Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 13

Decatur, Illinois, Sunday, September 21, 1988 -Section erald Review Sports. N. ebra ska $ftfVV-Y ft fflljft f-- ySG Illinois By J. MICHAEL FLANAGAN Butkus honored CHAMPAIGN The man many have called the hardest hitting linebacker every to play foot-; ball was honored here Saturday night at halftime of the Illinois-Nebraska game. Dick Butkus, who lettered at Illinois from 1962-64, had his uniform retired.

Butkus, who later went on to a legendary career with the Chicago Bears at middle wore No. 50 at Illinois. Only one other Illinois player has ever had his uniform retired Harold "Red" Grange, who wore No, 77. Photo by Herb Slodoumk Nebraska's Keith Jones is dragged down by Illinois' Ed White CHAMPAIGN So quickly, so completely, so convincingly was this rampage, Nebraska University's football team may wonder if it fitted. at all.

i'We got ahead too early for this to be a good test," said Nebraska cornerback Brian Davis. "It all happened so fast that I don't know what we can determine from this victory The first thing to be considered is whether sixth-ranked Nebraska should play more suitable opponents, like maybe the ones who normally schedule games on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights. Nebraska (2-0) is that good. The 59-14 rout of Illinois (1-2) Saturday night set statisticians scrambling to find a more severe walloping at Memorial Stadium. Illinois hasn't been beaten this soundly at home since 1969, when Michigan won 57-0.

It was the most points scored against Illinois at home since Michigan State won 59-19 in 1978. "We've got a week off before Ohio State," said Illinois defensive end Scott Davis. "We're going to try to forget about this game and chalk it up to experience." Illinois Coach Mike White was equally willing to forget. "I feel real bad," he said. "I would probably have to say Nebraska is one of the best football teams in the United States." Nebraska showed that by silencing Illinois' 23rd consecutive sellout (75,865) with a 28-0 lead after one quarter.

On the first play from scrimmage, Davis picked off a Shane Lamb pass which bounced off Darryl Usher's hands. Davis gathered the ball at the 32 of Illinois and raced in for a touchdown. "I think that being the first play, he (Lamb) was a little nervous," said Davis. "He threw it too hard. I couldn't believe how easy it was for me." It got easier.

Lamb, who left the game in the fourth quarter with a severely sprained knee, fumbled on the next possession and Nebraska's Broderick Thomas recovered at the Illinois 23. Four plays later, quarterback Steve Taylor ran six yards for the second touchdown. Dale Klein, who kicked all eight point afters plus a 23-yard field goal, made it 14-0 with 12:43 to go in the first quarter. The game's most exciting play came moments later, when Ne- lost inois money braska's Keith Jones sped 78 yards on a pitchout for a touchdown. Jones finished with 168 yards on 16 carries.

"It was a misdirection, a coun-tersweep," explained Jones. "I got a good block on the cornerback, and I saw the end zone right away." Nebraska continued to see the end zone as fullback Micah Heibel ran five yards for Nebraska's fourth touchdown with 1:32 left in the first quarter. "It's hard to judge the relative strength of either football team when you get a quarter like that," said Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne. "We got a chance to play everyone by the second quarter. Although Illinois linebacker Sam Ellsworth is happy he won't see Nebraska again soon (Nebraska beat Illinois 52-25 last year), he wasn't counting the days until the offseason, either.

"By no means are we going to run and put our heads between our legs," said EUsowrth. "The game's over, we got beat good. But this loss doesn't do anything psychologically unless you want it to." There were some encouraging moments for Illinois fans. On a fourth down play with 11:15 left in the half, Lamb drilled a seven-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Reese. Unfortunately for Illinois, Jones answered with a one-yard touchdown run and Nebraska eventually held a 38-7 halftime lead.

The other encouraging news was the play of backup quarterback Brian Menkhausen. Filling in for Lamb, Menkhausen completed six of 14 passes for 97 yards and one touchdown, a 17-yarder to James Gordon with 9:28 to go catting the Nebraska margin to 52-14. ets for huge sums of money. "Under the current rules, players are entitled to four seats for each game, home and away, but they must put guests' names on a pass list. Only family members and students may use the tickets.

At Illinois, anyone placed on the guest list must be identified with an address and telephone number. "Those names are checked," Koenig said. "Then when the person arrives at the pass gate that individual must produce an ID to get in. "Even then, what they receive is a seat locater, like a half-ticket. Guests never are issued a regular hard ticket." So far, the vigilance at Illinois has paid off.

"We haven't had any problems," reported Koenig. "But tickets involve a lot of money so we have to stay pretty careful." Nebraska can vouch for that. The team was lucky even to be here projections called for ticket sales of $450,000 plus approximately $20,000 in lost concessions revenue and $8,000 in parking. Illinois also would have lost additional money in fees from Turner Broadcasting System, which televised Saturday's game. Because of the flap at Nebraska, a number of schools have been taking a harder look at their own ticket policy enforcement.

Tennessee and Texas already have admitted violations. "We're constantly talking to our athletes," Koenig said. "And we're always meeting with the coaching staffs. It's tough to keep up with all the NCAA regulations. The manual is pretty thick.

The Big Ten's manual is over 200 pages by itself, with rules on top of the NCAA rules." Complimentary ticket policies were changed two years ago because of widespread abuse at some institutions. Demand for tickets at football-rich schools like Nebraska made it possible for players to sell their tick By STEVE CAMERON For the Herald A Review CHAMPAIGN That loud whooshing noise you heard a couple of weeks ago was a collective sigh of relief from the University of Illinois Athletic Department. There had to be some serious exhaling when the NCAA reversed itself and lessened penalties against 60 Nebraska football players involved in complimentary ticket misuse. Memorial Stadium could have been empty Saturday. "We never actually reached the point where we were having meetings about what to do," said Dr.

John Koenig, assistant athletic director. "But we were sure getting concerned." One-game suspensions originally were levied against the players for putting people other than family members or fellow students on the ticket pass list. Nebraska faced a possible forfeit in it's opener against Florida State. But the school appealed, the first game was played on schedule and the NCAA heard Nebraska's argument the following Tuesday. If the suspensions had been upheld, well, the next opponent on the firing line was Illinois.

Nebraska had an open date last week. Koenig's speciality is the financial side of athletics here. He indicated that the picture of a possible Nebraska cancellation was a gloomy one. "Our fans would have been very disappointed and so would a lot of the merchants in town. It would have been a real unpleasant situation," Koenig said.

"But as far as money is concerned, the Big Ten does carry insurance for game cancellation. The policy is written for the amount of dollars we project would have been lost. We're protected for that much." That much is plenty. Koenig's Eastern teres out Soettlieras lights terstate 57. This was the same Southern team that rolled past Murray State 31-0 the week before for a first road victory since a 48-40 triumph at Charleston in 1984.

This time Southern stumbled and bumbled around for 60 minutes while Eastern stayed physical. Not even Southern's dbg mascot was spared. The kid in the dog outfit was carried into the stands by Eastern's cheerleaders and dropped out onto the turf by some fans. The make believe animal was momentarily dazed. Southern's team was dazed, too.

Southern managed to gets its footing long enough for Paul Patterson to return a kickoff 94 yards for its touchdown in the third quarter with Eastern on top 32-7. But, heck, with Eastern scoring practically at will, Southern had plenty of By JOE COOK HereM Review Sports Writer CHARLESTON Eastern Illinois University had trouble turning on its new lights Saturday night at O'Brien Stadium. Only two-thirds of the bulbs fired on cue and the game was played in in shadows. The Eastern football team, however, had plenty of kilowatt power. With Sean Payton passing for 400 yards and three touchdowns and bulling over the line for two one-yard plunges, Eastern humbled Southern Illinois 52-7 in Gateway Conference action.

If the outcome wasn't shocking to the 10,100 fans, the margin of victory was. Southern had won the last three meetings. That meant nothing to Eastern, which set a Gateway record for most points in a game and rang up running back James Marable. Eastern wasted no time in establishing dominance. Rich Emke's opening onside kick was recovered by Daryl Holcombe at the Southern 47 and six plays later Eastern led 7-0 on Payton's looping pass to Banks.

Eastern scored on its next possession with Payton bulling for the final yard. Eastern players, according to Pierce, were in a huff because Southern Coach Ray Dorr had proclaimed they weren't physical. This time Eastern was physical and awesome, too, as it improved its record to 3-1 and evened its Gateway mark at 1-1. Meanwhile, Southern, who took its largest contingent of fans ever to Charleston, approximately 1,000, left its game plan and evidently its players somewhere on In the biggest score against Southern since Florida State erupted for 59 points in 1982. "We kicked Southern's a--," said Payton, who revealed he was also miffed about the lack of respect that the coaching staff at Southern had for him.

Someone on the staff had remarked that Payton, on his way to 10,000 career passing yards, was struggling. "I couldn't do this without my offensive line," Pay-ton added. "They were great. You should be talking to them." Payton ignored the muddy field by completing 26 of 40 passes many to backs. One in particular was Calvin Pierce, who caught 10 passes for a school record 199 yards.

One of his catches resulted in a 62-yard touchdown. Payton's other touchdown strikes were nine yards to All-America candidate Roy Banks, and five yards to opportunities to practice its kickoff return. Qeery strikes qeickly for Millikie finished with 7-of-16 passing for 141 yards. "One guy had me around the legs and just about the time I threw the ball another guy blindsid-ed me. I still feel a little fuzzy." Cardamone managed to recover enough to set up both of Millikin's second-half touchdowns.

His 33-yard completion to David Andriano preceded Charles Leake's one-yard touchdown plunge on Millikin's first possession after halftime. Millikin's final touchdown came early in the fourth quarter after Cardamone dashed 50 yards to the Wheaton five on a quarterback keeper. Backup quarterback Gregg DeVr-ies dove the final yard three plays later. His 50-yard dash enabled Cardamone to finish as the game's top rusher. He netted 54 yards on four carries.

Wheaton quarterback Ernie Frey hati more yards than that in losses as the result of being sacked eight times by the blitzing Millikin defense. Frey had a net of minus-22 yards. It was a typical performance by the Millikin defense, which rang up its second shutout in two outings and its fourth in a row, including the final two games of last season. In addition to the eight sacks, the Millikin defense forced five fumbles, recovering two, and intercepted two passes. Linebackers Tim Howell and Al Lott were the leaders.

Howell had 10 tackles and a fumble recovery. Lott had six tackles, including two sacks, and recovered a fumble. Don Stephens and Marc Daniels had the interceptions. By REX SPIRES Herald A Review Sports Writer It's the kind of pace Jeff Query prefers f-a-s-t. "Oh, sure.

I like to do this all season, but I'm not going to set that as a goal, or predict that I'm going to catch two touchdown passes in every game," said Query. For the second straight week, Query snared two scoring strikes from John Cardamone in leading Millikin to a 28-0 victory over Wheaton in College Conference of Illinois-Wisconsin football at Millikin Field Saturday. The former Maroa-Forsyth High School standout collaborated with Cardamone on lightning-bolt scor-: ing strikes of 56 yards and 16 yards in the second quarter that produced a 14-0 halftime "You have to give John and our offensive line much of the credit for the first one," said Query, who gathered in a perfectly-thrown pass over his shoulder on a dead run. "The line did an excellent job of picking up Wheaton's blitzing defense and giving John the time he needed. It was one of those passes that just seems to float into your hands." 1 The next one wasn't so simple for either Query, the conference 100-meters sprint champion, or for Cardamone.

Under a heavy rush and with one Wheaton lineman draped across him, Cardamone somehow rifled a sidearm pass to Query cutting across the middle at the goal line. With a defender smothering him, Query caught the ball just inside the end zone. "I had my bell rung by one of their guys," said Cardamone, who w.t .1 Photo by Jan Abbott Wheaton's Ernie Frey is tackled by Tim Howell as Dan Gordon (51), Aric Anderson (87) and Tracy Natyshok (34) close in..