Winston-Salem Journal from Winston-Salem, North Carolina • 28

I I Hl ti j' II I 1 I i I 0 i I li I B4 Wjnston Salem Journal college football Dyrell Roberts hauls In the game winning touchdown pass for the Hokies A 'JT'ji Ar fefflp wk SSKfe ifA 1 S' Jr A 1 £HwLr big plays help Hokies survive scare THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BLACKSBURG Va With pressure coming and Virginia Tech desper ate Tyrod eyes worked quickly from the left side of the field to the right just fast enough Taylor the quarterback found Danny Coale running all alone down the left sideline and hit him for an 80 yard com pletion to set up 1 1 yard touchdown pass to Dyrell Roberts three plays later and help the 13th ranked Hokies beat No 19 Nebraska 16 15 yesterday I saw that he was open I just had to let it go" said Taylor who was hit just after releasing the ball Coale caught it clean ly but was forced out of bounds at the 3 with 1:1 1 left kind of what you play for moments like that" he said But Taylor wasn't fin ished Not by a long shot After being sacked on the first play from the 3 for an 8 yard loss and then rushed into throwing the ball away Taylor scrambled around for what the school thing out of some body part' Carmichael was on the bench listening to defen sive coordinator Bud oster talk about how the Hokies were going to score when he saw the ball floating to ward Coale nearby ball Great catch' he said And a great win for the Hokies (2 1) who had struggled all day vs the Nebraska defense man aging just 195 yards in the first three quarters Their touchdown came on the first series a 24 yard drive set up by 76 yard return of the opening kickoff and their second quarter field goal capped a 58 yard drive featuring Ryan runs of 46 and 6yards In the third quarter they gained 1 yard while the Cornhuskers behind the running of Roy Helu Jr and quarterback Zac heady play controlled the ball and the outcome After the fourth they were left thinking about missed chances such as the five drives that stalled that series" wide receiver Niles Paul said came at a point where we really needed the points That hurt us" Coach Bo Pelini said he thought it could have been the turning point "If we scored there I though we were in pretty good shape' he said The 'Huskers (2 1) fell to 1 21 in their past 22 games vs top 20 teams and the Hokies ran their string of nonconference home wins to 32 or much of the game it seemed like both trends would be bucked Helu ran for 169 yards almost all of it after the Cornhuskers were held to 0 yards in the first quar ter and Lee was 1 1 for 30 passing for 136 yards but his completions all seemed critical Theyjust never put Nebraska in the end zone defense gave us the ball a lot and put us in the position to score a lot of points" Paul said left a lot of points out there on the field really frus trating when your defense is playing the way they were" said was nine seconds be fore passing to Roberts on the right side of the end zone with 21 seconds left 'I redeemed Roberts who had dropped a third down pass earlier kid that plays football dreams of a game like this" Especially when you come out on top the game" cor nerback Rashad Carmi chael said "Sometimes you've got to pull some in Tech territory all lead ing to field goals by Alex Henery and one drive that should have but Nebraska up 12 10 had a first and goal at the 6 after Lee ran for 17 yards on third and 3 Two holding calls two false starts and an incomplete pass later Nebraska faced second and goal from the 36 and later punted the ball away into the end zone "We have penal ties the entire game until The I Ryan Wil liams had 107 yards and a 1 yard touchdown run after Roberts' big early return but had only 13 yards on six carries after halftime Taylor known more for his running than pass ing continued to frustrate Hokies fans with his appar ent unwillingness to run He lost 22 yards on nine carries repeatedly pass ing up space in the open field when flushed from the pocket Sunday September 20 2009 Gators top Volunteers his first interception No 25 Michigan 45 East No 5 Mississippi 52 SE Louisiana 6: Jevan Snead threw three touchdowns Bran with SU and BCS aspi rations faded a little bit on each drive by the Seminoles No 15 TCU 56 Texas State 21 Joseph Turner ran for 129 No 17 Cincinnati 28Ore gon State 18: Tony Pike threw for 332 yards and hit Mardy Gilyard with an 18 yard scor as visiting Cincinnati stopped a second half Oregon State comeback bid for a victory yesterday The Bearcats (3 0) snapped No 23 Georgia 52 Arkan sas 41 Joe Cox threw for 375 yards and five touchdowns and visiting Georgia pulled away for a wild over Arkansas last night The Razorbacks (1 1) led 35 34 in the third quarter but the Bulldogs' struggling de fense held Arkansas to two short field goals the rest of the way Oregon 31 No 18 Utah 24: LaMichael James rushed for 1 52 yards and a touchdown and John Boyett made a cru 1 cial interception to help Oregon beat visiting Utah yesterday and snap the longest winning streak The Utes (2 1 had won 1 6 straight including their 31 17 upset of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last January visiting south ern California yesterday the second straiaht sea straignt nonconrerence victc ries at Reser Stadium dating back to a 67 28 win over North ern Illinois on Nov 16 1996 holding opponents scoreless' In back to back games for the first time since 1987 a lackluster day after two spec tacular games for Michigan (3 0) He was 7 of 13 for 68 yards and left the game briefly in the second half after getting hit by twoEagles No 16 Oklaho ma State 41 Rice 24: Zac Robinson rushed for one Huskies shock Trojans No 8 Cal 35 Minnesota 21 Jahvid Best rushed for 131 ya rds and a schoof reco rd five touchdowns as California beat visiting Minnesota yesterday Kevin Riley overcame a shaky start to tinisn with zoz yards for Cal (3 0) which had lost eight of its last nine on the No 12 Oklahoma 45 Tulsa Landry Jones set a school record with six touchdown em Michigan 17: Carlos Brown passes and No 1 2 Oklahoma had a 90 yard touchdown run its second straight and a career high 187 yards shutout after Heisman Trophy rushing as Michigan routed winner Sam Bradford went out Eastern Michigan yesterday with an injury beating Tulsa reshman Tate orcierhad yesterday tor its 2btn straight home victory Jones finished with 336 yards passing The Sooners (2 1) broke the school record for consec utive wins on Owen ield by No 11 Ohio State 38 To ledo 0: Terrelle Pryor hit Dane Sanzenbacher with two early touchdown passes and Ohio State defused Toledo's high scoring spread attack yester day in Cleveland Leading an Ohio State (2 1) offense that was rela tively punchless a week earlier Pryor feasted on a Toledo unit giving Up 45 points and almost 500 yards a game Pryor passed for three scores completing 17 of 28 passes for 262 yards linebacker DT Shackleford In a rout of visiting Southeastern Louisiana last niaht The Rebels (2 0) won their vards and three touchdowns Jerry riugnes naa tnree sacKs andTCU beat Texas State last night for its eighth consecutive home opening win Mistakes by the Horned rogs (2 0) allowed their oot ball Championship Subdivision opponent to stay close early giving Coach Gary Patterson plenty of teaching points be fore going to Clemson next weekend BCS berth SU (2 1 was too fast for Corp a redshirt sophomore BYU (2 1 and avoided its making his first career start was 13 for 22 for 110 yards with one interception No 1 lorida 23 Tennes see 13: lorida embar rass Tennessee and its new coach just beat the Volun teers behind Tim Tebow and a stingy defense Tebow ran for 76 yards and a touchdown Caleb Sturgis kicked three field goals and the Gators beat the visiting Volunteers yesterday in the SEC opener lorida started counting down for this one more than nine months ago right after road including four in a row to Lane Kiffin vowed to sing end last season Rocky all night long after Eric Decker caught eight beating the bators No 2 Texas 34TexasTech 1 24: Colt McCoy threw a 3 yard touchdown pass to Dan Buck ner in the fourth quarter and No 2 Texas got a measure of revenge against Texas Tech with a win last night 3 yard touchdown to Buckner with nine minutes left put Texas ahead 31 17 and shook off an otherwise shaky outing for last runner up for the Heisman Trophy No 4 Alabama 53 North Texas 7: Greg McElroy passed for two touchdowns and rushed for another before sittino out most of the second half yes passes and instead suffered terday in Alabama rout ot visiting North Texas Mark Ingram ran for 91 yards and a touchdown on eight carries and scored on a 29 yard reception for the Crimson Tide (3 0) in its final pre SECtuneup before Arkan sas visits It was the highest scoring game for Alabama since a 56 3 win over Louisiana Tech in 1993 six head coaches ago No 5 Penn State 31 Temple 6: Evan Royster ran tor 134 yards and a touchdown yesterday and Penn State re vived its rushing attack in a rout of visiting Temple Royster had 119 yards by halftime including the 7 yard scoring run that gave the Nit tany Lions a 14 3 lead late in the second quarter Daryll Clark threwfor 167 yardsand two scores as Penn State won its 27th straight against Temple first 1 2 start in 20 years Three weeks after upset tina Oklahoma in the season opener BYU couldnt keep up toucndown and threw for two others both to Dez Bryant as visiting Oklahoma State rebounded from its first loss to beat Rice last night 'While Oklahoma State (2 1) exactly get its of fense rolling the Cowboys did enough to beat Rice (0 3) which has opened the sea son with three straight road games two against Big 12 Conference foes SU 54 Nd 7 BYU 28: Christian Ponder threw for no uiu juuui iu auuiyiii uvu son the Trojans have lost their tw0 touchdowns and ran for Pac 10 opener days after a big another as visiting lorida win over the Buckeyes This State routed BYU yesterday one will gnaw at USC coach Pete Carroll who lost to former home winning streak and prob MI Li a thli Art 11T Trojans offensive coordinator 73 bteve barKisian now wasn first vear coach Eric Decker cauqht eight passes for 119 yards and two UHCWCIHUUI im er touchdown for the Golden Gophers (2 1) who gave Cal everything it could handle in their shiny new stadium kl I I I 4 I A I tin I in A Lafayette 3: Chad Jones had streak of 26 1 clramnt nAnmnforonra inrT two interceptions last night leading a dominant defensive performance by LSU in a vic tory over Louisiana Lafayette Jones also wag a relief pitcher on 2009 national cham pion baseball team Sloppiness hurt the Tigers (3 O) as Jordan Jefferson againstnjggledto complete deep the associated press don Bolden rushed for 105 Washington 16 No 3 USC yards and No5 Mississippi got 13: Erik olk kicked a 22 yard a big game from a freshman field goal with 3 seconds re maining and Washington's fired up defense stymied fill in quarieroacK i hu ncucio vwu TOP 25 Aaron Corp and eighth straight game mManKHOMKaBMaaaMnaeaa Tar Heels Continued rom PageBI Wilson slammed into Yates after being blocked in the back by North Carolina fullback An thony Elzy The penalty gave North Car olina a first down on the 7 and tailback Ryan Houston bulled into the end zone from 5 yards out two plays later The touchdown was Hous second of two Casey point after kick gave North Car olina an insurmountable lead with 1:58 left had my war paint on today because we were some said defensive tackle Marvin Austin of the Tar Heels "We got it done today It feels so good to beat those people man When adversity came we went out there and put the fire The Tar Heels improved to 3 0 for the first time since the 1997 season The Pirates fell to 1 2 "They talked a lot of junk but talk is cheap" Austin said "Somebody please tell ECU not to talk Please tell them to The Tar Heels overcame the early 7 0 lead and then broke out of a 14 14 tie for a 21 14 halftime lead Yates given solid protection by a patchwork offen sive line that allowed no sacks attacked the secondary with a mixture of short medium and long passes Yates gave North Carolina its first lead at 14 7 when he con nected with freshman receiver Jheranie Boyd on a 59 yard touchdown pass the second of his scoring passes Boyd sped down the right side of the field and got behind an ECU cornerback Yates lofted the pass and the ball sailed into hands at the 14 Boyd jug gled the ball twice before gaining control at the 5 yard line on his way into the end zone his first college reception "We ran that play a lot during the week (in practice)" Yates said ECU managed only a field goal in a frustrating second half losing to North Carolina for the ninth time in 12 games East Carolina down 24 14 in the third quarter drove to the North Carolina 30 but stalled there after 14 plays Ben Hart man attempted a 47 yard field goal that was blocked by defen sive lineman Cam Thomas of North Carolina ECU still down by 10 points drove from its 21 to the North Carolina 5 after 14 plays North Carolina held again and Hart man wasforced to kick a 22 yard field goal that provided the 24 17 dinerenee Coach Skip Holtz of ECU said that the offensive futility after halftime deep in UNC territory was costly put a couple of drives together but what we lacked as an offensive football team wassome of the big Holtz said think in the second half we had a 12 and 15 play drive that resulted in three points a lot of offensive plays to get only three points on the board" bcolewsjournalcom East Carolina 7 7 0 3 1 7 North Carolina 7 14 3 7 31 irst Quarter i Bryant 7 pass from Pinkney (Hartman kick) 7:07 Highsmith 16 passfrom Yales (Barth 4:44 Second Quarter Boyd 59 pass from Yates (Barth kick) 8:09 Harris 6 run (Hartman kick) 6:22 Houston 1 run (Barth kick) 2:57 Third Quarter Barth 28 9:21 ourth Quarter i Hartman 22 6:21 7 Houston 5 run (Barth kick) 1:58 58000 TEAM STATISTICS ECU UNC irst downs 13 22 Rushes yards 30 55 37 148 Passing s192 285 Comp Ati Int 20 31 0 21 26 0 Return Yards 4 44 Punts Avg 6 488 4 313 umbles Lost 1 1 1 1 Penalties Yards 7 42 6 56 Time of Possession 30:46 29:14 iNblVIDUATSTATiSTICS RUSHING East Carolina Jackson 12 35 Harris 4 15 Williams 4 7 Ruffin 4 6 Pinkney 5 (minus 1) reeney 1 (minus 7) North Carolina Draughn 19 84 Houston 12 41 Boyd 2 16 Yates 2 5Blue2 2 a East Carolina Pinkney 19 30 0 157 Harris 1 1 0 35 North Carolina Yates 19 24 0 227 Blue 1 1 0 24 Draughn 1 1 0 34 East Carolina Taylor 5 46 Wom ack 4 66 Harris 4 45 Bryant 4 27 JWilliams 2 3 Jackson 1 5 North Carolina Highsmith 6r 1 1 3 Little 5 59 Draughn 4 16 Elzy 3 11 Boyd 1 59 Adams 1 23 JWhite 1:4 Rawlings Continued rom Page B1 "It motivated me a lot They were re cruiting me I got letters and calls but they never offered a scholarship They offered a player from New Bern a re ceiver over me" Not th Carolina noticed Highsmith as a junior and invited him to a one day camp On Halloween ofhis senior season at West Craven High the Tar Heels popped the question Highsmith jumped all over the free ride and then he rode into the prep sunset as the most prolific receiver (15 13 yards oji 90 catches 14 for touchdowns) Highsmith arrived as the No 3 receiver in a strong class behind All America flashes Joshua Adams and Jheranie Boyd Coach Butch Davis needed replace ments for first round NL pick Hakeem Nicks third rounder Brandon Tate and fifth rounder Brooks oster Then re turnee Dwight Jones hurt a knee People tend to underestimate 1 ligh smith who weighed only 165 when Carolina got interested 1 now 6 2'Zi 184 pounds Even this summer Highsmith under rated himself as the players gathered for tofitn nirlnrpc 4: They called out uniform nunjber: 88 same as Nicks Eighty eight?" he said nervously Teammates told him he had big shoes to fill "I just had a lot of pressure" High smith said "I think Coach Davis would give me that number" Davis gave Tate's No 87 to Boyd who deftly juggled a long pass from TJ Yates and reeled in the 59 yarder for a touch down know who is going to wear those numbers in the next 25 years" Davis said "but whoever comes in I would ask for No 88 1 would try to make sure that the heir apparent to that" 4 Starling for the first time I lighsmith caught his! irst touchdown pass in the fi 1st quarter a IG yaider lie imniedialit ly drew his first flag for unsportsman like conduct "Coach Davis got on me a little bit" I lighsmith said "I kissed the crowd 1 blew a little kiss at He snagged five more passes for a total of 113 yards the first true fresh man with over 100 receiving yards since Nicks 1 not big and physical" I lighsmith said "but strong for my size 1 think a veteran in a rookie body so when I get my body some extra size going to be scary" No matter the size he vows that the 252 under the eyes will not change A guy from Vanceboro forget Irawlingswsjoumelcom.