike Schmidt, the only Phillie in the starting lineup to go hitless, drove in his 99th and 100th runs of the season with a pair of sacrifice flies. Larry Christenson picked up his (See PHILLIES on 2-C) Frank Dolson Suddenly if fun forBowa MONTREAL It all began nearly seven months ago on a high school field in Dunedin, Fla. They gathered there daily during the spring training lockout wearing Bermuda shorts and T-shirts and floppy hats and sneakers and began the grind they hoped, and dreamed, would carry them this far. And now suddenly here it is, late September with a cold wind whipping across Jarry Park, and clinching day is at hand. The giddy highs of early summer, the frightening lews of late summer are behind them now.

The Phillies are about to become champions of the National League East and you can feel the excitement, the anticipation grow. "C'mon men," reliever Gene Gar-ber screamed after retiring six in a row the last four on strikes to wrap up last night's opener. "C'mon, let's go. Let's win this second son-of-a-gun They are so close now they can taste it; so close that Larry Bowa, the most excitable, most emotional of all the Phillies, has all he can do to keep himself keyed down. Just a week ago in Chicago it seems more like a month Bowa missed a wind-blown, 12th-inning pop fly and the Phillies' lead dwindled to three games.

Since then, the 30-year-old shortstop who has spent all of his 11 professional years in the Phillie organization has played brilliantly. "I think since that Chicago thing I've played the best I ever played," he said last night. Maybe I grew up. I tried to cover up my feelings that day, but I really took it bad. I'm a high-strung person.

All night one thing went through my mind if we lose by one game, it's my fault. It was a ridiculous way to feel, and Bowa came to realize it. "I went out the next day," he said, "and I told myself, "You've just got to turn the page." An dso he did. Last week's scare has turned into this week's countdown. There were times when Bowa worried about how many hits he got, about where he batted in the lineup, btft (See DOLSON on 2-C) By Bill Livingston Inquirer Stall Writer Well, for just opening tidbits, it had a 97-yard touchdown pass and a S4-yard field goal by an Italian from Brazil who plays for Penn and should've been the hero.

Except that the guys from Lehigh managed to siy away from disaster on punts either fielding Penn's or trying to kick their own long enough to win a wild, wacky football game back in the last 55 seconds. Lehigh's 24-20 win, achieved before 9,305 witnesses last night at Franklin Field, was the Engineers' second It's all or nothin By Bill Livingston inquirer stwfl Writer The following bulletins are brought to you by the 76ers the schoolyard's, if not destiny's darlings who opened full training camp yesterday at Ursinus College: First, Billy Cunningham runs up and down the court on his damaged knee fine. Back-and-forth and laterally is the problem. "Billy was all right for the first day of camp," said Coach Gene Shue. "He didn't give any indication that the knee is a problem.

But we'll have to see. When he gets in better shape, more will be demanded." "I'm making a total commitment," Cunningham said of his comeback from ligament damage in his left knee. "I wouldn't be happy playing 15 or 18 minutes and sitting at the end of the bench. The up-and-down running is fine. Lateral movements bother me.

And the Tartan floor here (a portable wooden court proved to be too short) is a problem. When you stop, it's on a dime. It doesn't give like wood." Next, Shue may cause a serious run on even owner Fitz Dixon's "For the first time, I am trying to pick the players on the basis of the best possible combination," Shue said, indicating that he will pick only the 12 best players, regardless of contractual obligations. Players with guaranteed contracts who are cut would have to be paid anyway. "That's my stance," Shue (See 76ERS on 4-C) for Billy C.

go undefeated." The Big Two? So who's got the toughest schedule in the country? How about Miami? The Hurricanes play, among others, Colorado, Nebraska, Pitt, Boston College, Penn State, Notre Dame, Florida and Houston. That's eight games against potential Top 20 teams. The Big Ten chafes under the scornful criticism that it has become the Big Two (Michigan and Ohio State) and the Little Eight. So Commissioner Wayne Duke runs this piece of research at you: "Since 1960, Ohio State and Michigan have won 10 Big Ten championships. But Oklahoma and Nebraska have won 14 Big Eight titles, Southern Cal and UCLA have won 12 Pac Eight titles, Texas and Arkansas have won 12 Southwest titles, and Alabama alone has won nine SEC titles." The spear carrier OK, nobody ever writes about the spear carriers.

So how does it fed to be blocking for a probable Heis-man Trophy winner? Listen to Jim Corbett who knocks people down for Pitt's Tony Dorsett: "You can't imagine the feeling of putting your man on the ground and hearing him grunt and say, And then both of you look up to see Dorsett's little fanny go wiggling past. The coaches don't like it but sometimes I just lay there and enjoy it. Besides, nobody's going to catch T. D. "Coaches are always telling the tight ends to run downfield and block the safety.

There's a reason for that. Three or four times a game you look back and Dorsett's in your hip pocket. Maybe he's wondering if you're going to do something. Maybe he's thinking about running over you, too. He's a North-South express, not a floater." Maybe a red face Bobby Bowden is the third coach Florida State has had in four years, He scoured the state and his favoriie line was apparently aimed at winning over the natives by assuring them he was one of them.

"Yessir," said Bowden, "I've got a little redneck in me." Finally, an aide took Bowden aside to explain that some folks interpreted redneck as prejudiced, a person with a narrow mind where blacks and long hairs were concerned. "In that case," Bowden said, "better make me a hillbilly." Bowden used to coach West Virginia. Tennessee State, you may remember, produced Too Tall Jones. Now it has Too Huge Anderson. That's Carlos Anderson, native of Detroit, who is 6-feet, 5-inches and 400 pounds.

"Fortunately," said Coach John Merritt, "he brought his own football pants with him." Milton Hardaway didn't, however. Hardaway is a junior tackle at Oklahoma State and he is only 6-9, 321, with a size 54 jersey with a 38-inch sleeve. His helmet is 8V4 and his shoe size is 17-EEE. "The inseam in his pants," said Mackie Mitchell, the student equipment manager, "is extra, extra, long, long." Flyer rookie John Paddock sends puck flying into Boston Flyers bo Coates tough Associated Press goal in the first period we had out there tonight," said Coach Fred Shero. "And I'll say this, if we weren't playing Montreal tomorrow (Saturday) night, he'd be in the lineup.

He earned it." Indeed. With 6 minutes left in the game, and the outcome long removed from doubt, Coates veered behind the Boston net and ran into brawny Terry O'Reilly, as good a fighter as there is to be found in the NHL. Down went the sticks, off came the gloves, and up came the fists. The (See FLYERS on 2-C) the Navy game last year." Pittsburgh had recovered from a debacle at Oklahoma to win four straight games last season to bury William Mary, Duke, Temple and Army, but stumbled before Navy, 17-0. "I hope we learned some hard lessons from that," Majors said.

"We didn't have the maturity to overcome things when we weren't sharp." Pitt is a year older and lots better fight now. Temple figures to be nothing but an annoyance on what appears to be a undefeated path going into the Penn State game on Nov. 26. (See COLLEGES on 4-C) Pitt fears over confidence more than Tenrole By Gary Ronberg Inquirer Rtail Writer BOSTON His name is Steve Coates, and if he ever sticks with the Flyers the Spectrum crowd is going to adore him. You see, he's a gritty little kid, only 5 feet 9 inches and 172 pounds, with a mini-haystack of blond hair, clear blue eyes and that wide, open look of a choir boy.

Except for that slightly bent nose, he doesn't look much like a hockey player, and there are those who don't think he's big The 6-1, 190-pounder, however, hasn't been a regular participant in the Panthers' offense. That's the way things go when you have Tony Dor-sett and Elliott Walker and a quarterback with a penchant to run the ball himself in the lineup. Pitt will go with Matt Cavanaugh quarterback at Pitt Stadium against Temple (1.30) today, and that means more will be heard of Gordon Jones. Cavanaugh leans to the pass a bit more than Haygood, who was lost with knee ligament trouble against Georgia Tech. That means Gordon Jones could get more atten enough to be one in the National Hockey League (NHL).

The difference is that he's the plucky sort, a kid with modest skills but a heart true to the scrappy tradition of the orange jersey he is wearing, however temporarily. "He's a tough little monkey," said Flyer Assistant Coach Mike Nykoluk following last night's 8-3 drubbing by the Bruins in Boston Garden. "He's the kind of kid you like on your team because he can light a fire under it." "I thought he was the best player tion. Jones' TD against Temple in a 55-6 rout for the Panthers last year was only part of the embarrassment for the Owls, who fumbled eight times, had a field goal blocked and had a pass intercepted inside their own 10-yard line for another Pitt touchdown. While Temple will be on guard for Jones, Dorsett and Walker, Pitt's main concern would seem to be over-confidence.

"We have no reason to be fat-headed," coach Johnny Majors said of his third-ranked Panthers. "All we have to do is to look back at By Chuck Newman Inquirer Stall Writer PITTSBURGH He likes to be called "Gee" and "Too Much," and his big-play statistics tell you why. If he had a little extra spring to his takeoff in practice this week, it is understandable. Gordon Jones is only a sophomore in the Pitt football program, but his credits already show a 75-yard TD reception against Temple, an 80-yard-against Temple (1:30) today, and that tions as a freshman for a V.S per catch average. He returned a puht 73 yards and a kickoff 63 for scores..