The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 47

IE $fulaMpfiia Inquirer SUNDAY September 8, 1991 IS SECTION sxt. 1 rwjf si MiJ fell BW5 I Ar -V I I if eles adds Open title to her list PiS iJ i fPP' 'flit) it I IIIIB 0 The Philadelphia Inquirer REBECCA BARGER Freshman tight end Kyle Brady (81) is congratulated by 0. J. McDuffie (24) and Greg Huntington after scoring a Penn State TD. Penn State rips Cincinnati, 81-0 But no matter what he did, the Nittany Lions (2-0) scored.

They scored on 12 of their first 15 possessions. They scored on broken plays. They even scored when they didn't have the ball on a safety when Cincinnati quarterback Jeff Stofa was called for intentional grounding from inside his own end zone. They piled up a school-record 706 yards of total offense, surpassing the 632 they gained against Texas Christian in 1971. Penn State's 11 touchdowns were By Ray Parrillo nqufrer Stall Writer UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.

The game was over four minutes into the first quarter, but the football massacre lasted all afternoon. Penn State tried hard to stop it, but in a mismatch during which they couldn't help but score and score and score, the fifth-ranked Nittany Lions humiliated Cincinnati, 81-0, in their home opener yesterday. That's right. Eighty-one to nothing. It was the most points ever scored By Diane Pucin Inquirer Staff Writer NEW YORK Monica Seles is running through life right now like a train with no brakes.

She's modeling jeans and changing her hair, designing a new tennis outfit and flirting with actors. There's lunch with Donald Trump and a late-night appointment with David Letterman. And there are Grand Slam tennis titles being gathered in like ripe apples. Yesterday, Seles steamrolled to the U.S. Open title, methodically blasting her way past No.

6 seed Martina Nav-ratilova, 7-6 (7-1), 6-1. Only 17 years old and in just her third year as a pro, Seles now owns four Grand Slam championships. She reduced Navratilova, a four-time Open champion, to a stiff-legged, limp-armed bystander. It took Seles just 21 minutes to run through the second set of her victory on the Louis Armstrong Stadium Court at the National Tennis Center. Afterward, she was composed and matter-of-fact about her triumph maybe because she was 4 for 4 in Grand Slam finals.

"You know," she said in her victory speech, "it is over. It is a big relief off my shoulders. I won another Grand Slam that I never won before." Grunt, whomp. Grunt, whomp. Seles snorts like a bull and hits her two-handed ground strokes like a man.

Her thin lips form a grim line and her eyes narrow to slits. "Her determination on the court is unbelievable," Navratilova said. "She just never lets up." Navratilova kept a shaky hand in the match In the first set, saving three break points with big serves. But in the tie-break, Seles lashed out at Navratilova's serves, sending returns to the corners. "I was thinking, 'She's playing so great.

Does she have to keep clipping the an admiring Navratilova said. "It was just too much." After the tie-break, Navratilova won only 11 points. Seles received her third Grand Slam tournament trophy of the year and a winner's check of $400,000 to muted applause. She grabbed the microphone and tried to captivate the 20,000 fans with a babbling brook of phrases. But all they understood was that Seles thanked Donald Trump and never mentioned her parents.

"ITrumpl was, really, the one person that kind of always said the whole two weeks that I can do it," Seles said later. She also said that she had planned on thanking her parents, "but ICBS broadcaster Tony Trabert kept asking me these questions, and I thought that, after I hold the trophy, I could come back and thank my parents. But I couldn't, and I was pretty mad." This gangly teenager, who comes from Yugoslavia, talks on the phone (See U.S. OPEN on 14-E) wad of chaw he's got stuck between his teeth and bottom lip makes the blunt lower half of his face protrude. Every few minutes, he walks over to a big, gray plastic waste can and spits a long string of brown juice.

"The first thing you have to understand about Jim," Eagles coach Rich Kotite said, "is that he isn't at all like what he seems." Poor Rich. This head-coaching job drops in his lap, but it comes with a mandate from owner Norman Bra-man to accomplish two things: Reach at least Round 2 of the playoffs and give this organization a little class. So what happens? In the first half of his first game, he loses the team's best player maybe the best player College football highlights Temple is no match for Alabama in opener scored by seven different players, including a 75-yard run on a broken play in the fourth quarter by quarterback John Sacca, the younger brother of Tony Sacca and the fourth State signal-caller to play. The tissue-paper Cincinnati defense often looked like 11 cops Ing traffic into their own end zone." "Those 81 points that wasn't Joe running it up that was my fault," Cincinnati third-year coach Tim Murphy said. "There's no question about it.

This was as fine a team as (See PENN STATE on 12-E) Pitt races to a 22-point lead and holds off Southern Mississippi, 35-8. Page 12-E. Jimmy Connors Semifinals his exit Courier steps past Connors By Diane Pucin inquirer Staff Writer NEW YORK Jim Courier shouldered his way past Jimmy Connors and his bodyguards, past the TV cameras, past the photographers who had come to chronicle a continuing miracle, and walked onto Stadium Court first and fast. He left it the same way. Courier put a quick end to Connors' continuing quest for youth and tennis titles with a.brutal 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 clubbing of the 39-year-old Connors yesterday in a U.S.

Open men's semifinals match. Connors had been leading the on-court parade until then. He had been strutting on and jogging off, and always the poor opponent had been left in his wake. He had been amazing doctors and players former and present and the guy in the local bar by winning two five-set matches and moving into the semifinals with a flair and pizazz not possessed by the younger stars of the tour. But Courier, a 21-year-old who calls himself "a street fighter," refused to step into Connors' shadow.

Because of that determination Courier, the No. 4 seed, will play No. 2 seed Stefan Edberg today at 4 p.m. for the Open title. Edberg, a 25-year-old Swede, was the ruthless conqueror of No.

5 seed Ivan Lendl in the day's first semifinal match, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4. (See MEN on 14-E) wheel McMahon in the NFL. And to whom must he turn? Would it be too much to describe James Robert McMahon as one of the more garish football players of the last decade? No. No, it would not be too much. Nearly a fifth of his lifetime ago, McMahon attracted wild attention with his eccentric ways as he led the Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl championship, but since then, his career has more resembled a medical chart than a quarterback's stat sheet.

He has joked that his now-32-year-old body has so many scars, he plans to donate it to the Smithsonian Institution when he dies and those are (See McMAHON on 10-E) It can't be much of a picnic being his cellmate, either. Terri Dykstra smiles again, pours more coffee. "This time is better," she says "This time there's only a month left in the season. The last time She rolls her eyes again, toward the white ceiling that is cross-hatched with wooden beams. Reflex ively, you follow her gaze to tho" ceiling.

You half expect to find Lennv rvt (See LYON on 6-E) Desmond Howard catches three TD passes and returns a kickoff 93 yards for another TD in Michigan's 35-13 win over BC. Big East roundup, Page 12-E. Villanova opens up its offense and completely dominates Maine, 48-7, in its season opener. Page 11-E. Rick Mirer scores three TDs and throws another in Notre Dame's 49-27 win over Indiana.

Midwest roundup, 1 1-E. A defensive stand in the fourth quarter assured Mississippi State's 13-6 upset of Texas. South roundup, 13-E. Scores Washington 42, Stanford 7 Florida 59, San Jose State 21 Clemson 34, Appalac. St.

0 Nebraska 59, Utah St. 28 Iowa 53, Hawaii 10 Associated Press with Eagles coach Rich Kotite. by a Joe Paterno-coached team. It was the fourth most ever scored by Penn State in its 105 years of playing football. It was State's biggest rout since 1926, the year Paterno was born.

That season, State demolished Susquehanna, 82-0. And it could have been worse. Much worse. Paterno began, substituting in the middle of the first quarter. He pulled first-string quarterback Tony Sacca in the second quarter.

He sent 77 players into the game. ried from the field in the second quarter with an injury to his left knee and wide receiver Rob Graf suffered a broken collarbone. Forgetting what happened on the AstroTurf at Legion Field before 83,091 bellowing fans will not be an easy task for the Owls. "We got our tails kicked," said a somber Jerry Berndt, the Temple coach. "We need to put this one behind us and get on to the next one.

I'm extremely disappointed. We really felt like we'd come out and play better." The Alabama defense allowed Tern-(See TEMPLE on 11-E) Jim McMahon (left) talking Index Sparky Anderson runs the show for the Detroit Tigers an enviable situation for a major-league manager. Frank Dolson, Page 3-E. An arthroscopic examination of Dwight Gooden's right shoulder yesterday revealed a cartilage tear, loose fragments and a partial tear of the rotator cuff. Page 6-E.

When training camp opened yesterday, the Flyers were without their captain, Ron Sutter, and Murray Craven, both holding out because of contract disputes. Page 15-E. Baseball 2-E Horse racing 16-E Golf 10-E Outdoors 20-E I't A hot-dog at the Eagles hand their offense to v. By Mike Bruton Inquirer Stuff Writer "BIRMINGHAM, Ala. The Temple twls came south to Alabama with thoughts of proving they belonged among collegiate football's upper echelon but were sent home with their egos and their bodies badly bruised.

They were not only humbled on tthe scoreboard a 41-3 shellacking yesterday at the hands of the Crimson Tide but beaten as well, with possibly two ey players lost for the season with injuries. Linebacker Greg Liberty was car Kuffin solid, but Phillies tumble, 6-0 5y Dick Polman luiuirer Stuff Writer I' HOUSTON Where have we seen ihis game before? Answer: Every time Bruce Ruffin Jitches. The guy goes out there every fifth Jlay and delivers a quality start. He throws seven innings, keeps the Phillies in the game and gets with the loss. Or he doesn't get a decision at all.

And he's left a serious case of frustration, It happened again last night. Ruffin pitched well enough to win. But to win, he needed runs. And the Phils strung nine zeroes across the Iward. And when it was over, they had jost again to the Astros, 6-0, at the Astrodome.

It was their fourth con-islecutive loss and their most lopsided xjefeat since Aug. 16. They fell seven games below that elusive .500 mark tor the first time since Aug. 17. They 'also played their worst game in recent memory.

"We played awful," manager Jim lregosi said. "Just the routine plays supposed to make, we didn't jnake." And that made the difference. An rtful pitcher's duel between Ruffin and rookie Darryl Kile was unceremoniously trashed in the late innings. It was like watching a piece of thina crash to the floor. 'The game was still scoreless in the last of the seventh when Casey Can-aaele opened with a single.

Then (See PHILLIES on 4-E) By Mark Bowden Inquirer Staff Writer In the locker room, Jim McMahon doesn't wear shades. Today, he's got this black-and-white leopard-spot kerchief stretched over the top of his head and tied in a knot in the back, looking like some chic pirate. The image is accented by the gold ring in one earlobe. Thin, sandy locks dangle from underneath the kerchief to his shoulders. He has the pink complexion of a man with sensitive skin who works outdoors, and there are no discernible eyebrows over his small, pale eyes.

There's about a week's worth of beige stubble on his cheeks, and the By BILL LYON backed up like O'Hare Airport has taxiing planes gridlocked on its runways. More pacing Dykstra's sentence: 5 months of not playing Lenny Dykstra, inmate, is pacing. It's the best way to do hard time. Dining room to kitchen. Back again.

He sits. Whoops, he's up again. Over to the counter, to peer out the window at the pool, back to the table. Sits. Thirty-five seconds later, he's up again.

Back to the dining room. Pacing, pacing, pacing, impatient as a cat outside a mouse hole. A cellular phone is growing out of his right hand. It rings. It will ring 27 times in the next hour and a half.

He talks. He paces. He talks some more. Lenny Dykstra has phone traffic Terri Dykstra, his cellmate, sits at the kitchen table and observes this restless dissipation of energy with the patient eye of one who has done hard time before. She smiles, rolls her eyes heavenward.

Lenny Dykstra is doing the hardest kind of time an athlete can serve. Injury time. The kind of time that reminds him of his vulnerability, his fragility. His mortality. The kind of time that tells him the meter is running on his scholarship through life.

7.