Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 39

iC f'tmn scorecard -12 ipy VTmIO SPORTS DIGEST 15 )) JlvLM. ViLy OUTDOOR -16 LJ? Pc Daily News November 1, 1981 kwo Si men laiJis jDacJt 4ft ires a The Bulldogs gave it all they had Saturday at Tuscaloosa, but they didn't have quite enough TheBamaf shootout No. 7 Mississippi State fell 9 yards short of beating No. 8 Alabama Saturday, losing 13-10. Read about the mistakes, the breaks and the funny bounces that took place in Tusca- -loosa in the showdown that more' than lived up to its advance Related story, Page 3 I Statistics, Page 14 By BARRY LASSWELL Clarion-Ledger Sports -TUSCALOOSA, Aid- They gave it everything they had.

They fired all the bullets and then used the guns as clubs. Nobody held back a blocM tackle, an ounce of effort. And it was just barely not enough. Mississippi State tdjQk Alabama to the limit Saturday, but came up 9 yards short a 13-10 loss to the Crimson Tide. Perhaps it was closer than 9 yards.

It may have been just the width of one human hand. On Mississippi State's last shot, a third-and-goal play from the Alabama 9, tight end Jerry Price slanted into the middle. Quarterback John Bond fired. "We were trying toHood the left side with three receivers," Bond said. "We were trying to get Jerry in behind the linebackers.

He was open." The pass never got there. Linebacker Eddie Lowe tipped the ball high into the air. It settled slowly, softly into the arms of Alabama safety Tommy Wilcox. The Tide killed 19 seconds 1 and it was all over. "Jerry was open," Bond said.

"The linebacker just made a At A i i') Index good play," 1 Pro page 2 State 8-9 Patterson 3 Penn State 10 'Smith 3 11 For the record 4 Scoreboard 12 Ole Miss, USM 5 Travelin' 13 6 Scoreboard 14 State colleges 7 Sports Digest 15 Borden, Hood 8 Outdoors 16 TELEVISION TODAY Navy-Notre Dame, 10a.m. (0 Saints-Falcons (CBS), noon. Browns-Bills (NBC), noon. Cowboys-Eagles (CBS), 3 p.m, Washington State-USC, 4 p.m. Flames-Rangers, 6:30 p.m.- Navy-Notre Dame, midnight.

Flames-Rangers, 2 a.m. i' The victory extended Alabama Bryant-Denny Stadium winning streak to 55 games, to the relief of a capacity crowd of 60,210. The eighth-ranked Crimson Tide is 7-1-1 and 5-0 in the Southeastern Conference. Mississippi State, ranked seventh, fell to 6-2 and 3-1 in the SEC, severely damaging the Bulldogs' Sugar Bowl hopes. It was Alabama coach Bear Bryant's 313th career victory, tying him for second with Pop Warner on the all-time list If all of the victories had been this difficult, Bryant might have gotten out of the business 10 years ago.

The Bulldogs battled Alabama on nearly even terms in a game full of turnovers, brutal hitting, injuries and missed chances. Alabama lost seven of 11 fumbles. State lost four fumbles and threw two'interceptions. It was 10-10 at halftime, and Alabama was the only team able to convert an opportunity into points in the second half. The Crimson Tide drove from its own 18 to the State 12 behind quarterback Ken Coley 'and then discovered an unlikely hero.

Freshman kicker Terry Sanders, in the game only because Peter Kim had been injured at the end of the first half, knocked a 28-yard field goal down the middle for the winning margin. Those three points looked pretty flimsy at the time, though, because State had all kinds of chances to come back. On the kickoff after the field goal, Glen Young went 42 yards and came ever so close to running right out of town. State did nothing on that possession, but a few plays later State's Rob Fesmire recovered Joe Carter's fumble at the Alabama 22. Within easy field goal range, at least On the next play, Jackie Cline jarred the ball loose from Bond and Lowe recovered.

End of threat. State got its last chance with 1:46 left and the ball at its own 21. Bond got one first down with a 16-yard pass to Young. He made a good throw to Lamar Windham for 15 to the Alabama 48. Bond then hit Danny Knight angling toward the right sideline, and Knight dragged tacklers all the way to the 9.

All of a sudden it was gut-check time. State had three shots. All three were passes to Price. The first one was close to a completion. The second was close to an interception.

The third was an interception. That eliminated thedifficult decision State coach Emory Bellard would have faced on fourth down to try for a touchdown, or to settle for a field goal and a tie. "I don't know what I would have done," Bellard said. "I Staff pholo by Greg Campbell Bulldogs Gary Lambert, 29, Glenn Collins, 79, and Joh- Saturday's game in Tuscaloosa, Ala'. Eighth-ranked nie Cooks tackle Alabama's Mickey Guinyard during Alabama beat seventh-ranked State 13-10.

and then Michael Haddix broke an outside option for 40 more. "We had one new play," Bond said. "I waseversing out and then coming down the line on the option." Bond and Knight combined to get a first down at the 1, and Bond wedged in for the touchdown. Alabama took advantage of a fumble to cut the margin to 7-3 later in the first quarter. Kim's field goal came from 27 yards.

Alabama went up 10-7 early in the second quarter on fa 49-yard touchdown drive. The Tide scored when fullback Ken Simon fumbled near the goal line and the ball bounced conveniently into Carter's hands as he ran into the end zone. State got a 10-10 tie at halftime with theaid of one of the strangest breaks ever seen. A punt by State's pana Moore came down squarely on the helmet of Alabama's Jerrill Sprinkle, and State recovered at the Alabama 33. After one first down, Moore kicked a 33-yard field goal.

doubt seriously that we would have kicked it We probably would have gone for it. "In fact, I'll tell you right now we wouldn't have kicked it." Bryant was just glad Bellard didn't get to make that decision. "I've been around a long time and seen a lot of football games, and I don't recall ever being involved in one exactly like that," Bryant said. "Our players showed about as much determination, guts and pride as a team could. "We've got a chance for big things now," Bryant said.

"We haven't played like that this year." And, on the first series of the game, the Bulldogs may have played better than they had all year. State ripped through the Alabama defense for 79 yards and a touchdown. State got a little help when Alabama drew an interference penalty on Windham's option pass. That gave State 21 yards, The Bulldogs spent the rest of the half dodging disaster. Joey Jones took the kickoff and was absolutely, positively gone if kicker Bob Morgan had not knocked him down with the; ultimate in desperation tackles.

Alabama still reached the State 10 before fumbling the ball: away. The Tide reached the 7 with time running out in the half, "Six people were trying to tell me what to do," Bryant said lat-; er. Jesse Bendross dropped what would have been a tduch-; down pass, and Kim missed a 29-yard field goal. State had several chances in the third period, but Moore missed a 42-yard field goal try and the Bulldogs turned the ball over in Alabama territory on an interception and a fum-; ble. "We had the opportunities in the football game and repeat-; edly made mistakes," Bellard said.

"That was the major thing." USMdefem NorttiTexas 22-0 in rain i Staff phito by Tom Powell Ole Miss tight end Greg Walker shows his frustration as he and LSU's Lawrence Williams watch an incomplete pass. Emotional bomb blew up in Rebels' faces Related story. Page 3 Statistics, Page 14 By ROSCOE NANCE Clarion-Ledger Sports Writer DENTON, Texas By now, the Southern Mississippi football team and rainy, muddy conditions should be the best of friends. 1 Saturday for the second consecutive game, the Golden Eagles put their unbeaten record on the line adverse weather conditions. And for the second consecutive game they came out on top.

This time, they beat North Texas State 22-0 in a thunderstorm that had much of the Metroplex area under a flash flood warning and left Fouts Field lokking more suited for breast-stroking and butter-flying than running and passing the football. The Golden Eagles, who had blanked Memphis State 10-0 two weeks earlier in similar conditions before taking a week off, completely dominated the Mean Green as 3,1 56 onlookers tried to dodge the raindrops. Southern Missisisppii limited North Texas State, 1-7, to just three first down, two of which came on penalties. North Texas State didn't convert a first down on its own until 10:55 remain-ied in the third period. I "It wasn't tough playing in those conditions," said Southern Mississippi noseguard Jerald Baylis.

"It got the offense slowed down. It made us the aggressors. We've been playing in it the last couple of weeks. It got us hyped up. It made us think shutout.

We knew at the half we hadn't allowed them but one first down. "Our objective was not to give them any. If we had done that that would have been the ultimate victory. After they got another first down, we didn't want to let them cross mid-field." The Golden Eagles did achieve their second objective. The only time North Texas State crossed midfield was when it recovered a pair of fumbles at Southern Mississippi's 44.

But in each instance, the Golden Eagles defense toughened and kept the Mean Green out of the end zone. The first time, North Texas state was forced to punt from the 43. The second time, the Mean Green gave the ball up on downs at the 31. Quarterback Reggie Collier got the Golden Eagles Winging See USM, Page 5D yard run after an Ole Miss fumble at the watching the Rebels take a 21-7 lead on two 37-yard Gatlin field goals, a 2-yard TD run by John Fourcade followed by Arthur Humphrey's two-point conversion run and Andre Thomas' 1-yard scoring run; watching the Rebels fall behind 24-21; watching them drive brilliantly for a tying field goal; watching them take that 27-24 lead; and inevitably watching the sixth consecutive week pass without a win. He said Ole Miss (3-5-1) did not lose.

He said the Rebels tied. But his emotion, his visage were not convincing. Still he tried. "We had a little miracle to get ours and they had a little miracle to get theirs," he said. "An exchange of miracles." emotions.

Still life. The Bayou Bengals were whoopin' and hol-lerin'. They carried on as winners, for they did not lose. The stunned Rebels slumped into the clutches of despair. They dropped their heads.

They carried on as losers, for they did not win. "It really hurts still hurts," said Ole Miss' Bryan Kennedy who was very much a part of this emotional whirling dervish. "It makes it hurt even worse having to sit there and watch them celebrate a tie," said Rebel cornerback Melvin Brown. "Man, it hurts. "You're so high after we're ahead," said the Rebels' Todd Gatlin, who kicked a school record four field goals, including the one with 29 seconds remaining to give Ole Miss that teasing 27-24 lead.

"And then it's like somebody just shoots you in the back. I can't believe it." For Steve Sloan, the bullet seemed to drain life right out of his very soul. His face was drawn. He had endured so much; watching the Rebels fall behind 7-0 on Jude Hernandez's 3- Statistics, Page 14 By MICKEY SPAGNOLA Daily News Sports Writer Saturday afternoon was bearing down on 4 p.m. under an azure sky that picked iip momentum as the day wore on.

The sun was bright The breeze gentle. The setting, so idyllic. Ole Miss led LSU, and only 29 ticks of the clock remained. Gosh, for the majority of the 46,324 people in Mississippi Memorial Stadium, life was just grand. But life really was not grand, not if a Colonel Rebel was tattooed to your helmetKot if a Rebel flag was stripped across your heart.

Life was an emotional bomb, one which became too incomprehensible for man to understand or explain. For as the very last of those precious ticks fled into history, the LSU Tigers arose on the leg of David Johnston to tic this game and the streaming emotions into a 27-27 knot with a 46-yard field goal. Where had all the grandness gone? The sun, and the blue-ness, too? The field a freeze frame of contrasting If this old series between Ole Miss and LSU (3-5-1) had Cannons did gained notoriety for what the Mannings and the ibwn for the in Uie past, then this, the 71st meeting, will be kr. 11 9 sea. Then "exchange of miracles." First Ole Miss parted LSU rose from the dead.

An ecclesiastical duel. See Emotional, Page 5D 1 A.