The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 15

"a-" v' i- Journal SPORTS NEWS Montgomery, Sunday, Nov. 3, 1968 0 Defense Again burn ins 0 9 Bama Unimpressive in Victory Hie liii All With Turnovers Costly For Gators, 24-13 By SAM ADAMS Journal Sports Editor GAINESVILLE, Fla. Auburn's defense handed the ball over to the offense six times on recoveries and interceptions here Saturday afternoon and the Tigers came from behind for a 24-13 victory over the Florida Gators. And, given breathing room and three scoring opportunities by his defensive mates, Loran Carter threw touchdown passes while amassing 220 ynrds Homecoming Tide By JACK DOANE Advertiser Sports Editor TUSCALOOSA Alabama played its last football game on grass in Denny Stadium, Col. Carlton Butler directed the Million Dollar Band for the last time at homecoming and 58,084 folks enjoyed a 1 balmy outing here Saturday afternoon.

Oh, Yes, just for the record, Paul Bryant's Crimson Tide defeated Mississippi State in the usual manner uncon-vincingly, unspectacularly and unimpressively. The score was 20-13. The Tide won its fifth game in seven 1968 engagements on v. if a pair of two-yard touchdown runs by Ed Morgan and Pete on 17 completions. But for the two-pronged effort, fired-up Florida might have won going away.

The Gators, using a game plan that confused the Tigers early, jumped to a 3-0 lead on Jack Youngblood's field goal and widened the gap to 10-0 on Jack EckdahPs touchdown pass to Youngblood. All this happened in less than eight minutes and the 7,000 Auburnites in the stands began to fear for the safety of their Tigers. The tide of battle began to turn early v1: Jilleba and two field goals, 26 and 29 yards in length, by Mike Dean, all in the first half. It was 20-6 at the halfway point, State getting a touchdown on Lynn Zeringue's one-yard dive, and Alabama spent the rest of the warmish day letting Pete Moore run at Char'jy Shira's still winless Maroons and its defense attempt to bottle up State's will-o-the-wisp quarterback Tommy Pharr. Pharr completed 16 of 35 passes for 170 yards and rushed for 35 as he personally accounted for 205 of State's 221 offensive yards.

The Southeastern Conference's passing and it ADAMS in the second, however, when an interception led to a touchdown pass to Connie Frederick. A few minutes later John Riley Kicked a field goal, after a bril- if 1 DOANE 0 10 7 7-M 10 0 0 13 Auburn Florida STATISTICS total offense leader established a Mississippi State record for single season offense as he ran his total to 1,339 yards for the season. The old record of 1,266 was set by Jackie Parker in 1952. Kla-TO Youngblood 31 First downs Parsing yardaee -M V't Mississippi State Alabama 6 0 7 13 Auburn Florida Fla -Yarborotwh live pass from Eck-dahl (Youngblood kick) 12 17 Aub Frederick nine pass from Carter 220 191 kick) B7 15 Aub-FG Riley 24 17-30-1 19-44-3 Aub-Chruitian live pass from Carltp 8-28 7-40 Fla-FG Youngbood 28 3 Aub -Frederick 41 pass from Carter 6 31 (Hilev kirk I A STATISTICS Miss. St.

Ala. 10 23 Reium yardage Passes Punts Fumbles lost Yards penalized Ala-Morgan 2 run (Dean kick) MS-Zeringue 1 run (kick failed) AlaJilleba 1 run (Dean kick) Ala FG Dean 26 Ala-FG Dean MS-Milner pass from Pharr (Cul- 51 171 170 174 16-752 18-28-1 31 16 7-41 rl-37 First downs Rushing yardage Passing yardage Passes Return yardage Punts Fumbles lost Yards penalized 0 ver kick) 30 1 61 i I I mmmm Advert iwr-Jour nal Color Photo by George Threartgitl STATE'S LYNN ZERINGUE MOMENTARILY SUSPENDED IN MID-AIR Held in Place by Bama's Owen (36), Blair; Dive Carried for Touchdown College Football Scores liant 42-yard return of an interception by Buddy McClinton. So the teams went out for intermission tied at 10-10 and Auburn people in better spirits. Auburn moved ahead to stay midway into the third quarter when Carter teamed up with Tim Christian for another touchdown, following a 39-yard toss to Dvvight Hurston. Florida's only score of the last half, Youngblood's second fold goal, came In the early minutes' of the final quarter, leaving Auburn with a shaky four-point bulge.

But the Tigers wrapped it up In the middle of the final period when Carter fired to Frederick for a 41-yard pass and run play. The defense then finished strong by snuffing out frantic efforts by the Gators to light up the scoreboard again. However, the defense had performed admirably after the first quarter, even though Eckdahl and Larry Rentz completed 20 of 43 passes. Eckdahl was shaken up late in the second quarter and never returned to action. True, Florida had a total offense of 360 yams, 191 on passing, but the Auburn defense made the big plays when needed.

The victory, the first for the Tigers here since I960, kept Auburn in the Southeastern Conference championship football race with three big games ahead Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Auburn is 3-0 in the conference and 5-2 overall, A record crowd for Florida Field, 63,122, was on hand for the kickoff in balmy 72-degrce weather. Florida received and the Auburn demolition forces didn't start operations immediately as Eckdahl connected on three 13-yard passes, proving the number can be lucky. But, after Jerry Vinesett bulled for a first down on the Auburn 17, the Tigers stopped the Gator thrust. However, Youngblood came (See TIGERS, Page 6B) But Pharr wasn't enough, not nearly actually, for Bama was more dominant than the score leads you to believe.

The Tide played ball control much of the time and had possession for 84 plays to 60 for the Bulldogs. The Crimsons played under wraps most of the second half, letting workhorse Moore, the 6-0, 196-pound junior from Hopkinsville, gouge the Maroon defense time and again. Moore finished with 115 rushing yards, the best day enjoyed by a Bama back all season. He ran 28 times and was the man with the ball on 14 consecutive Tide running plays in the final period. Alabama's sturdy defense, third in the nation in protecting against the rush, permitted the Bulldogs only 51 ground yards, most of them attained by the scrambling Pharr, who frequently faded to pass and broke back up the middle on a quarterback draw-type play.

All-American linebacker Mike Hall continued to be just that an All-American. He led Tide tacklers with three individual tackles and six assists. Linebacking mate Bob Childs and soph middle guard Sam Gellerstedt were in on six each, the latter making five by himself. Gellerstedt was the only Crimson who had much success hauling Pharr down in an open field. Alabama, improving its SEC record to 2-2 with a murderous stretch run upcoming against LSU, Miami and Auburn, looked as if it would make Bryant's 11th consecutive win over State a runaway by going 62 yards to a touchdown the first time it had the ball.

But Bama simply doesn't run up scores on the lads from (See EARLY, Page 56) Harvard 28 Penn. 8 Wake Forest 38 14 MIDWEST Ohio St. 25 St. 20 Purdue 35 IlZinofs 17 Kansas 27 14 Missouri 42 St. Iowa 35 28 Michigan 35 0 Indiana 21 Wisconsin 20 Oklahoma 35 Kansas St.

20 Wyoming 46 Colorado St. 14 Air Force 28 Carolina 15 Texas 38 SMU 7 Nebraska 24 -Iowa St. 13 SOUTHWEST Texas Tech 38 Rice 15 Arkansas 25 22 TCI 47 Baylor 14 WEST Utah 30 Briaham Young 21 Oregon St. 29 7 Washington 7 Calijornia 7 Southern Cal 20 13 SEC Alabama 20 State 13 Auburn 24, 13 OleMiss 27 LSU 24 Tennessee 42 Georgia 10 Houston 10 (tie) Kentucky 35 Virginia 16 Vanderbilt 21 EAST Colgate 27 Lehigh 11 Penn. State 28 24 Yale 47 Dartmouth 27 Notre Dame 45 14 Syracuse 47 Cross 0 Princeton 50 Brown 7 Rutgers 23 14 Columbia 34 Cornell 25 Penn State 2S 24 SOUTH Alabama St.

27 Ala. 21 La. Tech 27 Miss 20 Duke 46 Tech 30 VP140 FSU 22 Wm. Mary 33, Villanova 12 South Carolina 49 28 Richmond 35 VMI0 Ckmson 24 State 19 Citadel 28 21 Byrd Strikes Again; si Mauls A a tf Troy cheese 1 hi' Star's 310 Passing Yards Lead 52-0 Wave Waltz JR. 1 t.

By MAX MOSELEY Advertiser Snorts Writer I 4- iff li TROY Sim Byrd, the Magnificent, the Bart Starr of small college football, sparked the amazing Troy State University to its eighth straight victory of the season here Saturday night as they crushed a highly- (I luuieu muNeese aiaie lootDau team az-u. AVI Cecil Barber and Danny Grant turned in neat runs from scrimmage. Jeff Cotton scored the touchdown from the two yard line with 8:39 left in the first quarter. I Early in the second quarter Troy scored again in a hurry They moved 50 yards in four Setting new records with every throw, Byrd completed 24 of 33 passes for 310 yards and he played only three quarters. Danny Grant, a 175 junior flanker from Ozark, who has been missing from the lineup for several weeks because of an injury, rejoined the Red Wave and proved to be Byrd's favorite receiver of the night.

Grant caught 14 passes, including four touchdown tosses, as he gave a sensational exhibition of pass receiving. Coach Billy Adkins. football team, easily the best team to ever represent Troy State, displayed a strong defense as well as offense as they halted all McNeese offensive tactics. plays with Byrd firing a 27-yard heave to Grant for the touch down. Cotton ran for two points and Troy led 14-0.

The next time Troy got the ball, this great passing com bination of Byrd to Grant con ill i am mammmm tinued to move the ball. Troy was back in McNeese territory in a hurry. Troy moved 73 yards in five plays for their third Troy took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards in sixteen plays for their first touchdown. touchdown. After Barber ripped around right end for 21 yards to the Troy 48-yard line, Byrd fired to Grant for 11 yards to the McNeese 42 Barber ran four yards and seven yards on two (See BYRD, Page 61? Magician Sim Byrd connected for seven of nine passes for 43 Advertiser-Journal phots, by Norman Dean DANNY GRANT HIT AFTER RECEPTION Wrestled Down by McNeese's Fleming (14) Ad vertlsrr -Journal Tnlsr PhoU br Robert Lvlt FLORIDA'S TOM CHRISTIAN RACKED HARD, ALMOST LOSES FOOTBALL Auburn's Mike Kolen (54) First in Stack of Three to Make Head-on Tackle yards in the sustained drive 1 f'rfc rliiiAiwAiilliiLiiAtrttft 4jrflnnTi dtbiiafgrt jp, jaartiii ii tt A iff.