The Roanoke Times from Roanoke, Virginia • 22

C-2 Roanoke Times World-News, Sunday, November 6, 1977 Tar Heels Play for Tie and Get It, 13-13 By DOUG DOUGHTY Sports Writer CHAPEL HILL, N.C. In the same situation, said Clemson quarterback Steve Fuller, his team would have gone for a win. That, replied North Carolina quarterback Clyde Christensen, was exactly the reason his team went Tor a tie. After the Tar Heels and the Tigers had exchanged fists and elbows for nearly three hours in a football game here Saturday afternoon, a war of words raged after Clemson and North Carolina had tied, 13-13. Tom Biddle's field goal, a 30-yarder with 58 seconds to play, allowed the Tar Heels to rally from a 13-10 deficit and put a serious dent in Clemson's Atlanta Coast Conference football title hopes.

"You can say what you want about playing for a tie." said Christensen, who came off the bench to coax the Tar Heels into field goal position in the game's waning moments. "But, our goal to start the vear was to win conference and I'd have to believe any individual game is secondary to that." The tie updated UNC's conference record to 3-0-1 with games left at Virginia and Duke while Clemson Bill Brill Smashing Birthday For Bob Thalman CHARLOTTESVILLE- The day was perfect for a funeral -Virginia's- and scarcely the setting for a birthday party. But a VMI football team that was primed from the opening kickoff enabled Coach Bob Thalman to celebrate the way any coach would appreciate- with a smashing victory. The Keydets won in surprising fashion, 30-6, and in the dressing room they gleefully sang "happy birthday" to their fighting banty rooster boss. Thalman wouldn't say how old he is, opting for Jack Benny's time-honored 39.

Actually, as a man in his mid-50's. he has seven or eight years on long-time friend Dick Bestwick. But Bestwick, once more maintaining his poise in the face of extreme adversity, said, today I feel a lot older than Bob." The two coaching adversaries have been friends for years, and once lived across the street de each other in Atlanta when they both were won the Georgia Tech coaching staff. Bestwick was asked how old Thalman was. With a grin, Dick said, "I'd say that Bob is 30-through.

Or maybe 40-through. But I don't want to be talking about how old Bob is. I'm atwraid he might kick my ass again next year." Thus far. Thalman holds a 2-0 edge against Bestwick, who is now doomed to a 1-9-1 year for his mortally wounded squad. With North Carolina and Maryland coming up, all Virginia can do is pray nobody else gets hurt and aim at a successful recruiting year.

Bestwick calmly discussed the game, which was over in the first 16 minutes as the Keydets grabbed a 23-0 lead. Since UVa has scored only four touchdowns all season, there was no chance of a second half comeback. According to the UVa coach, the big play was the 78-yard bomb from quarterback Robby Clark to Johnny Garnett, on which defender Kee Moore was badly beaten. That made it 13-0 and came just after the UVa defense appeared to have righted itself. "I've seen him throw that pass a half-dozen times in films and that's the first time he's hit said Bestwick.

"But that happens to us all the Bestwick did not wish to alibi away UVa's worst loss to the Keydets in 19 years. "Anything I might say would detract from V.MI,' he said. "Bob and his staff have done a super job and they really came at us. We made every mistake in the world, but they deserved to Virginia's manpower situation is critical, especially in the offensive line. Things got worse when center Kenny Fulp came down with an ankle injury Thursday.

"We've played three tough, emotional games in a row and our offensive line is just whipped," said Bestwick. He didn't say it as an excuse. It was the truth and V.MI proved it in a hurry. Led by Ned Stepanovich and Greg Arnett, dropped to 4-1-1. With no conference games left, the Tigers now rank as distinct underdogs in the ACC race.

For most of the fourth quarter, it looked as if Charlie Pell would pull off the unthinkable and lead 13th-ranked Clemson to the conference championship and a bowl bid in his first year as head coach. Apparently, the fates would not have it, starting with a missed extra point by Obed Ariri with 11:13 left. Lester Brown's two yard run allowed the Tigers to overcome a 10-7 deficit early in the fourth quarter and it was a foregone conclusion that Ariri would kick the PAT after 17 straight successes. "I don't remember Obed Ariri missing an extra point from the time he joined us last spring," said Pell of the former Nigerian soccer star. Added Fuller, "I was standing on the sideline with my back to the play; I hadn't given it a moment's thought that he might miss." Still, even though Ariri was wide left, Pell had little reason for fear as the Clemson defense stopped Carolina on downs and then drove to the Carolina 19 with just 6:12 on the clock.

On third and three, however, Fuller was set to hand the ball off to Brown when he was nudged by fullback Ken Callicutt. causing a fumble. The onrushing Brown kicked the ball forward to the 18, where it was recovered by UNC's Stanley Lancaster. On the sidelines, Carolina Coach Bill Dooley had seen enough of P.J. Guy, subbing for regular Matt Kupec, sidelined by a suspected broken collarbone.

Directed toward the huddle was junior college transfer Christensen, the starter in a 7-3 loss to Texas Tech who had played very little since. "It hurt a lot when they called for P.J. instead of me." said Christensen, an intensely devout individual. "But, that just took a lot of the pressure off me when I did come in. I knew I was the last resort." Faced by a crucial third-and-12 at his 35, Christensen completed an 11-yarder to Bill Mabry.

On fourth and one, freshman Amos Lawrence scampered 11 more yards for a first down and, then two plays later, fullback Bob Loomis bolted 24 yards to the Clemson 18. It was from that point that the controversy arose. By running two plays into the line, with Lawrence cooling his heels the sideline, was Dooley just setting up the field goal? Or, by throwing on third down, was he going for a touchdown? "Good God," said Dooley, "do you think I would have put the ball up if I wanted to tie? Sure, I was going for the win. until we had a fourth-and-five that is." Statistically, no game could have been closer, with UNC racking up 310 yards total offense to Clemson's 322. For Carolina, Lawrence rushed for 150 yards in 17 carries, including a spectacular 59-yard touchdown run that gave UNC a 10-7 halftime lead.

Clemson relied mostly on Fuller, who completed 9 of 17 passes for 153 yards. "I'm disappointed with myself personally; I'm disappointed in the defense as a whole," said Buddy Curry, the sophomore linebacker from Danville whom the Tar Heels are touting as all-ACC. "But, Fuller was something else. They couldn't run, so he went to the pass. Then when he started passing, it opened things up for them to run again." Clemson's post mortem 1 ranged from Pell's decision to use injured punter David Sims (who fumbled a snap that led to Biddle's first UNC field Ariri's missed extra point, to 101 yards in penalties.

"I thought we were a better team than North Carolina. We gave them a chance and they took ad- Staff Photo by Jack Gaking The Virginia Defense Makes a Futile Attempt To Block a Punt by Mark Lambert of VM in 1st Half Action in Charlottesville the Keydet defensive wall was precisely that they wouldn't let the Cavaliers move the ball on the ground. By halftime, Virginia had one first down, that on a penalty. They had one yard rushing. Chip Mark managed to complete a bundle of passes in the second half after the outcome was decided, but when it all over, the Cavaliers had eight yards rushing and Mark had been sacked five times.

Virginia's offensive line coach, Roanoker Lee Moon, gave it the "what can you do?" sign. We had to play Fulp with his bad ankle, because he's the only man who can get the ball back, but that meant we had no chance to block the nose guard." Apparently, Virginia didn't block anybody' up front. Typical of the way the game went has VI's defensive stand early in the second quarter. Punter Russ Henderson, positively the only bright light on this gloomy day for the Cavs, kicked the ball dead at the VMI two. The strategy looked perfect when quarterback Clark fumbled the ball away on the next play.

If the Cavs could score, possibly it would be a game. Staff Photo by Wayne Deel A Touchdown by Northside Leaves Salem Coach Tom Kucer Unhappy See Story of the Vikings' 14-13 Victory Over the Spartans on Page C-1 vantage of it." said Fuller. "Couldn't you see they were glad to tie us?" And what if Clemson had been in the same predicament, assuming a tie would have given the Tigers a probable conference title? no," said Fuller, "I would have gone for "Lord, the win." The Tar Heels, obviously, knew better. 6-13 Clemson 3-13 N. Carolina UNC-FG Biddle 22 Clem- -Perry 12 run (Ariri kick) UNC-Lawrence 59 run (Biddle kick) Clem- -Brown 2 run (kick failed) UNC-FG Biddle 30 A Clemson-N.

Carolina 18 17 First downs Rushes-yards 51 169 55 240 70 153 Return Passing yards 0 10 Passes 1-17-0 5-14-0 yards 5-38 6-40 Punts 4-2 1-0 FumblesPenalties-yards 8-61 6-45 Individual Statistics RUSHING: Clemson Ratchford 11-65, Brown 13-17, Callicutt 9-11. UNC Lawrence 17-150, Kupec 10-11, Johnson 5-18, 12-61, Fuller Loomis 7-52. PASSING: Clemson Fuller 17-9-0, 1 153 yards; UNC Kupec 4-2-0. 14 yards, Christensen 7-3-0, 56 yards. Gay 2-0-0, 0 yards, Lawrence RECEIVING: Clemson Clark 3-45, Ratchford 2-35, Butler 2-39; 1-0-0, 0 yards.

UNC Mabry 2-22, Powell 1-30, Williams 1-15, Collins 1-3. Penn State Improvises, Beats Pack By DENNIS LATTA Sports Writer Four cracks into the line, and VMI's defenders had given up 36 inches. Linebacker Greg Jones and huge Stepanovich blocked off even the tiniest hole. Asked about the play selection, Bestwick answered without candor, "If you can't score from the three going straight ahead, you don't deserve to score." While UVa came into this game battered after three fierce nail-biters in succession, VMI was in good shape after getting a breather against Davidson last week. "That couldn't have been more timely," said Stepanovich, the largest of the Keydets.

Injured against Lehigh two weeks ago along with three other defensive starters, Stepanovich was permitted to miss the Davidson game to get ready for UVa. "I wasn't sure until the other day whether I could play or not," he said. "But having that Davidson game really was perfect for us with Virginia and Furman coming up." The senior tackle said there was little doubt that the Keydets were emotionally ready for this game. "I could feel the electricity all week," he said. "As soon as the Davidson game was over, we started thinking about Virginia." VMI From Page C-1 The triumph, which gives the Keydets a 3-0 in-state record with Virginia Tech remaining as their final opponent of the season, was the initial Big Five title in Thalman's seven seasons at the school.

It also was VM's first win ever on artificial turf and clinched the first of two titles the Keydets hope to win this year. VMI travels to Furman next week, where a win would give the Keydets a share of the Southern Conference crown. Virginia's only score--and just its fourth touchdown in nine -came on the third play of the fourth quarter when Mark swept right end and crossed the goal line on a three-yards run. VMI got its last TD on a 34-yard screen pass from Clark to Oddi out of the Keydets' shotgun formation. "We wanted to keep the pressure on Chip, which I think we did," said Thalman on the Keydets' pass rush.

"I don't know how many sacks we had (five), but we kept in his face enough to give him a hard time. For big Ned, the highlight of the game was the goal-line stand. "They might have gotten some momentum if they had scored then and there was plenty of time left. "The way we stopped them was like a dream come true. It was the greatest thing that could have happened.

Nothing hurts the other team more than a goal-line stand like Stepanovich was delighted to hear that Richmond beat Furman. "I love it," he said. "Now we're going to beat Furman." If the Keydets accomplish that, they will gain at least a tie for the Southern Conference title. They already have won the Big Five championship. "We're just a small school." Stepanovich said, "and it feels good to beat big like Virginia." Those kind of convincing wins make it nice for a coach, no matter old he is.

As for Thalman, he reminded drove everyone, "It's my daughter's birthday, too." For Dick Bestwick, it was just another long, gloomy day in what has been an awfully long two years. When you get shoved around unmercifully VMI, it points out how difficult the road ahead can be. "Maybe in the seond half, we got a little conservative. But what I liked was when we came right back and scored right after they scored. That's the mark of a good team." "We did just about the things we wanted today," said Clark, whose scoring bomb to Garnett reached the receiver at the UVa 35 after the speedy flanker had beaten defender Kee Moore.

"We worked on 13 formations in practice this week, and we wanted to use 11 of them in the first half. We were saving the other two to show them something different after halftime." Clark said the Cavaliers' defensive backs tipped him off before the secondlongest TD pass in VMI history. "We figured it would work," said the VMI signal of the pass play. "'We were set-left formation and had used a slant play with misdirection to the tailback two times before. So, this time we faked to the back and got isolation on the cornerback with Johnny.

Not many people can keep up with Railsplitters, Down 63-0 at Half, Split LOS ANGELES (AP) It's enough to Wilson's Coach, Vic Cuccia, couldn't send Knute Rockne spinning in his grave. understand why the Lincoln Railsplitters When Lincoln High School football split. Looking at the score, he assured reCoach Skip Lorea met with his team at porters that he had planned to use secondhalftime Friday, the Railsplitters were los- stringers in the last half. ing to Wilson High 63-0. There was no impassioned speech from The city's sports information officer, Lorea, no shouting.

He didn't conjure the Jerry Weiner, said no team had ever quit a spirits of Lincoln heroes past. game under such circumstances. He said Coach Lorea called for the team bus, the city's Interscholastic Athletic Commitpacked his players in, and left. tee plans to hold a meeting Monday, RALEIGH If Penn State is the No. 9 team in the country, then North Carolina State must be no lower than No.

10. With 0:58 left in the football game here Saturday, Penn State quarterback Chuck Fusina made up a play that resulted in an 11-yard touchdown pass and a 21-17 Nittany Lion victory over North Carolina State. The Wolfpack couldn't be faulted for not expecting the play. Even Penn State Coach Joe Paterno was in the dark about it until it developed. "I'm really not sure what the play was," said Scott Fitzkee, the receiver on the winning touchdown pass.

"Chuck told me to change my pattern. He told me to run a straight "I yelled the play across the field after we lined up," said Fusina pointed out. "They (the Wolfpack) could have heard it, but I guess they didn't think it was a pattern we normally run on first But it was the play that made the difference in a wild game that had a total of 942 yards in total offense. The two teams ran up and down the field between the 20-yard lines all day, but had trouble getting across the goal line. N.C.

State's Ted Brown finished the game with a whopping 257 yards rushing, but he worked for every one of them with 37 carries. He had one run of 66 yards and scored a Wolfpack touchdown. "I said before the game that Brown was one of the best runners in the country and I see no reason to change that now," Paterno observed. "What did he have today-450 yards?" Penn State started the game as if it would win in a rout. The Nittany Lions went 80 yards in just eight plays to take a 7-0 lead with less than three minutes gone in the opening quarter.

The Wolfpack wasn't to be outdone and moved the ball 68 yards. N.C. State, however, fumbled on the one-yard line instead of scoring. Both offenses moved well throughout the first half, but a 25-yard field goal by the Wolfpack was the only other scoring for a 7-3 Penn State halftime lead. The Nittany Lions had a chance to take a commanding lead early i in the third quarter, but Lexington's Richard Carter intercepted a Fusina pass in the end zone.

Three plays later, Brown rambled 66 yards before being dragged down from behind to give N.C. State a first down on the 14. Brown scored on a seven-yard run for a 10-7 Wolfpack lead. Penn State regained the lead, 14-10, on a 79-yard drive at the end of the third quarter, but the Wolfpack was hot. With Brown doing most of the work, N.C.

State went 73 yards to go ahead, 17-14, on a oneyard run by Billy Ray Vickers. Only 2:35 remained in the game when Penn State got the ball for a final chance to impress the six bowl scouts on hand. Fusina directed a drive that started on the Nittany Lions' 17. Fusina passed Penn State down the field to the N.C. State 11-yard line as the clock ticked away.

Then he called his makeshift play to Fitzkee for the winning TD. "We weren't sure we had enough time," Fusina said of the final drive. "We knew they'd be in a prevent defense, so we tried to throw under the coverage." But Paterno didn't see the final play as the difference in the whole game. "There wasn't a key play. It was just two good football teams playing each other." "It took the No.

9 team in the country to beat us today," said Wolfpack Coach Bo Rein. "We marched twice to score without mistakes when we had to." "This is the worst kind of a game to lose," said Brown, who has 1,110 yards rushing for the season and over 3,000 for his career. "When you play good lose, it's not worth According to Paterno, "We were pleased to beat a team that played so well. They did a lot of things and did them well. This was a good win." Penn.

St. N.C.St. 1 Penn -Cefalo 36 pass from Fusina (Bahr kick) NCS-FG Sherrill 25 NCS-Brown 7 run (Sherrill kick) Penn- -Suhey 1 run (Bahr kick) NCS-Vickers 1 run (Sherrill kick) Penn -Fitzkee 11 pass from Fusina (Bahr kick) A Pennst. N.C.St. First downs 26 28 Rushes-yards 38-167 73-373 Passing yards 315 87 Return yards Passes 22-36-2 8-20-1 Punts 4-44 4-36 Fumbles-lost 1-1 4-2 yards 8-50 3-21 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS a RUSHING: PSU-Suhey 12-60, Geise 12-68, Torrey NCSU -Brown 37-257, Vickers 20-78.

Adams 4-25, Johnson 5-17, Evans 7-2. PASSING: PSU-Fusina 36-22-2, 315 yards, 2 TDs; NCSU-Evans 18-7-1. 68 2-1-0, 19 yards. RECEIVING: 8-105. Cefalo 5-98, Geise 3-42, Fitzkee 3-40; NCSU Dawson 2-27, R.

Hall.