Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 109

PAGE C17 OCTOBER 29,1989 routs Ft i loses iirsi SP0RTSPART2 Notre Dam Florida State upsets No. 2 Hurricanes Irish win over Pitt pushes streak to 20 Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Florida State linebacker Kirk Carruthers had two interceptions, recovered a fumble and forced another Saturday night as the ninth-ranked Seminoles snapped Miami's 13-game winning streak with a 24-10 victory over the No. 2 Hurricanes. It was only the second loss for Miami in its past 50 regular-season games and the first under coach Dennis Erickson, who took over for Jimmy Johnson after the 1988 season.

The Hurricanes' other regular-season defeat in the past four years was a 31-30 loss to Notre Dame last season. Florida State has won six games in a row after losing its first two. The Seminoles, who lost to Miami the past four years, beat the Hurricanes for only the second time in 11 tries in Tallahassee and avenged last year's 31-0 season-opening loss in Miami when Florida State was ranked No. 1. The Seminoles shredded Miami's top-ranked defense for 354 yards, including 220 on the ground.

In their streak to 20 games, one short of the school record. The Irish are almost certain to break that record since Navy and Southern Methodist are the next two opponents. "I never dreamed this would happen in my wildest dreams," said Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, whose team rushed for 310 yards on 57 attempts, led by Raghib "Rocket" Ismail (8-for-74), Tony Rice (12-69) and Ricky Watters (7-54). Free safety Pat Terrell returned an interception 54 yards for a first-half touchdown, one of three interceptions thrown by Pitt freshman Alex Van Pelt, who completed 16 of 33 passes for 170 yards. Pitt also lost a fumble.

Notre Dame did not commit a turnover. "It's funny because we were talking about that in practice this week," Terrell said. "Once we got an interception, we were talking about cutting back against the traffic, and I did just that" Notre Dame scored a first-quarter safety when Van Pelt slipped and fell in the end zone as he dropped back to pass from the 3. first six games, the Hurricanes gave up an average of only 46 yards rushing and 191 yards overall. Florida State's defense also played a major role in the victory, forcing turnovers on five consecutive Miami drives in the second and third quarters.

Florida State never trailed after Dexter Carter ran 37 yards for a touchdown on the Seminoles' first play from scrimmage. LeRoy Butler set up the score by intercepting Gino Torretta's first pass of the game. After leading 14-10 at halftime, the Seminoles took command in the third quarter with a 99-yard drive that ended when freshman Amp Lee scored on a 1-yard run with 2:20 left in the quarter. The drive started after Carruthers recovered a fumble by Miami's Shannon Crowell as he tried to dive over for a touchdown from the Florida State 1. The Seminoles closed out the scoring with 14:18 left in the game on Richie Andrews' 41-yard field goal.

Carter led Florida State's rushing attack, carrying 21 times for 142 '0f iH It Associated Press SOUTH BEND, Ind. This time, No. 1-ranked Notre Dame acted like perfect gentlemen before the game. After the kickoff, however, the Fighting Irish turned nasty and handed seventh-ranked Pitt its worst setback since a 56-7 loss to Notre Dame in 1971. They stripped the Panthers of their entire game and overwhelmed them 45-7 with a stifling defense and a relentless offense that included only one completed pass.

"Notre Dame just whipped us in every area," Pitt coach Mike Gottfried said. "We had a nice first drive, but then we self-destructed." The Panthers, who came in averaging 31 points and 428 yards a game, were held to 302 yards in total offense, with 68 yards coming on the opening drive. Pittsburgh took a 7-0 lead on an 8-yard pass from Alex Van Pelt to fullback Ronald Redmon. But Notre Dame (8-0) owned the rest of the game, scoring twice on Pitt turnovers and stretching college football's longest current winning Trinitv rolls in 2nd half Toth's return beginning of end for Coast Guard By TOM YANTZ Courant Staff Writer NEW LONDON Galloping through a gaping seam at the Trinity 40-yard line, Darren Toth raced down the left sideline with Saturday's second-half kickoff. With no tacklers around, he relaxed at the 10 and glided into the end zone.

The 86-yard return ignited a 21-point second half for Trinity in its 28-7 victory over Coast Guard at Cadet Memorial Field. "Last year on a kickoff return against Coast Guard I suffered a double hernia," Toth said. "That's why I eased up a little. I didn't want to pull a muscle or get hurt." For the past two years Coast Guard has inflicted the hurt against Trinity. Both times Coast Guard handed Trinity its first loss of the season.

Two years ago Coast Guard beat Trinity, 30-6. Last year Coast Guard overcame a 24-12 half time deficit to win, 28-27. This year Trinity (5-1) gained 416 yards and inflicted some misery on Coast Guard. "I've never seen this team more emotional this year," Trinity coach Don Miller said. "I think it was because of the last two Coast Guard games." "At halftime we were saying: 'Don't come out Trinity linebacker Anthony Martin said.

Toth's return was the introduction to an uplifting Bantams' second half. "I faked right and went toward our left blocking wall," Toth said. "When their last guy went down at their 40, 1 knew I was in." The Bantams continued to press. And in the span of 6 minutes, their lead grew to 28-7. Trinity's defense was the springboard for the offense.

Ends Rob Sickenger and Jeff Buzzi, tackles Dave Moran and David Grant, nose guard John Niland and linebackers John Garrity, Matt Rodriguez and Martin were instrumental in holding Coast Guard to 89 yards rushing. The defense handled the Cadets' wishbone offense and its basic play a fullback dive by Mike Murphy with ease. Coast Guard had averaged 197 yards rushing. Trinity quarterback Todd Levine, who had a fine day with 19 completions in 31 attempts for 288 yards, completed a 73-yard touchdown drive with a 4-yard pass to Steve Redgate. Tim Jensen's conversion kick with 10:33 remaining in the third quarter gave Trinity a 21-7 lead.

Jensen, who converted four point-after kicks, set a school record for career extra points (91). The previous record was 88 by Bill Vibert (class of '52). On Coast Guard's next possession, quarterback Dante Vinciguerra made a poor pitch to halfback Walter Green. Moran recovered the fumble at the Cadets' 25. On the next play, Trinity's Terry McNamara jumped at the Coast Guard 1 and wrestled a pass away from Mark Fedor.

The reception was one of nine for 145 yards for the Please see Trinity, Page C19 The Irish took a 10-7 lead later in the period on the first of Rodney Culver's two 1-yard touchdown plunges and Rice's two-point conversion run. Ismail added a touchdown on a 50-yard run, the longest of his career, as Notre Dame scored three touchdowns in the third quarter for a 38-7 lead. The Irish took a 24-7 lead early in the second half after Scott Kowal-kowski stripped the ball from Van Pelt. Watters scored on a 2-yard fourth-down run. Notre Dame's defense shut Pitt down after its opening drive, holding the Panthers to one first down on a penalty in their next five possessions and 73 yards the rest of the half.

The Irish defense kept the pressure on when Andre Jones sacked Van Pelt for a 9-yard loss on third down in the Panthers' third series. Ismail's 17-yard return of Brian Greenfield's 50-yard punt following the safety put the Irish on the Pitt 36. Seven rushing plays later, Culver put the Irish ahead. kick tops Penn town, N.Y., trotted onto the field only to have Penn call a timeout. Ready again, Penn called a second timeout.

"To tell you the truth, I wasn't watching the snap," Perks said. "It turned out the ball did bounce, but he holder Adam Lenain grabbed it. He's so quick and has such great hands." Perks hit a low bullet that seemed to turn sideways as it barely cleared the crossbar. There was a slight delay before the officials signaled it was good. Perks said he knew it was good but was glad when the officials raised their arms.

Asked if he enjoyed that kind of pressure, he said, "No, a touchdown would have been fine with me." First-year Penn coach Gary Steele took the loss with grace. "First of all I want to say this was a heck of a game," he said. "It came down to the last kick. Last week it went right lor us. This week it didn't.

What can you say? When it the kick was hit, it was low and flat and I said 'We did it again. We dodged another bullet' Then I saw the hands go up and I knew we didn't." Penn beat Bucknell 25-24 last week when a last-minute Bucknell field goal attempt hit the crossbar and bounced away. Penn's previous two Ivy League wins were over Brown (32-30) and Columbia (24-21). Please see Yale, Page C19 yards. That made up for a poor passing night by Florida State quar- terback Peter Tom Willis, who was 7 of 20 for 129 yards'.

Torretta, who became the na- tion's fourth best passer in only two -starts after Craig Erickson was in- jured last month, was 23 of 48 for 208 yards and one touchdown but was intercepted four times. After Butler intercepted Torretta's pass on the opening play from scrimmage, Florida State almost matched Miami's per-game rushing yield on Dexter's dash around left end. The Hurricanes struck right -back, marching 80 yards in 12 plays A and scoring on an 8-yard pass from Torretta to Randal Hill. But Florida State then went 81 yards in 12 plays. Fullback Edgar Bennett capped the drive with 1-yard plunge for a 14-7 lead.

When Miami got the ball back, Torretta completed two key passes to Wesley Carroll before the drive stalled at the Florida State 28. Car- A los Huerta kicked a 44-yard field goal to make it 14-10. Carroll caught 10 passes for 119 yards. UConn improves to 5-2 1 DeGennaro, Wesley lead win over Richmond By MICHAEL ARACE Courant Staff Writer RICHMOND, Va. The final score was not entirely uplifting, but there were many other things the -University of Connecticut Huskies deemed satisfying after their 13-3 victory over Richmond Saturday.

I Junior quarterback Matt DeGen-, naro, who had been slumping, passed for 261 yards and a touchdown, and -said, "I'm back." Junior placekicker Rob Moons, whose confidence has been lacking -this month, kicked two second-half field goals and said, "I have my head straight." Sophomore split end Mark Didio dropped a pass for the first time in -memory in the end zone with nobody within 300 miles of him and said, "My mother could have caught that. No offense to her." On UConn's next series, Didio made a circus catch for a touchdown that gave the Huskies a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter. A lot of improvement stories such as Kevin Wesley rushing for 154 yards after being held to 47 last! week surfaced Saturday. The only 'J thing that would have made this a more savory victory was if UConn (5-2, 3-2 Yankee Conference) beat Richmond (1-7, 0-6) by 25 or more points instead of 10. Which could! easily have been the case.

"I feel anytime you come away" with a win down here, you take UConn coach Tom Jackson said. I'd rather think Richmond was play-ing inspired a little bit and we played flat and I don't mean that in a negative sense toward Richmond." UConn outgained Richmond 440 yards to 252, including 277-97 in the' second half. In the third and fourth; quarters, the Huskies had three straight near-perfect drives marches of 91, 88 and 56 yards. The first two were thwarted inside the Richmond 10-yard line; Moons kicked a 20-yard field goal to cap Drive 1 and had a 24-yard attempt blocked at the end of Drive 2. Drive 3 made it to the Richmond 3-yard line before DeGennaro tripped for a 7-yard loss.

Then Moons, who missed a 20-yarder last week with a 40 mph wind behind him, drilled a 27-yard field goal into a light breeze. That gave UConn its final margin. "We didn't score touchdowns," DeGennaro said, "but we ran so much time off the clock that we controlled the game." The Huskies held a 2-1 advantage in time of possession in the second half behind DeGennaro, who could be returning to the form that made him the conference's player of the year in 1988. The second pass he put up Saturday turned into his 12th interception this season, but 20 of the next 30 were beauteous spirals upon which confidence is built. He went particularly berserk on those three second-half drives, completing 6 of 7 in Drive 1, 4 of 5 in Drive 2 and 3 of 4 in Drive 3.

DeGennaro finished with 21 completions in 31 attempts for 261 yards. It marked the first time since Sept. 16 (at Southern Methodist) that he Please see UConn, Page C19 zr I doe Poisson The Hartford Courant Yale's Jeremiah Joyce squeezes past Perm's Stephin Palmer Sat-. left gave the Elis a 23-22 victory and kept them tied with Princeton urday at the Yale Bowl. Ed Perks' 28-yard field goal with 10 seconds for first place In the Ivy League.

Yale wins with 10 seconds left Perks' 28-yard By GEORGE SMITH Courant Staff Writer NEW HAVEN It was a bad snap and a bad kick. But the only thing that mattered was the ball went through the uprights. Yale placekicker Ed Perks, who has had six extra-point kicks blocked this season, including one earlier in the game, blasted a 28-yard field goal just over the crossbar with 10 seconds remaining Saturday to give the Elis a 23-22 victory over Pennsylvania in a tension-packed game that kept all 18,745 fans in the Yale Bowl on their feet until the end. The win kept the surprising Elis tied with Princeton atop the Ivy League with 4-0 records. Yale (6-1 overall) has three games remaining.

The Elis play host to Cornell Saturday, visit Princeton Nov. 11 and finish the following week at home against Harvard. The kick by Perks put a big smile on Yale coach Carm Cozza's face. "He's fortunate he hit it so hard. I think it would have bent the crossbar if it hit it," Cozza said.

Penn (4-2, 2-1) had taken a 22-20 lead with 4:46 remaining on a 30-yard field goal. Yale started the winning drive on its 35 and ran the ball 11 times to the Penn 17 with 27 seconds remaining. After an incomplete pass, Kevin Callahan carried six yards toward the center of the field, calling a timeout with 15 seconds remaining. Perks, a sophomore from Levit- Putting his best at uwen Canfield NEW HAVEN "You don't root for the other kicker to miss," said Rich Frieden-berg, whose specialty is place-kicking for the University of Pennsylvania football team. "But this time? Yeah, I did." Friedenberg had kicked 22- and 30-yard field goals and had another blocked by Yale's Rich Huff during Saturday's tense game at Yale Yale (6-1 overall and 4-0 in the Ivy League) beat Penn 23-22 when Friedenberg's opposite number, Ed Perks, drilled a 28-yard field goal with 10 seconds remaining.

Drilled is the right word, too. The last three points scored in this terrific football game on a day that was simply above criticism came when the ball, like a dart with no spin, cleared the crossbar with only inches to spare. There was nothing pretty about it except the prettiest thing of all: the result, which was dramatic victory rather than disappointing defeat "Looked like the goalposts ducked under that ball," said an aging fan in the crowd of 18,745 as he left Yale Bowl. That it did. if foot forward Penn came to the Bowl with a potent ground and air attack controlled by passer-runner Malcolm Glover and a hard-rock defense in which linebacker Jonathan Ford is the ballast.

The Quakers got the better of the offensive statistics. But the game unfolded like a mystery story and on the last page, the "foot" in football was thunderously reaffirmed. The star of the show in this huge step toward an Ivy League title in Carmen Cozza's 25th season as head coach, is the son of a retired New York City firefighter who's home is Levittown, N.Y. Tall and skinny, the sophomore set the New York State field goal record for distance when he was a senior at Chaminade High, with a 55-yarder. Cozza knows the power in his kicker's leg.

"Boy, if that thing had hit the crossbar, it would have knocked it down," said the coach, who, like just about everyone else in the place, did not think the ball would clear the bar. Any one of a score of Yale or Penn players could have come out of this game as the No. 1 Star, but as it happened, when the Bulldogs had nearly run out of downs on their final drive, and the clock had nearly run out of ticks and both teams had nearly run out of gas, the big round spotlight fell on Perks and he cast a long shadow. The NCAA's new rule disallowing kicking tees has effected any num- Please see Canfield, Page C19.