Pensacola News Journal from Pensacola, Florida • 35

I Georgia 19, East Carolina 15 LSU 17, Texas 8 Mississippi 31, Tulane 21 S. Mississippi 25, Louisville 13 Pennant Races Boston 7, Toronto 5 San Diego 2, Cincinnati 1 New York 7, Chicago 1 Pittsburgh 6, St. Louis 4 News Journal a SCOREBOARD spouts 1-900-020-1111 In-progress reports on major sporting events updated every five minutes starting at 12:15 p.m. Call every day, 24 hours a day. Cost: 75 cents a College Football Alabama 59, Vanderbilt 28 Auburn 26, Tennessee 26, tie Cent.

Florida 49, Kentucky St. 0 Clemson 26, Duke 7 Florida 34, Mississippi St. 21 Florida St. 39, Virginia Tech 28 TO REPORT A LOCAL SPORTS STORY (AFTER 4 P.M.): 435-8521 Sunday, September 30, 1990 In d.mk Pensacola, Florida from-behind rally by Aubum. "I was confident," Burke said.

"That's the position I wanted to be in. I know I let a lot of people down." Down 26-9 early in the fourth period, the Tigers (2-0-1) came roaring back behind the passing of Stan White, who threw for 338 yards and tied a school record with 30 completions. White's 11-yard touchdown pass to Greg Taylor with 1:56 left pulled the Tigers to within 26-25. Coach Pat Dye never hesitated. Wanting to stay unbeaten in the Southeastern Conference, he went for the one-point PAT and a tie.

"Our players had fought too hard to come away with a loss," Dye said. "They won three straight championships in a row, and a loss tonight might have knocked them out of it." Tennessee offensive tackle Antone Davis had a different perspective. "This was hard to accept," he said. "We felt we had the game won. I know the record book will show a tie, but I consider this a loss." Auburn was lucky to be in a position to tie.

Taylor had to swipe the ball away from Tennessee's Dale Carter to get the touchdown. And it came on fourth-and-10 from the 11. But that was old stuff. With 8:28 left, White hit Dale Overton with a 13-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-13. Meet Notre Dame of the South.

To make matters worse for Tennessee, the Volunteers dropped three interceptions in the second half. "Our team is very disappointed," Vols coach Johnny Majors said. "We had our chances to win, even in the last 15 seconds. It wasn't meant to be. That's what someone said, once upon a time.

We had more chances to catch the darn thing than I've seen in a long time." The Vols still had time to win after Taylor's catch, and made a grand stab at it, moving to the Auburn 15 in the final seconds, positioning the ball just right for Burke. But their luck ran out when Burke missed. Early on, this clash of SEC titans looked like a game from someone's backyard. In the game's first 18 minutes, there were 12 changes of possession. Both teams were earnest in handing the ball back to the other side.

Tennessee had three interceptions and a fumble. Aubum had an interception, fumble and tipped punt that went 23 yards. "After the first 15 minutes, I'm shellsh-ocked," Dye said. "But I told the kids at halftime, I really thought we'd win the football game. They (Tennessee) had played two thirds of the first half on defense.

I knew they were going to be tired. The only thing that didn't work out the second half is that we didn't win." Si if. I II 9 Bama wrecks Vandy, Summary6C By Nathan Dominitz News Journal TUSCALOOSA, Ala. The turnovers fell Alabama's way Saturday against Van-i derbilt at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Jj The Crimson Tide earned a 59-28 vie- tory Gene Stallings' first win as head jj coach of Alabama.

"For three weeks it seems like we got no breaks, but today we seemed to get them 'p all," Alabama quarterback Gary Holling- Bworth said. "We had one or two bad breaks in the losses (this season), but not a flood of things," center Roger Shultz saidV'It flooded Vanderbilt. We deserved those breaks. We don't feel sorry for them in any way." Vanderbilt fumbled five times in the Jj first half and lost all five. The Commo-dores fumbled their first four posses- sions, including a kickoff return result- ing in a 24-0 Alabama lead.

The Crimson Tide poured it on early, taking a 31-0 first-quarter lead and holding a 52-7 mar- gin at halftime. Alabama's 52 points were a team record 3 for a first half, and the most since the 3 Tide scored 54 points in the second half of an 89-0 win against Delta State in 1950. '1 "I didn't feel comfortable until there were five minutes to go in the ballgame," 3 said Stallings, who admitted to feeling the heat created by three losses to start 3 the season including two in the South- eastern Conference. "This was really, really important," 2 Stalling said. "Obviously we needed to win.

I hate to put the players in pressure situations. It's going to be a long season." Alabama's win against conference oppo- nent Vanderbilt (1-2 overall) at least for one day probably erased disappointing 2 losses to Southern Mississippi (27-24), i Florida (17-13) and Georgia (17-16). "I think the Tide has turned around," 3 said strong safety Stacy Harrison, who recovered two of Vanderbilt's six fumbles. See 'BAMA, 7C 59-28 da's offense rang up Saturday. In the third period alone, the Gators totaled 159 yards of offense while Mississippi State retreated minus-10 yards.

All told, the Gators held the Bulldogs to 19 yards rushing, the eighth-stingiest performance in school history. Mississippi State compiled 51 yards, nearly 40 percent of its total output, on two plays in the fourth period when the Gators were confident, perhaps overly so, the victory was already secured. "They're the No. 1-ranked defense in the Southeastern Conference," said Mississippi State quarterback Tony Shell, who completed 9-of-26 passes for 116 yards with two interceptions to Florida free safety Will White. "They didn't do anything today to hurt their standing." Added Mississippi State coach Rockey Felker: "I hope we don't play a team this good the rest of the season." See 34-21 SCORE, 7C Summary 6C Auburn defends tie8C By Mike Lopresti Gannett News Service AUBURN, Ala.

There are ties that help. And ties that haunt. When it was over Saturday night, with the score even at 26-26, No. 3 Auburn could think how lucky it had been. No.

5 Tennessee could only wonder what if. Greg Burke's 34-yard field goal attempt sailed left with 11 seconds left, costing Tennessee (3-0-2) its first victory here in 10 years and preserving a stunning come- eminoles survive Hokies FSU rallies to win, 39-28 Summary6C Pensacolian stands out7C By Bill Vilona News Journal TALLAHASSEE Florida 'State' re-: ceived its "Octobertest" a week early. Caught looking ahead to the big exam, the Seminoles nearly failed a pop quiz. Trailing by 18 points midway through the, first the second-ranked Seminoles rallied, then survived Virginia Tech 39-28 in a game neither team will soon forget. "That was one of the greatest football games I ever saw," said Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, who has seen plenty in his 25 years and 199 victories.

Only the big-play efforts of the Seminoles' defense thwarted what would have been disaster. Cornerback Terrell Buckley returned an interception 53 yards for a third-quarter touchdown, which put the Seminoles ahead to stay. Then fellow cornerback Errol McCorvey of Pensacola picked up a fumble and raced 77 yards for an insurance touchdown with 3:59 left. "If we hadn't been fortunate to make' those plays, we would have lost," McCorvey said. The game featured 838 yards of total offense by the two teams, nine turnovers and four lead changes.

The win pushed Florida State's unbeaten streak to 14 games the nation's longest. None, however, were tougher than Saturday night. "No doubt about it, we were in trouble," said linebacker Kirk Carruthers, who forced the fumble that McCorvey carried into the end zone. "This would have ruined all of October." Instead, the Seminoles (4-0) can breathe a sigh of relief before bracing for Miami next week and Auburn two weeks later. Facing a four-touchdown underdog, the Seminoles dug a deep hole, crawled out, then nearly fell in again.

After scoring on three consecutive possessions to take a 25-21 lead early in the third quarter, the See SEMINOLES, 7C WHAT'S INSIDE: Major league baseball report, 3-5C Complete college football report, 6-7C Panhandle bowhunters get approval to use cocking devices, 8C Orange Bowl may award bid to ACC champ should Miami join, 10C Birdie-eagle finish gives Jim Hallet share of Southern Open lead. Sports World, 11C Sports on TV, 2C NFL capsules, 2C clinching couldn't first The since National rain The loss to a huge All decade The when the When Associated Press Florida free safety Will White, right, runs with the ball after intercepting a pass intended for Mississippi State wide receiver Jerry Bouldin (80) in the first quarter. Gators have way with Bulldogs 34-21 score doesn't reflect lopsided game Summary6C By Mike Bianchi Gannett News Service GAINESVILLE As the crowd amused itself with periodic slow-motion and fast-forward waves, the University of Florida football team played at normal speed Saturday and left Mississippi State hopelessly stuck on rewind. Sophomore quarterback Shane Matthews threw for three touchdowns and 351 yards, the third-best total in school his Sill; tory, and Florida's defense stuffed up and roughed up the Bulldogs for a 34-21 victory that wasn't as close as the score makes it look. Mississippi State came into the game having scored three points in three previous games with the Gators.

If not for three Florida turnovers that the Bulldogs turned into touchdowns, Saturday's defensive performance might have been the most dominating of all. "Our defensive effort, was' just fantas- tic," said Florida coach Steve whose team upped its record to 4-0, 2-0 in Southeastern Conference play heading into next week's game against Louisiana State. "They had what? Nine first downs, 135 yards? That's unbelievable. That says it all right there." Not quite. In three games, Mississippi State (2-2, 0-2) has ecked out 418 yards against the Gators 149 yards less than the Flori Associated Press Roger Clemens lowered his ERA to 1.93 Saturday, best in baseball.

'L I- It Reds clinch NL West title Clemens, Brunansky lift Red Sox to 7-5 victory AL EAST Pet GB Boston 86 72 .544 Toronto 84 74 .532 2 NL EAST Pet GB x-Pittsburgh 93 65 .589 New York 89 69 .563 4 x-denotes clinched tie CINCINNATI (AP) A loss, a rain-delay and a losing second-half record take the froth off the Cincinnati Reds' championship celebration in 11 years. Reds backed into their first division title 1979 Saturday afternoon, clinching the League West championship during a delay of a 3-1 loss to San Diego. Reds were handed the title when second-place Los Angeles eliminated itself with a 4-3 in San Francisco, ending the race in an appropriate fashion the Reds have stumbled 56-57 record since June 4 after building a lead. that was forgotten as the Reds buried a of scandal and second-bests with the first wire-to-wire lead by a National League team in a 162-game season. seventh-inning stretch had just concluded a downpour arrived, sending the players to clubhouse to watch for a Dodger score.

it came across a television set, the players, exchanged victory hugs in the clubhouse, See REDS, 4C TV; ESPN, noon BOSTON (AP) Roger Clemens re-turned with six shutout innings and Tom Brunansky welcomed him back with three home runs Saturday as the Boston Red Sox opened a two-game lead over Toronto in the American League East, holding off the Blue Jays 7-5. A day after the Red Sox rallied in the ninth inning to sting Toronto in the opener of the three-game series, Boston brightened even more when Clemens seemed strong. Still, it wasn't easy as Toronto scored five runs with two outs in the ninth against Dennis Lamp, capped by Kelly Gruber's grand slam. The two teams end their three-game series today at noon. Both have four games remaining.

Clemens (21-6), whose comeback was postponed several times since he was sidelined Sept. 4 because of severe tendinitis, blanked the Blue Jays on five hits. I Boxes, standings, 4C He struck out five, walked two and lowered his ERA to 1.93, best in baseball. Clemens left after throwing 93 pitches, 49 for strikes. He is 3-0 against Toronto this season and Boston has beaten the Blue Jays in 10 of 12 games this year.

The Red Sox have won four in a row overall while the Blue Jays have lost four straight..