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Going counterclockwise in
the Penn State Stanford
game, Lion quarterback John
Andress has plenty of help on
his way to the ground. Matt
Suhey (32) is logically running
away with great haste from
the Cardinals' Duncan Mc-
Coll (77). Penn State's Ron
Hostetler (38) has Stanford's
Mike Cordova pretty much
in hand. Jimmy Cefalo (44)
gets the word from Penn
State football wordmaster,
coach Joe Paterno.
Says interpretation different
Christiansen angry
The Stanford Cardinals were still very much in
the game when Mike Cordova overthrew Bill Kellar
in the end zone on a third and ten play from the Penn
State 14-yard line with some five minutes remaining
in the Lions 15-12 victory on Saturday.
It looked like Stanford was going to at least knot
the score at 15 since Mike Michel, the Cardinal field
goal kicker, had already hit on a 52-yarder earlier in
the game. But there was a matter of a little yellow
flag lying on the bright green turf of Beaver
Stadium.
For the fourth time in the game, Stanford was
called for having an ineligible receiver downfield.
The 15-yard loss and an ensuing sack of Cordova by
Biil Banks and end Ron Crosby for a loss of 15 yards
put the Cardinals well out of field goal range and the
Lions' slim three point margin held up for a victory.
After the game Stanford head coach Jack
Christiansen made it clear that he was unhappy
with the interpretation fo the rule by the of
ficials.
"The interpretation of the rule in the west
and in the east is different," Christiansen said. "I
dcin't know who is right. From the standpoint, I'm
glad this was our last game here."
Questioned further Christiansen said, "You
should have a direct line to the officials and ask
Connors holds off Borg, wins Open
FOREST HILLS, N.Y.
( AP) Jimmy Connors
fought off four set points in a
dramatic third-set tiebreaker
and beat Wimbledon
champion Bjorn Borg of
Sweden 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4
yesterday for his second U.S.
Open Tennis Championship.
The exciting match-started
in bright daylight and
finished in arclights-lasted 3
hours, 10 minutes.
Photo by Ed Palsa
Same old
Stanford head coach Jack Christiansen had advertised all
preseason. This year's Stanford team would not be like other
years. The 1976 team would play aggressively, it would not
make mental mistakes, it would, in Jack's words, "be going
after Penn State with everything we have."
So the Cardinals promptly opened Saturday afternoon with
three fumbles in the first quarter, handed Penn State the
opportunities for 15 points and succumbed just like in the past
years, 15-12, to a now-awake, now-asleep Penn State team.
Photo by Ed Poise
Stanford fumbled the first time it touched the ball as a Scott
Fitzkee semi-blocked punt was turned over and recovered by
the Lions' Joe Lally on the Penn State 34.
On the strength of a great John Andress to Jimmy Cefalo 44-
yard pass play, the Lions moved inside the Stanford 10. Steve
Geise put the final touches on the seven play, 66—yard drive
by banging over from the two and the Lions lead, with Matt
Bahr's missed extra point, 6-0.
"It was the same kind of ballgame as the last two or three
years," Christiansen said. "From the standpoint of breaks,
we put ourselves into a deep hole and couldn't come back."
Stanford shoveled it's second load of dirt when Penn State
kicked off and James Lofton, running adroitly into his own
blocker, dropped the football. Joe Diange recovered on the
Cardinal 37 and four plays later, Matt Bahr connected from 33
yards out to make the hole 9-0.
If by chance you were passing the bottle or in the relief
station when Stanford fumbled the first two times, Cardinal
quarterback Mike Cordova kept the tradition alive by fum
bling the next time Stanford got the ball. Lion linebacker Kurt
Allerman fell on the hot potato at the Stanford 48. So in just
over six minutes, Stanford had already turned the ball over
three times.
To the Lions credit, they once more took advantage of the
error barged down the field with Dave Stutts plowing Car
dinals down in the main. Matt Suhey started a great day by
slamming off the right side for six yards and the TD. The two
point try failed, but after the red feathers had settled, the
scoreboard flashed 15-0 and'it looked like a long day for the
dardinals.
And it was a long day. But not just for the Cardinals,
who kicked and used a great catch by Tony Hill to creep
within three, but for the fans in the stands. The Lions
started changing quarterbacks, the offense broke out the
sleeping bag and yawn, it just wasn't too interesting.
"Our offense did a poor job of handling their stunts," said
Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. "We did not have good
protection for our passer and we didn't throw the ball well at
times."
Photo by Ed Palsm
Stanford's offense finally got it's act together, putting up six
points•before the half on two Mike Michel field goals (52 yards
and 27 yards): The Cardinals sweated a few palms 9:29 into
the second half when wide receiver Tony Hill made a circus
catch beyond the Lion defender Bill Crummy to tighten the
score to 15-12.
Penn State's defense was typically outstanding, stopping
two drives on interceptions and harrassing Cordova into
numerous mistakes and hurry-ups.
"Penn State put pressure on our quarterback," said
Christiansen. "We should be in a position to get the ball bff or
pick up the rusher."
Cordova was hassled all afternoon by the Penn State rush,
especially from the Lion defensive mainstay, the linebackers.
Inside right linebacker Kurt Allerman was in on nine tackles
By TOM McNICHOL
Assistant Sports Editor
The little battler from
Belleville, 111., thus erased the
taint of a runnerup image
tacked on him after failure to
live up to a sweep of the
major championships in 1974.
"Jimmy can no longer win
the big one," critics said,
referring to Connors' inability
to win any of the major
crowns in the last two years
while gaining the finals in
nine tournaments in which he
By BRIAN MILLER
Collegian Sports Editor
them."
John Solic is a former NCAA football official who
now resides in State College and observes the of
ficiating at Penn State games for the Tri-State
Intercollegiate Officiating Association. He tried to
clarify the situation Saturday.
"The rule says that any player wearing a number
between 50 and 79 (this is a result of the stand
ardization of numbers by position) is an ineligible
receiver once he is three yards beyond the line of
scrimmage," Solic said.
"On that play in the fourth quarter, when the
halfback , came up on the line, that immediately
made the tight end an ineligible receiver," Solic
said. "If the halfback had set up a yard behind the
line that would have made the tight end eligible. It
was a good call."
Most of the other calls came on screen plays by
the Stanford offensive unit. "That's a tough call,"
Solic said, "because it starts out as a running play."
Solic went on to priase the work of the umpire who
made the calls. "That umpire, Larry Ellis from
Syracuse. is one of the best umpires in NCAA
football," Stolic said.
Stanford's offensive captain, guard Alex
Karakozoff considered a couple of the calls ques
tionable but was considerably less upset about the
situation than Christiansen.
Although Stanford quarterback Mike Cordova
played, including the 1975
Australian, Wimbledon and
American events.
A record crowd of 16,253,
bringing the tournament total
'to a record 250,880, saw the
bitterly fought men's final
reach a climax in the third set
which, after being tied 6-6,
went into a cliff-hanging
lihgering death that included
20 points.
Connors, four times within
The Daily Collegian Monday, September 13, 1976-
bird song
himself. The secondary also had a fine day as Crummy picked
off a pass in the Stanford end zone to end one drive and Neil
Hutton mixed ,up several connections from his left half back
slot. Left end Bill Banks and right end Ron Crosby might have
the staged the main event though, meeting in the Stanford
backfield to dump Cordova late in the fourth quarter with the
Caidinals driving on the Lion 29.
"I wouldn't want to single out anybody on defense. It was a
real good team effort," said Paterno. "Nothing came easy.
We mixed things up well and we didn't miss many assign
ments."
Paterno wasn't even feeling bad about Hill's great catch
over Crummy, probably the second half, all-team highlight,
adding, "that's a superb play by Hill, who is a beautiful
looking athlete."
Beautiful looking didn't fit Penn State's offense. Things
looked great in the beginning, but the air went out of the of
fense in the middle of the first half. Paterno, strangely it
seemed, started switching QBs in the first half and the Lion
offense started sputtering.
"Andress had thrown a couple of bad passes, so I thought I
would put in Fusina," Paterno said. "We wanted to give him a
little game
e xperience."
Fusina's . first half debut consisted of four incomplete
passes. Andress returned before the half closed.
Fusina entered the game again in the fourth quarter, when
Andress' arm tightened up on him. He was sacked and fum
bled, with the Cardinals' Stan Walters dropping on the ball.
"The play was a hook. They got me on a safety blitz," said
Fusina. "Their defensive line really played great. There's not
too many better."
Stanford on the whole played great defense. They bounced
back from a shaky first half, and with the exception of Matt
Suhey, kept the Lions bottled up.
"They're the best defensive line I've ever seen, with the
possible exception of Ohio State," said Penn State right tackle
Brad Benson. "(Duncan) McColl I think he's great."
McColl, a concensus All-American, had one of Stanford's
defensive gems in the third quarter, nailing Andress for a
nine-yard loss at the Cardinal 26, foiling the Lions on a fourth
and one play and a possible game icer.
Matt Suhey was th& offensive show for State, gaining 119
yards on 23 carries, his longest a 22 yard, tackle breaking
romp. The freshman even got some praise from McColl. "He
was tough to bring down," said McColl. "He broke a lot of
tackles."
"I've got a lot to learn," said Suhey. "I made a couple of
mistakes, like getting in theppen field, I froze sometimes."
For the Cardinals, the ice didn't melt soon enough.
over penalty
agreed with his coach that the call is not made as
often in the West, he seemed to have his own theory
on the rash of ineligible receiver calls that plagued
the Stanford offense.
"We run a lot of screens and that kind of play is all
timing," Cordova said. "I guess our timing was a
little off. .
"You can't fault an offensive lineman for hustling
downfield and trying to block comeone," Cordova
added.
. In fact, Cordova looked at the whole situation
rather philosophically. "We didn't have any holding
penalties which is what we were having problems
with," Cordova said. "I guess nena 'ties always kind
of level off anyway."
First downs
Rushes yards
Passing yardage
Return yardage ( fumble
int. and punt return i
Passes
Punts
Fumbles lost
Penalties —yards
Penn State
Stanford
one solid blow of losing the
tie-break, rallied
magnificently to eke it out 11
points to nine.
The huge crowd, which
stayed on well past dinner
time to watch the drama, rose
to its feet for a thunderous
ovation.
The tiebreak, used in
ternationally, is called the
best of-12 playoff. The first
15'0 0 0
33 6 0
thriller
player to win seven points
takes it but he must have a
two point margin.
In this particular tiebreak,
Connors and Borg slashed
away at each other as the
score went to 2-2, 4-4 and one
stage 6-4 in favor of Borg. The
Swede gained this final edge
when Connors hit a strong
approach shot, barrelled to
the net and flubbed the volley.
Penn State
Stanford
22-4-1
9.30.2
3-1
7-45
37-17-2
5-368
4-3
8-90