The Manhattan Mercury from Manhattan, Kansas • 9

Junction Gty 15 Manhattan 14 Iowa State 45 Missouri 17 Hayden 29 Wamego 7 Nebraska 44 Kansas State 17 Colorado 40 Oklahoma State 6 Oklahoma 56 Kansas 10 Cat mentor assures Comhiiskers No. I The 71 jrr '01 f- ercury 7 Sports The Manhattan Mercury IB Sunday, November 14, 1971 By STAN WHITLEY Mercury Sports Writer Kansas State coach Vince Gibson was full of praise for Nebraska, after the Cornhuskers had defeated the Wildcats 44-17 Saturday afternoon. "What a great football team. They're deserving of the No. 1 ranking," said coach Gibson.

"They're well coached, have a lot of pride, and have two great players." "Rodgers (Johnny) can do everything. He's tough and quick. I've seen two super players this year Rodgers and Pruitt (Greg from OU). Their (NU) other great player is Jerry Tagge. He did a great job, and really throws that football." The Wildcats' defense did a fine job the second half in giving up only 14 points, after yielding 30 in the first half.

"We couldn't stop them early," Gibson commented. "The reason was that they always came up with the big play. They'd get the ball to Rodgers. We played more zone coverage the second half. We tried to play man-toman in the first half but couldn't stop Rodgers.

We just don't have enough speed in the secondary to play with them." Nebraska has been a proven team that does everything well and today, although they had two interceptions, they moved and executed very well. "Nebraska executes unbelievably and they don't make mistakes," said Gibson. "We hit them pretty hard, but they are really sound. They have everything you need for a great football team." Gibson pointed to K-State injuries and thought that might have been a factor in the contest. "Issac (Jackson) couldn't play, and Butler (Bill) had a Charley horse early in the game," said the Cat mentor.

"Calhoun (Don) came in and-did a good job. We wanted to give him a chance to play. We were down to our third team tailback." "We're playing a lot better than we did earlier in the season. Morrison (Dennis) is going to have a tremendous senior year if he doesn't get hurt. He really stayed in there against their pressure." Morrison lauded the Husker line for putting great pressure on him throughout the afternoon.

"Most teams with a good pass rush use six of seven people," he said. "They were bringing four or five and putting pressure on us. That makes their coverage that much better." "This was a hard hitting game," pointed out Nebraska coach Bob Devaney. "We threw the ball more then we have been. I think we had ourselves typed in our I-formation running all the time.

We wanted to throw the ball more." The Cornhusker mentor had praise for the K-State offense. The Cats 17 total points was the most that anyone has scored on the Husker defense this season. "I think that K-State has a pretty good offense," he said. "We saw films of the OSU game and they got 35 points in the second half. scored 28 points against Missouri a good defensive team." "They have some good receivers and Morrison is coming," he added.

"That 83 (Henry Childs) is a good receiver." A couple of Nebraska players praised the Cats and thought that Kansas State had a good defense. "I think that K-State is the best defensive team that we have played all year," beamed Husker quarterback Jerry Tagge. "Those guys hit hard and I'm sore all over." Defensive halfback Jim Anderson lauded the work of Morrison and called him a fine quarterback. "That quarterback what's his name-yeah, Morrison threw the ball well," he said. Anderson commented that he thought Morrison was the best quarterback that Nebraska had faced this year.

Devaney looked ahead to the Huskers meeting with Oklahoma on Thanksgiving Day and noted how important the game will be. "This is the one we've been waiting for," he said. "It'll probably be for the national championship." fired up Blue Jay aggregation and were beaten, 15-14, in a thriller. Game story and additional picture on page. B8.

(Mercury Staff color photo by Fred Wrightman) HAULED DOWN Manhattan High's Kirt Darland (31) is brought down by a Junction City defender during action Friday night in the class 4-A District playoffs at Bishop Stadium. The Indians ran into a IE merson says no doubt on conversion decision ildcat scores fire up Huskers Manhattan went for two and Greg Fallon was stopped inches short, and Emerson, didn't have any second thoughts afterward. "We all wanted to go for two," he said. "Life is a game of inches and we BY DAVE WRIGHT Mercury Sports Editor It's over and done with, but for many months to come the drugstore quarterbacks will be talking about what might have happened if lost. It was my decision.

There were Manhattan High hadn't been in such a gambling mood FridayiiiglitXIwo teams lhat were close 'tad bitter. Oliver Jones' touchdown run with a It's not a side I like, but that's life." (Elijah) Davis on the option, and we didn't stop it very well." Davis is the Blue Jays' junior speedster who owns a 9.7 clocking in the 100 yard dash. Emerson had said earlier that the secret to Manhattan's success In the 29 regular season victory over Junction City was stopping Davis. The Indians held him to a total of 24 yards in the first encounter, but he erupted for 113 yards Friday night. So Junction City moves on the Regional playoffs next Friday against Kansas City Ward at home.

The Blue Jays will go into the game with a 7-3 record. The Indians are down but have the reprieve of their first Central Kansas League championship in 10 years, and an 8-2 record which is also the best in that period. loose fumble was almost too good to be true. Most Indian fans had already accepted defeat. But when the score came to make it 1514, Indian coach J.

W. Emerson had a big decision to make and not much time to make it. Everything had happened so quickly. The decision rested on whether to go for the sure one point conversion and the tie or the two point conversion and the win. The Indiana still could have won it in overtime with the tie.

Emerson pointed to first half field position as the key to the game. "Our big problem was field position in the first half," he said "we felt good to hold them to eight points. Our defense made some big mistakes, but I guess they gave us one, too (Jones TD via the Emerson said the Blue Jays didn't do anything unexpected, but just executed the same old stuff well. "We did the same stuff, and they did the same stuff," he said. 'The difference was they got the ball to fourth and three at the NU 28 Into first down.

The Cats started pounding it out then. Bill Holman slammed for four yards and Butler got three leaving third and three at the 12. But Butler came through again on the sweep and picked up the first down at the eight. Butler injured his leg on the play, and it looked like K-State's hopes of punching the TD in with the wishbone had ended. Sophomore Don Calhoun came in to take Butler's place.

The Cats came out In the wishbone anyway. Morrison pulled off a beautiful bootleg play and went around left end and into the end zone. But it was called back by an illegal motion penalty. Morrison then threw incomplete for Fred Merrill. On second down, Morrison scrambled for five yards back to the eight.

On the next play, he spotted Henry Childs in the end zone, and Childs hauled in the toss on his finger tips for the score. John Gocrger's extra point kick was blocked by Bob Tcrrio, but the Cats had cut it to 14-6. with 11:33 left In the first half. If that wasn't enough to throw the Purple People into a frenzy, the ensuing kickoff was. Mo Latimore's low boot against the wind hit in front of the intended receiver and took a Continued from Page Al K-State by 47 points, while Nebraska only whipped the Wildcats by 27.

The hoopla surrounding that game started building up in the fourth quarter Saturday. When the Husker fans started yelling, "we're 1," the K-State student section responded with a chant of "Oklahoma's No. 1." The Nebraskans retaliated with "who the hell's Oklahoma, we're No. 1." And K-State's band came right back with a few strains of "Boomer Sooner." The defeat was a culmination of a disastrous weekend for local football. The Wildcat freshman started it off by losing to the Nebraska frosh Friday afternoon (story page B4).

Then Manhattan High was upset by Junction City, 15-14, in the District playoffs Friday night. Wamego also lost a District game to Topeka Hayden, 29-7, (story page B8). The Cornhuskers marched 80 and 94 yards for touchdowns the first two times they got their hands on the ball to nab a 14-0 first quarter lead. After the second TD, K-State set up shop at the 38 yard line and started to move. Denny Morrison, who hit 23-46 passes for 179 yards on the day, drove the Cats to paydirt in 14 plays.

Big Bill Butler picked up nine yards around left end to convert a Auburn batters Georgia championship and set up a Nov. 27 title match in Birmingham between a pair of Auburn and Alabama. Georgia is now 9-1 and Auburn 9-0, The Bulldogs trimmed Auburn's lead to 21-20 with 11:46 remaining on a two-yard touchdown run by Andy Johnson following a fumble recovery at the Auburn 26. However, Roger Mitchell blocked Kim Braswcll's extra point attempt to preserve the Tiger lead. Twenty-two seconds later Sullivan and Beasley connected on the 70-yard touchdown pass, with Beasley grabbing it at his 45 and pulling away from two Georgia defenders to score.

crazy high bounce off the Astroturf. K-State's David Brown picked the free ball out of the air at the Nebraska 28. The Cats got to the eight before they were pushed back to the 17. On fourth down, Goerger toed a 34 yard field Into the wind that cut the lead 14-9 with 8:43 left in the half. But the WtIdcatcomeback must have angered those supermen In the red pants.

Because they went to work. Tagge drove the Huskers 79 yards in nine plays with Jeff Kinney pounding in from a yard out. That made it, 21-9, with 5:37 showing, and it was just an inkling of things to come. K-State took over. On third down, Morrison went back to pass and was hit a bone-crushing lick by defensive end Willie Harper.

The ball squirted loose and the race was on. It rolled out of the back of the end zone before the Huskers could get to It, and the Cats were strapped with a safety Instead of a touchdown. That put the count at, 23-9, with 4:43 left. Nebraska took over at K-State's 43 following the free kick and five plays later led, 30-9, with 2:27 left. Gary Dixon stormed around left end for the score from two yards out.

That did it. The deficit was too much for the Wildcats, but they didn't quit. The defense gave up only two more touchdowns and set up K-State's other score. Late in the third quarter, the Huskers gambled on a fourth and one at their ow 35. The defense rose to the occasion and stopped Dixon cold.

Morrison capitalized on the break and took the Cats the remaining 35 yards in 10 plays. Calhoun was the big man on the drive. The Wichita North product carried six times for 16 of the yards and carried over the touchdown on a one yard burst off tackle. Morrison had gained a first and goal by rolling out around left end for eight yards on third and eight. The Cats wanted as many points as possible, so Morrison hit Childs in the end zone for the two point conversion.

The score came with 12:42 left In the game. Childs was again the leading receiver for the third week in a row. The sophomore tight end caught six" of Morrison's flips for 67 yards. Johnny Rodgrrs, Nebraska's flashy flank rr, caught 10 paws for 123 yards ahd two tow ho own s. K-State finished iU Big Eight campaign with a 25 mark.

The Wildcats, now 44 overall, will ck4 mi thrir season next Saturday at Mrmphis State. ATHENS, Ga. (AP) Pat Sullivan fired four touchdown passes Saturday, equaling an NCAA record, as sixth -ranked Auburn knocked No. 7 Georgia from the undefeated ranks 32-20 in a Southeastern Conference football game. Sullivan connected on scoring bombs of 34 and 70 yards to Jerry Beasley and 15 and five yards to Dick Schrnalz.

The four touchdowns allowed Sullivan to equal the NCAA career record of 71 for touchdown responsibility held by Steve Ramsey of North Texas Stale. The Auburn triumph denied Georgia at least a share of the SEC my Jmmmmuvm.mHmlm mm mmmfmimmmmmmM. jou. nut i 1: 1 Cat-Huskcr facts figures A hi 1 14 inMan y- 14 1 I7 in itrwo i AT I -4 (1 rmi 4 mm trmm Tl nmi--tihmm (I fi it I P4M4 trvn 7nt! ttfmVTW At Mt Mil. I I 0x I p.

1 1 (m I tWf.MftM ti It X'!" M. 17. mn lit I Pittsburg cases wins EMPORIA, Kan (AP) The Pittsburg State Gorillas broke cpn clos football game by coring four touchdowns in the fourth quarter, braling Emporia Slate 41-10. I i H' II 0H Mr I 04 I l. I man Gary Mflcbrr (3-) and anouVr uniVntifyaMe Wildest ar ready if CoppTibargT should nH help.

(Mercury Staff Photo by Fred WrigMman) WIOESTIllNfj GRAft-Nftiraa's Gary Dixon (22) find? hii run crrming tn an abrupt end Saturday as Kansas State's Ron CoppmhargT(mdr8g9him down with a shostring tackle. Monster.