The Bradenton Herald from Bradenton, Florida • 37

D-1 November 12, 1978 Sports Section The Bradenton Herald Sunday, Gators' late rally comes up two points short Georgia's Linsay Scott (24) dives after a 12-yard gain that set up a score Tampa Bay has major motivation today Gametime: 1 p.m. (EST) Television: WTVT, Ch. 13 (Pregame, 12:30) Radio: WBRD, 1420; WSPB, 1450; WFLA, 970 By CRAIG STANKE Herald Sports Writer PONTIAC, Mich. There will be more motivating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers than personal pride when they jaunt onto the carpet in the Pontiac Silverdome this afternoon. The hope for a playoff berth still lingers.

But it has begun to dissipate with a two- -game Buccaneer losing streak. A loss to the Detroit Lions today probably will burn off any lingering dreams. The Buccaneers, 4-6 on the regular season, will attempt to keep the more tangible goal in sight with a first-ever victory over the Lions (3-7) in the NFC Central Division matchup. Detroit and coughed to a 15-7 victory in the second game of the year in Tampa Stadium, one of the sloppiest ever played by two claimants to membership in the National Football League. The Lions took a 16-7 decision in the Silverdome last year.

Greg Landry was the quarterback in this year's first meeting, since giving way to young Gary Danielson. And the youthful Lions, starting five rookies, have won two out of their last three games, including a 31-14 thrashing of San Diego and a 21- 17 victory over the Bears in Chicago. "Their talent is better than their record," said Bucs' head coach John McKay. "Against San Diego, I never saw a team play that well. They had 28 points on the board before the Chargers knew what was going on." The Buccaneers, who stood 4-4 and on the threshold of challenging for the division lead two weeks ago, have fallen to both the Packers and Rams on lastsecond field goals.

And they've lost several key players along the way. Quarterback Doug Williams, who missed the Lions the first time around this year (shoulder bruise) also will be unable to make the acquaintance this time (broken jaw). Mike Rae will start. "We'll go with Rae probably the rest of the year," said McKay. "I don't think it would be fair to Doug to bring him back and put the whole burden on him.

We'd like to get him that experience if we can, if it's possible in some Williams, who had his jaw wired shut Monday, will remain that way four to six weeks, although McKay said he could probably play in two, "in a backup situation," if suitable protection could be built into his helmet. Linebacker Cecil Johnson is still out with a shoulder separation and his backup, Dana Nafziger (also special teams' center) is missing with a bad knee. Rik Bonness will open at right outside linebacker, with the Bucs going to defensive end Bill Kollar and a four-man front on certain occasions. Defensive captain Dewey Selmon, who had his left wrist dislocated last week against the Rams, has been listed to start at the left inside linebacker, sporting a fiberglass cast. "I don't know if he'll play that much or if he'll start at all," said McKay.

"If it hurts him too much, the tendency is not to use it. 'And this is a very bad game for a one-armed guy." Tampa Bay's other lineup changes will come at wide receiver, where John McKay will start instead of Frank Grant, tight end, with Jim Obradovich in place of Jimmie Giles, and right offensive tackle, where Rocky Freitas will open in place of injured Darryl Carlton. Carlton's injury susceptibility is of obvious concern to the Buccaneers, and McKay indicated Friday that he hopes to move defensive end Charlie Hannah into that spot at the end of the season. "I think he would like to do it and I think he would do a good job at it. These guys should be the kind who line up and play week in and week out." Asked where such a switch would leave Carlton, who was characterized as the Bucs' best offensive lineman in the pre- Bayshore wins cross-country regional Results page D-2 Related story, Page D-3 By JIM KUYKENDALL Herald Sports Writer VENICE It wasn't the best performance that they've ever had, but the Bayshore Bruins got the job done Saturday in the Class 3A, Region 6 cross-country meet.

Both the boys and girls teams walked away with convincing team victories, while Jeff Warrick and Betty Springs were easily winning the individual titles. But the Bruins weren't the only at the meet. The Southeast- Seminoles' girls nothing team proved they were to sneeze at, taking a second-place team finish with 66 points, behind Bayshore's 35. The boys' team easily outpointed second-place Hernando, 39-102. All three teams will advance to the state finals to be held next week in Jacksonville.

Palmetto's Ronnie Treadway also By RICHARD HUBBARD Herald Sports Editor JACKSONVILLE The University of Florida's defensive unit, after yielding 24 first-half points to the University of Georgia, played brilliantly in the final 30 minutes, with the exception of 6:50. The Gators had driven 84 yards for a touchdown with 6:56 to play in the game, but a two- -point conversion attempt failed and they trailed the Bulldogs, 24-22. Georgia took the ensuing kickoff and rammed the ball down the Florida Defense's throat and used up the remaining time on the clock to record a 24-22 2 Southeastern Conference victory over the Gators here Saturday before a Gator Bowl crowd of 68,232. Georgia's win improved its record to 8-1 overall and 5-0 in the SEC and it almost clinches the conference championship and a trip to the Sugar Bowl for the Bulldogs. If Georgia can defeat Auburn next Saturday, it will represent the SEC in the Sugar Bowl.

Florida's record dropped to, 3-5 and 2-3. The Gators will travel to Lexington next Saturday to play the Kentucky Wildcats. "We needed the ball one more time," Florida head coach Doug Dickey said. After Florida scored its touchdown, it never even got a chance to get its hands on the football as Georgia drove from its own 25 and ran 17 plays to the Gators' 28 where the clock ran out. "The law of averages was bound to catch up with us," defensive captain Scot Brantley said.

"'We held them down the entire second half, but they took it to us on that last drive." "There was a breakdown defensive coordinator Doug Knotts said. Included in that time-consuming, game-saving drive, were an 11-yard run by Georgia's great running back, Willie McClendon, and an 11- yard pass from quarterback Jeff Pyburn to split end Lindsay Scott. Both of those plays were something Knotts didn't expect. "We knew they would give the ball to McClendon, but I didn't think they would run the play they 48 Georgia 10 14 0 0-24 Florida 10 9-22 Fla-FG Yepremian 30 Ga--McClendon 3 run (Robinson kick) Ga-FB Robinson 32 Fla-Collinsworth 33 pass from Brantley (Yepremian kick) Ga--Hodge 3 pass from Pyburn (Robinson kick) -Scott 44 pass from Arnold (Robinson kick) Fla-FG Yepremian 19 Fla-FG Yepremian 20 Fla- 36 pass from Collinsworth (pass failed) Georgia Florida First downs 16 20 Rushes-yards 56-177 37-118 Passing 130 238 Return yards 77 50 Passes 8-12-1 12-26-1 Punts 5-37 5-47 Fumbles-lost 2-2 3-1 Penalties-yards 7-48 8-68 did," Knotts said. "Also, I was thinking two runs instead of a run and pass (the one to Scott)." Knotts said that if his defense could hold McClendon, who is Georgia's all-time leading rusher, under 100 yards, "then we would But McClendon, who had 76 yards rushing on 30 tries, came through with one run that broke the Gators' back.

"'We had a breakdown on McClendon's run. It was the perfect defense for that run," Knotts said. Florida had fought valiantly the entire game as the Gators found themselves down by 14 points, 24- 10, at one point in the first half. The Gators took a brief 3-0 lead on a 30-yard field goal by Berj Yepremian with 11:25 to go in the opening quarter. The score was set up when David Little recovered a fumble on Georgia's second play of the game.

The Bulldogs wiped out that 3-0 deficit on their next series of plays as McClendon bulled his way into the end zone from the three with 7:12 showing on the clock. Rex Robinson gave Georgia a 7-3 lead by adding the point after. Florida was forced to punt the ball away after going nowhere following the TD. Georgia also was held on three downs and elected to punt the ball back to the Gators. See GATORS, Page D-2 Photography: Associated Press season, McKay replied, "I don't Ricky Bell and Johnny Davis will start at running backs, although which is fullback and which halfback will depend on the play.

"We switch them around so you can't tell which guy is going to play which spot," said McKay. Rae will be getting his first start of the season in that backfield, and will have to elude the likes of rookie defensive end Al Baker, whom McKay called the "best rookie lineman I've seen this year." Against the Rams, Rae ran for 95 yards and is the fourth-leading rusher on the team with a 23.8 yards-per-carry average. "If we can just keep him from running again, we'll have a new Buccaneer record," said McKay. With all the revamping, McKay says he still thinks the players will be sufficiently motivated to play well in their last six games. "Our problem right now is that our players would have thought we would have won more games than we have at this point.

And now they've begun to lose some teammates who are pretty good players. "If we had gone into that game last Sunday and fallen on our face, then I would have said, well maybe we're not as good as we thought. But we didn't. They'll still be trying. They'll get it from the coaches and the Selmons.

18th. The Seminoles were one of the major surprises of the day. were just a bunch of young kids a couple of years ago, said Southeast coach Buzz Narbut. "'It was pretty hard for me to ever imagine this would happen (finishing second in regionals)." But Narbut agreed that people can expect too much from a team. "People can lose perspective he said.

"They dont realize really how much it takes to get that far. They just say, 'Hey, let's go to state this They don't understand how much work it takes." Narbut, however, admits to a tendancy to think that way himself. "'Three years ago I would' have just been happy to qualify for state," he said. "But now I want to go there and do well." And although it probably will be taken for granted, somehow. Bayshore and Southeast will get the job done.

Photography: Associated Press, FSU's Mark Lyles on early score Seminoles manage a decision over Gobblers, 24-14 earned the right to go to state by finishing second in the boys' race. The Bruins' style of winning didn't totally impress coach Rollie Geiger, though. "We didn't run very well," he said simply after the meet. "We had a lot of little problems today. I'll have to sit down this weekend and work things out.

I have confidence in the kids, though. "But also I think there's a lot of pressure on them," he added. "Before we even started this season, everyone was expecting us to win this. They work hard and win, and then everyone says, 'Well, that's what you were supposed to It takes all the fun out of it. But I told the kids that next week at state we're going to go out there for the fun of it.

We're going to have a good time." And if the Bruins have good time next week while they're running, their opposition isn't likely to join the festivities. Saturday the Bruins' boys' team placed three runners in the top ten. Besides Warrick's winning time of 14:34, Mickey Hooke took sixth with a 15:57 and Bill Clapper finished ninth at 16:02. John Brotherton was eleventh with a 16:08 and Norman Lee was twelth at 16:09. Treadway's second -place time was 15:12.

Springs' winning time in the girls' race was nearly half a minute ahead of her nearest competitor, teammate Jenny Only a freshman, Lamoreaux was second with an 11:51 clocking, just ahead of thirdplace Lori Davie of Southeast with a 12:02. The Seminole's Rhonda Davie and Angelina Scott were sixth and seventh respectively, both with 12:44 times. Bayshore's Debbie Omlar and Ellen O'Rear were ninth (12:50) a and tenth while teammates Jamie Frey and Susie Crowser finished 15th and TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Running backs Mark Lyles and Homes Johnson carried the offense Saturday night as Florida State pulled out a 24-14 victory over Virgina Tech. Johnson's 3-yard touchdown with 10:20 to go in the fourth quarter, gave FSU the lead, and Lyles added a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:54 left.

Johnson's run followed a scoreless third quarter and capped a 66-yard, 11-play FSU drive. Lyles' second 1-yard touchdown came after nose guard Ron Simmons recovered a Gobblers' fumble at their 4-yard line. The Seminoles, eyeing a bowl bid, climbed to 6-3, white Virginia Tech fell to 3-7 with its fourth straight loss. Tech ended 11 straight scoreless quarters in the second period on a 57-yard run by Kenny Lewis, who has 10 of the Gobblers' 17 touchdowns this season. Quarterback Steve Casey Tech-FSU Stats Virginia Tech 14 0 0-14 Florida State 0 14-24 -FG Cappelen 37 -Lewis 57 run (King kick) VIR -Watkins pass from Casey (King kick) FSU--Lyles 1 run (Cappelen kick) FSU--Johnson 3 run (Cappelen kick) FSU -Lyles run (Cappelen kick) Virginia Tech FSU First downs 11 24 Rushes-yards 35-146 58-272 Passing 76 198 Return yards 6 25 Passes 9-17-1 17-30-1 Punts 7-322 5-235 Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0 Penalties-yards 6-32 4-28 followed with a 5-yard scoring pass to Paul Watkins.

Eric King added the extra points, giving Tech a 14-3 lead. Lyles' plunge from six inches out with five seconds in the half cut the Tech lead to 14-10. Johnson, a sophomore tailback, ran for 152 yards on 27 attempts, while senior fullback Lyles gained 79 yards on 16 attempts..