The Manhattan Mercury from Manhattan, Kansas • 9

Kansas 23 Oklahoma 3 Nebraska 12 Kansas State 0 Luckey 22 Tescott 20 Missouri 44 Iowa State 14 Colorado 17 Oklahoma State 7 Stanford 13 Southern Cal 10 Tin n'- defensive comrades were on the KSU Staadium AstroTurf for most of the contest, Spani contended that no morale problem existed on the defensee. "There was no problem getting up or staying up during the game," he explained. "The defense was excited all day." The dormant K-State offense, having but 13 points to show in the past six outings, showed sgns of life with the insertion of freshman James Mack at quarterback late in the first half. Mack led the Wildcat rushers on the day with 45 yards on 10 carries, and passed for an additional 37 yards, completeing three of eight passes. James Mack came in there and made things happen," Rainsberger observed.

"He doesn't know the offense that well yet, (Mack, an all-state quarterback at Tulsa, McLain High, was moved from tailback oonly Monday), but he certainly has some athletic ability." Of course, Saturday marked the last home game for 20 Wildcat seniors. One of them, center Tim Wasemiller, talked about his last year as a K-Stater. "Personally, I've been disappointed with the way my senior year has gone," said Wasemiller who has been hobbled by a knee injury much of the season. "But, I've been injured most of the year. I've been coming back, and I want to do all I can to help K-State the rest of the season." If it's possible to win while losing, K-State came awfully close Saturday.

By U.J. DICKENS Mercury Sports Writer Losing is seldom a pleasant experience, but Kansas State fans could hardly be disappointed in the Wildcats' 12-0 loss to third-ranked Nebraska Saturday. K-State coach Ellis Rainsberger summed up his feelings on the loss by saying, "This whole thing's not really whether you're on the winning team or the losing team, it's responding to adversity like we've had and like these kids did today." The adversity was there, all right. With a limping offensive line and and a limping quarterback and having to come off a 28-0 spanking by Kansas, many wags had posted the Huskers as 27 point favorites. The 41,300 people who packed KSU Stadium, at least 10,000 of them Nebraskans, were expecting a massacre but they didn't get one.

The Wildcat defense, led by Manhattan High product Gary Spani, stopped the potent Nebraska offense all day, limiting the Huskers to but one touchdown. One reason for this was the superlative job done by cornerback John Andrews on Nebraska split end Bob Thomas. Thomas, the Cor-nhuskers' long offensive threat for much of the season who had 21 catches of which six had gone for touchdowns coming into the game, was limited to only one catch, good for 28 yards. "I think I covered him decent," Andrews stated. "I took away the long one from him, but it's hard trying to 1EU I HOPE FOR THE FUTURE With a convoy of sweep.

Mack was the Cats' leading ball carrier blockers including Roscoe Scobey (33), L.T. Edwards Saturday against Nebraska with 10 carries for 45 (20) and Shelby Henderson (56) out in front of him, yards. Kansas State quarterback James Mack takes off on a (Mercury Staff Photo) 23a The Hawks are for real! KU NORMAN, Okla. (AP)-Barry Switzer and his second-ranked Sooners appeared almost undaunted from their first defeat in three seasons Saturday while a happy Bud Moore predicted his Kansas Jayhawks' stunning 23-3 upset of the Sooners would be the springboard of better things to come. The atmosphere in the Sooner dressing room was solemn, but there were no tears in sight.

Switzer admitted losing "ain't much fun," but he vowed the Sooners would rebound. "We're going to start getting ready for Missouri," Switzer said. "We can win the next two, tie for the Big Eight and go to the Orange Bowl. And that's what we're going to do. We'll just Mercury Sports The Manhattan Mercury Bl Sunday, November 9, 1975 keep him contained.

He just gets off the ball so fast." The big story of the day, however, was Spani. The former Indian had a whopping 19 tackles on the afternoon, seven of them unassisted, and three of them that cost Nebraska 16 yards in losses. "Gary just had a great game," Rainsberger noted. When asked if he thought Spani was the Big Eight's best linebacker, he mused, "I haven't seen all of them, but he has to be one of the best." Spani brushed off the commendations by flatly stating, "Whenever you play a good team, you get keyed up." Explaining the performance of his defensive mates, he added, "We came out there not knowing how good they really were. I thought we played real well today, except for the first drive or two.

We could have stopped them, but we've had a couple of bad games and that's hurt us." Despite the fact that Spani and his think we took them lightly. We just made mistakes and they beat us. But my freshman year Colorado beat us and we came back and won the conference championship. We can do it again." Oklahoma faces Missouri next Saturday before a Nov. 22 shootout with Nebraska, which may decide the Big Eight champion.

The Kansas players were understandably exuberant over the triumph but they had much praise for the Sooners. "OU's always a great team that's known for its fourth-quarter play, but we were the ones that took it to them all day," said Jayhawk quarterback Nolan Cromwell. "I've got to give our --'V 4 Jut. Friday night. In 3A, unbeaten Wamego, 9-0, will travel to Effingham, 5-4, and Concordia, 8-1, will travel to Topeka Hayden, 8-1, Tuesday night.

In 2A, Hanover, 9-0, will travel to Beloit, 8-1, Monday night, and Silver Lake, 9-0, will meet the winner of the Nemaha Valley-Marmaton Valley game Friday night. In 1A, Hope, 8-1, will play Wilson, 8-1, at Herington, and St. Xavier, 7-2, will host Burrton, 9-0, Tuesday night. Shawnee Mission South, the No. 1 Continued on page B4 Mmmntt ..1 1 2 Cats not too shabby I've had more time to think about it and it's begun to sink in, it will begin to hurt more." Meanwhile, Moore was terming the upset the "greatest victory of my career or of our players' careers.

It's got to be the greatest victory in football. We beat a fantastic team." Moore conceded the four lost Oklahoma fumbles "had a lot to do" with the victory, but quickly added the Jayhawk defense contributed to both the fumbles and four interceptions suffered by the Sooners. "Before we came down here, I had an idea we could win," Moore said. "But then I got here and looked at those big (Oklahoma) guys and they scared the heck out of me. But they didn't scare our players.

ffP IsK defense the credit. They kept getting the turnovers and giving us the ball. Oklahoma's got one of the best defenses around and we just fought as hard as we could to beat them." Noseguard Dennis Balagna said, "We were really fired up for this one. We knew what we had to do. We let the fullback get through a few times, but over-all we did a good job.

We knew they were good, but not consistent, and we knew if we put the pressure on them they'd gradually fold, which they did in the end." Linebacker Rick Kovatch summed it up: "They just made too many mistakes to We knew if we stuck them, they'd fumble, and they did. We just went in looking for the ball on the ground." Cat-Husker facts 'n figures Nebraska 20 267 105 7-1B-0 48 1 4-53 Kansas Stat 6 84 47 4-14-1 -2 0 5-58 First Downs Yards Rushing Yards Passing Passing Return Yardage Punting Fumbles Lost Penalties Nebraska 9 0 3 012 Kansas State 0 0 0 0-0 Nebraska Davis (8 pass from Ferragamo). Kick failed. Nebraska Coyle (24 field goal). Nebraska Coyle (22 field goal).

INVID1VUAL Rushing Nebraska Anthony 24-107, Davis 16-74. O'Leary 18-63, Ferragamo 4-17, Craig 3-12, Donnell 1-4, Thomas 1-minus 10. Kansas State Mack 10-45, Cox 14-31. Scobey 7-28, Jones 2-14, Edwards 1-minus 6, Hatcher 8-minus 28. Passing Nebraska Ferragamo 7-18-105-0.

Kansas State Mack 3-8-37-1, Hatcher 1-6-100. Receiving Nebraska Davis 3-45, Thomas 1-28, Chamblin 1-14, Heiser 1-13. O'Leary 1-5. Kansas State Searcy 1-16, King 1-12, Edwards 1-10, Wade 1-9. Punting Nebraska Lessman Kansas State Sinovic Jayhawk-Sooner facts 'n figures Oklahoma First downs 18 Yards Rushing 1 265 Yards Passing 63 Passing 3-12-4 Return Yardage 10 Punting 2-46 Fumbles Lost 4 Penalties 5-45 Kansas 0 7 9 723 Oklahoma 3 0 0 03 Okla-DiRienzo (52 field goal).

Kan Cromwell (5 run). Swift kick. Kan Swift (32 field goal). Kan-Smith (21 run). Kick blocked.

Kan-Smith (18 run). Swift kick. Paperwork delays ticket deadline The priority deadline for public purchase of season basketball tickets at Kansas State has been extended to Nov. 17. The deadline had been Monday, but Carol Adolph, K-State ticket manager, said delays in sending out applications has forced the extension.

Mrs. Adolph said tickets sold after Nov. 17 will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis. 0 HW 8-36 0 5-34 "I pity whoeyer Oklahoma plays next week. We were very fortunate to win." Oklahoma quarterback Steve Davis, who had guided Oklahoma to its undefeated streak, said, "We just turned the ball over too many times.

Today, Kansas was better because of our mistakes. We'll just have to start again. You can't win everything all of your life." Sooner defensive end Jimbo Elrod added, "It's just the way the breaks go. Kansas has a good team, but I don't think they could drive 80 yards on us. The fumbles and the breaks killed us, but we'll come back and win." Joe Washington, Oklahoma's All-American halfback, said, "I don't Cv J- of the Kansas City, League and sport a 5-4 record.

Neither team is a stranger to the playoffs. The Indians will be making their fourth trip in the last five years, while Ward has won two 4 A championships. Manhattan downed the Cyclones, 14-7, in the first round of the 1972 playoffs. Seven other area teams also qualified for the playoffs. In 4A, Junction City, 6-3 and the Central Kansas League runner-up, will host unbeaten Dodge City, 8-0, xr start a new string we might win 39 the next time." Oklahoma was riding a 28-game winning streak and had not been defeatedin 37 games before meeting the riled-up Jayhawks, who took advantage ofeight Sooner turnovers to pull the biggest upset of the college football season.

"I'd like to congratulate Kansas coach Bud Moore and his team on a great win," said Switzer. Switzer said he knew defeat had to come sooner or later. "When it did, I knew we'd have to help whoever beat us," Switzer said. "And we sure won the mistake race today." Asked about his feelings, Switzer said, "Right now, I'm more concerned about the kids. I'm sure when afternoon when the Huskers took the opening kickoff and crunched out 79 yards in 16 plays for a TD drive that consumed 6V2 minutes on the clock, and then turned right around and moved from their own 28 to the K-State seven before settling for a 24 yard Mike Coyle field goal.

Quarterback Vince Ferragamo flipped an eight yard pass to rugged fullback Tony who bulled his way into the end zone for the touchdown, a score that put the bowl-minded Big Red fans into a festive, orange-throwing mood. Actually, the K-State defense came within inches of stopping the drive. That's how much room the Huskers had to spare when I back John O'Leary smacked into the line for a first down on fourth and one from the Wildcat 13 yard line. The big play on the field goal march was a 28 yard pass from Ferragamo to split end Bobby Thomas that netted a first down at the K-State 19. Coyle, who had his touchdown extra point attempt sail wide to the left, was true on the field goal to give Nebraska a 9-0 lead with 2:38 remaining in the first quarter.

The other Nebraska score was set up early in the third quarter on an interception by cornerback Kent Smith. The Huskers took over and moved to the K-State four before they had to settle for Coyle's 22 yard field goal with 8:28 left in the period, Ferragamo, who came into the game completing over 63 per cent of his passes, was able to complete only seven of 18 for 105 yards against the tough Wildcat secondary. But K-State's offense just' couldn't go against equally stubborn Husker defenders. Until their final possession of the game, the deepest Wildcat penetration was their own 45 yards line. But as time ran out, they did get to the Husker 37.

The victory moves Nebraska, certain to move up in the polls after Oklahoma's 23-3 loss to Kansas, to 5-0 in Big Eight play and 9-0 overall. The Wildcats, now 0-5 and 3-6, will travel to Oklahoma "State next Saturday. Kansas Continued from Al the game, the K-Staters kept them out of the end zone the rest of the day Wildcat coach Ellis Rainsberger was practically busting his buttons with pride for his players. He was especially proud since the victory came right at a time when many thought the Cats might be folding up their tent for the season. "I couldn't be prouder, especially for my seniors and the defense," Rainsberger spouted.

"Playing a team like Nebraska was a challenge for them, and they accepted it. They made up their minds that they were going to fight their hearts out and they did." He couldn't say enough for the 20 Wildcat seniors who were making their final KSU Stadium appearance. "It was their last time a home, and they just gave a heckuva effort," Rainsberger said. "Those seniors showed that the season's not over for them. If you went in there and asked them right now, they'd tell you they want to go out and win two more ball games.

They just don't give up, and I don't know how I could be more proud of them." And if you wanted, to go hero hunting on defense, it would be hard. There was Manhattan product Gary Spani. The sophomore linebacker was credited with 19 tackles, including three for a total of 16 yards in losses, an effort duly deserving of Big Eight Defensive Player of the Week honors if there ever was one. And there was Carl Pennington, Spani's running -mate at linebacker who was a doubtful starter right up until game time because of a knee injury. He had 14 tackles.

Cornerback Rocky Osborn had 13 while tackle Rickey Gray had 10. Both are a pair of those seniors Rainsberger was talking about. Actually, things didn't look so good for the Cats in the first quarter. That's when Nebraska safely tucked the game away for all practical purposes. The K-State faithful had to be thinking it was going to be a long SLASHING THROUGH Kansas halfback Laverne smashing 23-3 upset of the second-ranked Sooners Smith slashes through Sidney Brown (21) and Mike Saturday afternoon.

Phillips (89) of Oklahoma during the Jayhawks (AP Wirephoto)- Unbeaten Indians to test Ward Compiled Locally and from AP Manhattan High's unbeaten and top-ranked Indians will start defense of their Class 4A State championship Friday night against Bishop Ward in Kansas City. The game is set for 7:30 p.m., at the Ward High field. The pairings for all first round playoff games were announced Saturday by the Kansas State High School Activities Association. The Indians are 9-0 on the season and are carrying a 14-game winning streak. The Cyclones are champions.