The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, September 26, 1988, Page 7, Image 7
Turmoil ends as Nebraska burns ASU By Nick Hodge Staff Reporter Two weeks of self-inflicted tur moil came to a convincing end during Nebraska’s 47-16 victory against Arizona State Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska senior safety Tim Jackson said the Comhuskers treated their victory against Arizona State as redemption. He said the win made amends for Nebraska’s 41-28 loss to UCLA because it proved that the Huskers are a good football team. “We didn’t think of the game as revenge or anything like that, but we had to go outand do things very well,” Jackson said. “We couldn’t just come outand play an all right game • we had to play to win.” Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said the win was satisfying. He said the Huskers need to improve if they are going to be successful for the remain der of the season. “We did a little better,” Osborne COtH “W/ A ’ ro flAt tknrn «IA» U/a knt.A the potential to be a good football team. We’re a decent team, but to be a great team and to be the kind of team I envision, we have to get better. We should have put that thing away early and we didn’t.” Three Nebraska running backs rushed for more than 100 yards—the first time a Husker hack has hit the century mark this season — as the Huskers cruised to a season-high 441 yards rushing. Junior I-back Ken Clark led the Nebraska ground attack by picking up 122 yards on 22 carries, including the Huskers’ longest run from scrimmage this year - a 31 -yard touchdown run in the second quarter that gave the Husk ers a 16-13 lead. Senior quarterback Steve Taylor rushed for 116 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown. He also completed three of 10 passes for 29 yards and a i touchdown. Sophomore I-back Terry Rodgers rushed for 113 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown. The Huskers took the opening kickoff and drove 49 yards in 13 plays to set up a40-yard field goal by kicker Chris Drennan. On Arizona State’s third play from scrimmage, Jackson got his 1st interception of the game at the Sun Devil 28-yard line. Four plays later, Taylor gave Nebraska a 9-0 lead with 6:45 remaining in the first quar ter when he scrambled through the Sun Devils’ defense cnroute to an 11 yard touchdown run. The extra point by Drennan was no good. Arizona State then struck via the air. After the Sun Devil’s defense held Nebraska to three plays and a punt, Arizona State quarterback Daniel Ford hit split end Chris Garrett on a 54-yard touchdown pass to cut the Huskers’ lead tO 9-7. The Sun Devil defense forced Nebraska to punt on its next posses sion . A 46-yard pass play from Ford to split end Leland Adams set up a 2 yard touchdown run by Arizona State tailback Bruce Perkins. The 2-point conversion attempt failed. The seven play, 59-yard scoring drive gave the Sun Devils’ a 13-9 lead after the 1st quarter. Osborne said he was disappointed in how Nebraska let the Sun Devils back into the game. “Defensively -1 was not real happy with some of the first half,” Osborne said. “There were some situations where we gave up so many big plays.” Nebraska regained the lead with 13:04 left in the half when Clark took a 4th down and two pitch from Taylor and ran 31 yards for a touchdown. The PAT by placekicker Gregg Barrios gave the Huskers a 16-13 lead. After Nebraska forced the Sun Devils to punt, wingback Dana Brin son received the ball attheHusker 25 yard line. He sped through a huge lane in the center of the field for a 75-yard touchdown return Barrios’ PAT gave Nebraska a 23-13 lead. Arizona State fought back by put ting together a 15-play, 76-yard drive that led to a 22-yard field goal by placekicker Alan Zendejas that made the score 23-16 with 4:13 remaining in the first half. Nebraska came right back with an drive of its own. Taylor hit split end Morgan Gregory with a 9-yard scor ing strike that gave the Huskers a 30 16 halftime advantage. Both teams failed to score in a turnover-plagued 3rd quarter. Ari zona State had two scoring threats halted by turnovers. On the second play from scrim mage in the second half, Ford fumbled after a 40-yard scramble and Nebraska strong safety Reggie Coo per recovered at the Huskers’ 40-yard line. Six plays later, a pass from Taylor to tight end Todd Millikan was inter cepted in the end zone by Sun Devil free safety Nathan La Duke. Jackson then ended another An zona State threat by intercepting his second pass of the game. He returned it 55 yards to the Sun Devil 32-yard line. Nebraska took the ball to the Sun Devils’ 1-yard line, but was stopped on a fourth down and goal attempt. On Arizona State’s first play from its own 1-yard line, outside linebacker Jon Marco tackled Perkins for a safety to make the score 32-16. < After Arizona State’s free kick, Rodgers’ 3-yard touchdown dive cappeda67-yard,9-playdrive.The2 point PAT by Rodgers upped the lead to 40-16. Redshirt freshman quarter*' back Mickey Joseph tallied the final score on a 6-yard touchdown run. Barrios’ PAT made the final score 47 16. Butch 1reland/D»iIy Nebraskan Nebraska outside linebacker Mike Croel throws Arizona State Suarterback Daniel Ford for a loss during the Cornhuskers’ 7-16 win Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. The Husker defense held Ford to three completed passes for 87 yards in the 2nd half. Stahr, Endicott lead NU to ‘tough’ tournament title By Kyle Schurman Staff Reporter After winning two-consecutive volleyball tournaments at the NU Coliseum, one might suggest Ne braska should make a habit of staging the invitationals in Lincoln. Nebraska, which won all three of its matches in straight sets during the FirsTier Invitational earlier this sea son, ran its record to 6-0 in home tournaments and 11-2 cverall by de feating Wyoming, Kansas State and Indiana during the Gillette Dairy/ Prairie Maid Invitational this week end at the Coliseum. The Huskers beat Wyoming 15 11, i5-!2, 15-6 Friday night and Kansas State 15-10,15-10,15-6 Sat urday morning to set up a champion ship match against Indiana. The Hoosiersbeat Kansas State 15-11,15 9,15-13 Friday and Wyoming 15-13, 6-15, 15-11, 16-14 Saturday. Wyo ming defeated Kansas State 15-9,13 15, 15-6, 15-9 Saturday evening to take third place. Nebraska won the tournament title by defeating Indiana 16-14,15-0,13-15,16-14, after fight ing off game points in the first and fourth games. Nebraska’s Virginia Stahr, who had a tournament-high hitting per centage of .460, and Lori Endicott, who had 167 set assists to lead the tournament, were named to the ail tournament team. Stahr was named the tournament’s most valuable player. Husker coach Terry Pettit said .both players played well. “I thought Virginia had a great match,” Pettit said. “This is begin ning to sound like a broken record, but she hasn’t had a bad match all year. Endicott hustled all over the place.” Pettit said Nebraska expected to do well in the tournament. “When we’re on our own court, we expect to perform well,” he said. See VOLLEYBALLonTo Butch (reland/Da.Iy Mebrartan Nebraska’s Sue Hesch, left, and Carla Baker, right, attempt to block a Wyoming spike attempt Friday night during action the the Gillette Dairy/Prairie Maid Invitational. The Huskers defeated Wyoming, Indiana and Kansas State to capture the team title. Osborne puzzled about Huskersy slow start , By Nick Hodge Suff Reporter_ Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said Sunday that the Comhuskers slow starts this season are hard to explain Osborne said he doesn’t understand his team’s difficulty getting untracked. “We have good athletes,’’ Osborne said. “But it’s puzzling why we don’t start out faster. We always seem to finish well, but ideally you’d like to do both.” In the Huskers’ opening game against Texas A&M in the Kickoff Classic, Nebraska fell behind 7-0 during the 1 st quarter and trailed 7 3 at halftime. The Huskers came back to score 20 second-half points and defeat the Aggies 23-14. Nebraska did outscore Utah State 14-0 in the 1st quarter in its 63-13 win. But, against UCLA, the Huskers fell behind 28-0 in the first quarter in what Osborne said was a “nightmare.” Osborne said Nebraska plaved much better in the second half in their 41 -28 loss to the Bruins. Saturday against Arizona State, the Huskers scored on their first two possessions and led 9 0 with 6:43 remaining in the first quarter. Following two long passes, the Sun Devils led 13-9 at the end of the 1st quarter. Nebraska went on to defeat Arizona State 47-16, limiting the Sun Devils to just 103 yards of total offense in the second half. The Huskers need to come out of the locker room ready to play hard for four quarters, Osborne said. y “W* hd&Tft) HdVt? frtbrt thteifgfty WOte' games,” he said. “I’m not saying that we’re totally lackadaisical, but we need to play harder earlier.” Osborne said the number of big plays die Blackshirts have given up in the last two games concerns him. “The number of big plays on defense are not characteristic of our defense,” he said. “Take away the big plays and we’ve played real good defense. You can’t just erase them. They all count.” In the “nightmare” first quarter against UCLA, the Bruins had three scoring plays of more than 50 yards. Arizona State had three plays exceeding 40 yards. Osborne said he can’t explain why these big surprising,” he said. Osborne said he was pleased with Ne braska’s turnover ratio against the Sun Devils. The Huskers only had one turnover, while Arizona State had three. Osborne said the Nebraska offense has played well, but also needs to improve. “The offense has done a lot of good things,” he said. “But we still need to smooth things out a little. We missed some key blocks and some key assignments.” Osborne said the Huskers’ offensive line performed well Saturday. “Overall, the offensive line played well,” he said. “(Todd) Millikan blocked well and so did (Doug) Glaser. He didn’t have any spectacular our offense. He s a very good player.