Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 85

5 1stED. gi)c jiartfotfl infant SPORTSPART 2 PAGE Ell SUNDAY NOVEMBER 1.1987 E19 CLASSIFIED BOATING E20-26 CLASSIFIED AUTOMOBILE McPherson makes the big plays for Syracuse, 24-10 Summary, Page E14. Associated Press PITTSBURGH Syracuse quarterback Don McPherson may be the closest thing to a one-man offense in college football He has talented receivers to catch his passes and capable backs to run with his handoffs and pitches. But McPherson, a 6-foot, 189-pound senior, is the man the unbeaten, eighth-ranked Orangemen turn to when they need a big play. More often than not, he comes through.

"He opened us up like a can," Pitt Coach Mike Gottfried said Saturday early in the second quarter came on third-down plays. His 11-yard pass to flanker Kane with 14 seconds left in the first half gave the Orangemen a 24-3 lead and capped an 80-yard drive after Pitt blew a chance to get back in the game. The Panthers had a first down at the Syracuse 23, but Pat VanHorne, who kicked a 37-yard field goal earlier in the quarter, missed a 34-yard attempt. The Syracuse scoring drives covered 62, 82, 80 and 80 yards. The nation's llth-best offensive team rolled up 301 of its 441 yards in the first half against Pitt's No.

4-ranked defense. Pitt had allowed an average of 244.1 in its first seven games. Syracuse sat on the ball in the second half and let McPherson come up with the key play when necessary a 38-yard pass to Kelly from his 4-yard line, a 27-yard keeper from his 23, a 19-yard pass to Kane on third-and-12 from his 48. "If you don't like what happened in the second half, blame no one but me," MacPherson said. "I wanted to make sure we didn't make any mistakes.

We ran some real safe plays." McPherson completed eight of 17 passes for 179 yards and ran 14 times for 48. "McPherson seemed to make the big play the whole game," Gottfried said. "We had pressure on him, but he was very poised and avoided the rush, he kept us off-balance and handled the pressure like the fifth-year senior that he is." The Orangemen, continuing their best start since their 1959 national championship team went 11-0, boosted their record to 8-0. Pitt, which hadn't allowed a first-half touchdown since the first play of the season, is 5-3. The Orangemen are very much in contention for a major bowl bid after McPherson ran three yards for a first-quarter touchdown and threw second-quarter scoring passes of 28 yards to Pat Kelly and 11 to Tommy Kane to lead the Orangemen to a 24-10 "Our quarterback is a guy who makes plays all by himself," Syracuse Coach Dick MacPherson said.

"The key was we got big plays early and made them come back. That takes them out of their game plan." McPherson's touchdown run and his scoring pass to tight end Kelly representatives from 11 bowl games attended the game but MacPherson doesn't want to talk about that possibility. "All we're thinking about is Navy this week's opponent," he said. "As far as we're concerned, it's eight down and one to go." While McPherson was directing a big-play offense, Syracuse tackle Rob Burnett keyed a defense that sacked Pitt quarterback Sal Genilla five times in the first half and nailed Darnell Dickerson twice in the second half. See Syracuse, Page E12 Undefeated: is now out for Trinity 1 f.

Jr, In 1 if 1 ft jf '7' 4 I A r. if 1 hi yi 4 upfield. DeGennaro also was able to buy time for himself with some quick maneuvering behind the line of scrimmage. "DeGennaro ran around a bit and got them out of trouble in the passing game," Villanova Coach Andy Tal-ley said. "He made a big play at the end.

He should've been sacked, but he made a nice play to get them back into the game. He did the same thing on the goal line in the first half." UConn rushed for more than 200 yards for the first time in four games and established its running game early. The Huskies ran eight times in See UConn, Page E13 1 11 YJ Connecticut quarterback Matt DeGennaro fumbles after getting hit by Villanova's Mike Feeley. DeGennaro passed for two touchdowns UConn holds on, Dennis Yonan Special to Tne Courant and ran for a third in UConn's 34-23 victory in Storrs. He completed 15 of 25 passes for 151 yards for UConn (4-4).

beats Villanova Elis win without drama Ryan, Stewart help dominate Big Green, 17-7 By RODGER CITRON Courant Correspondent HANOVER, N.H. Yale's fifth victory of the season, 17-7 over Dartmouth, lacked a familiar element Saturday: the excitement of a miracle comeback to ensure victory. Instead of playing beat the clock with 2 minutes left, the Elis were killing time. "It was a good feeling to have a lead going into the fourth quarter, and maintaining it," Elis quarterback Kelly Ryan said. Yale senior tailback Mike Stewart, a native of Manchester, N.H., carried 35 times for 138 yards and one touchdown.

The victory improves Yale to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Ivy league. Dartmouth is 1-6 and 0-4. Yale Coach Carm Cozza was particularly pleased with his team's balanced offense. The Elis amassed 174 yards on the ground and 189 passing by Ryan. "We're constantly striving for balance," Cozza said.

"We had to control the ball to win." The Elis shut out the Big Green after giving them a touchdown on their first drive. Yale blocked one field-goal attempt and twice prevented Dartmouth from converting fourth-down plays in the second half. "We came up empty inside the 25 yard-line too often," Dartmouth Coach Buddy Teevens said. "I told the players, that's what's separating us from a 1-6 club and a decent football team." Dartmouth scored first, marching 62 yards on its first possession. The Big Green relied on the running of tailback Chris Pollard, who carried seven times for 40 yards on the drive.

Pollard carried 26 times for 120 yards. The drive, which began on the Dartmouth 38, nearly stalled at the Yale 14, but quarterback Chris Rorke found flanker David Anderson for a first down at the Yale 7. Two plays later, fullback Terry Phillis See Ryan, Page E12 ''k" '-W DeGennaro passes for 151 yards Owen Canfield And so, Coast Guard has thwarted Trinity's try for an undefeated season. It happened in the cool sunshine of Dan Jessee Field off Broad Street Saturday afternoon. It was a 30-6 teaparty for the Cadets.

Not a close game. Not close to being close. Game story, Page E1 Things caught up with the tarns, who had advanced through five games without a loss. "You're going to get losses," Coach Don Miller said later. "These things are going to happen." It is a satisfying thing for a football team to go through one full season without losing.

A rare thing. And this year, a near thing for Trinity, which in the week ahead has a great recovery to make in all areas if it is to begin a new winning string. The Bantams play Amherst next week, in Massachusetts. The Lord Jeffs are 5-1, having Saturday put Tufts away in a tough one, 14-13. "This was Coast Guard's biggest game of the year," said Miller, correctly.

"And that's the way they played it" He is a rare breed of coach who has had big-time opportunities dangled in front of him any number of times but never had the urge to bite. One day, several years ago, he cited the difference between "being a coach" and "coaching." "I'm vitally involved here," he said. "I like the coaching part. I don't know how much coaching they do at the larger schools with the television programs, businesses and other things they do." Saturday, after a tough drubbing, he was the involved coach, fully submerged in the toughest part of the Division III job. Those who would peg Miller as a wooden soldier should have seen him after this game.

It's not in him to make gray out of black. Coach Tom Bell's team was dominant from the opening kickof Miller ticked off the obvious things. "They outquicked us, outran us, outhit us, outplayed us and they were See Owen Canfield, Page E20. gets-the-ball-Iast-wins type of games. We didn't want Brogna to kick a 58-yard field goal to beat us." Brogna has kicked 54 and 53-yarders this year but against Ansonia had only one attempt, a 44-yarder, which went wide to the left All Brogna could do was pull his team close and only for a minute or two.

Trailing 14-0, Brogna directed a 50-yard scoring drive which he finished off with an 8-yard touchdown pass to split end Steve Barnosky. Barnosky proved as elusive as Donofrio, catching 11 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns. Then Ansonia scored on its third straight possession, an 80-yard drive in 11 plays which Lane and Donofrio finished with a six-yard pass. Ansonia added another touchdown before halftime for a 28-7 lead. When Ansonia's Harold Beall got behind the Watertown defense for a 35-yard touchdown pass from Lane in tie third quarter for a 35-7 lead, the outcome was clear.

Watertown, the Class state champion last year, would lose for the second time, probably knocking it out of any chance for a title-game berth. Brogna, who threw out of the shotgun formation in the second half, finished with 18 completions in 36 attempts for 271 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. Several of his passes were dropped, including one in the end zone. airs it out, 42-21 By ROY HASTY Courant Staff Writer STORRS The pocket around University of Connecticut sophomore quarterback Matt DeGennaro was beginning to break down. Another large UConn lead had nearly evaporated and DeGennaro was attempting to preserve the Huskies' five-point edge over Villanova.

Faced with a third-and-13 at the Villanova 37-yard line, DeGennaro couldn't find a receiver and a Wildcats blitz was taking its effect on UConn. As DeGennaro took of for the first down at least three Villanova play- v-w ers had a -clear shot at him. DeGennaro avoided two of them by cutting left near the line of scrimmage. Another went for a fake about seven yards downfield and missed. When DeGennaro was finally brought down after an 18-yard gain, the Huskies had a first down and the big play they needed.

Three plays later DeGennaro scored on a 7-yard run to give UConn a 34-23 lead the Huskies (4-4) maintained before a Homecoming crowd of 11,540 at Memorial Stadium. "It was a straight drop-back pass. fcw.x5f Richard Mei The Hartford Courant r- 1 t.r They blitzed linebackers and I waited and nothing came open," DeGennaro said. "I took off and let it happen. I gave them a couple of jukes and they went for them.

What can I say?" DeGennaro entered the game having rushed for minus-11 yards on 62 attempts, but his ability to run the ball became important Saturday. UConn ran the option more often than usual. The Villanova defensive ends were dropped off the line and DeGennaro, who gained 50 yards on 14 carries, often was able to cut Ansonia By WOODY ANDERSON Courant Staff Writer WATERTOWN They passed at will. In fact, Ansonia quarterback James Lane and Watertown quarterback Rico Brogna passed at guys with a lot of names. When this imposing aerial show ended late Saturday afternoon, unbeaten Ansonia had a 42-21 victory.

Ansonia is 7-0 and ranked second in The Courant's weekly coaches poll and its Naugatuck Valley League rival Watertown is 5-2 and ranked 10th. Consider Of the nine touchdowns in the game, eight were scored on passes. Sixty-one passes were thrown and 37 caught Passing accounted for 555 yards. Eight different players caught passes and six different players caught touchdown passes. If you wanted to watch running backs, there was only one to speak of: Ansonia's Fran Hendricks, who had 119 yards on 20 carries and scored the only non-passing touchdown.

It was the lack of a running game that hurt Watertown. Watertown gained just 65 yards on the ground and 22 of that came from Brogna when he was chased out of the pocket trying to pass. Lanetne diminutive righthander. i I k- i lr 1 Enfield in 0-0 tie, Page E1 6. Streak ends.

Page E17. had the best of it. He completed 19 of 25 passes for 284 yards and five Ansonia touchdowns. His favorite target was split end Dave Donofrio. The junior caught 11 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns.

About six times Donofrio went in motion, got to the corner and found himself open, a linebacker trying unsuccessfully to stay with him. Which is exactly what happened on the fourth play of the game, a 77-yard touchdown. Lane's usual modus operandi was to roll out, set up behind the wall in the corner and let fly. He was sacked once for a 13-yard loss but mostly Watertown's defense didn't get in his way. When Watertown got the ball after Lane's opening-drive bomb, it ran just one play, fumbled and Ansonia recovered.

Two plays later Hendricks took a screen pass from Lane near the right sideline and ran 37 yards for a touchdown. So even before Brogna, the big, heavily recruited lefty, could get his passing arm unlimbered, his team trailed 14-0. Watertown would never have the lead. "We knew we could score," said Ansonia Coach John Hunt. "We didn't want to get into a shootout with them, get into one of those who- Heading for a 1-2 finish Xavter junior J.T.

Burke, left, pushes past Staples (Westport) runner Tom Sheeran in Saturday's Class IX boys stat championship race at Manchester's Wickham Park. last year, but championship. Burke kept the individual title he won Staples tipped Xavier for the team Stories, results. Pages El 6, El 7..