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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1988)
Clockwise from top left - Cartier Walker turns upfield on his way to a touchdown after recovering a blocked UNLV punt. Nebraska's Terry Rodgers is corralled by UNLV defenders. Nebraska's Ken Clark uses a stiff arm to escape a potential tackier (no penalty was called.) UNLV's Bernard Jackson looks for a way out as several Nebraska players close in on him. UNLV's Charles Price and a teammate argue an intentional grounding calL Price uses Clark's stiff arm technique to avoid being sacked by Nebraska's Lawrence Pete. Rebels’ risky offense tries to attack Nebraska Nick Hodge Staff Reporter When the University of Nevada Las Vegas attempted an onsidc-kick against Nebraska Saturday on the game’s opening kick off, the Rebels showed the Cornhuskers they had come to play. UNLV coach Wayne Nunnely said his team went with the strategy be cause they weren’t going to concede the contest to the Huskers, who posted a 48-6 victory against the Rebels Saturday at Memorial Stadium. “We wanted to be on the attack,” Nunnely said. “We wanted Nebraska to know we came here to play a foot ball game. We weren’t going to come out and be passive, kick the ball to them and let them return it down our throats.” .Nunnely said he knew UNLV had a chance to score if they would have recovered the onsidc-kick. But rather than falling in the hands of one of the UNLV defenders, Ne braska offensive lineman Bill Bobbora recovered the loose ball at the Rebel 48-yard line. **We were going to try to get the ball—gel the ball on offense. Nun • nely said. “We knew if we got the ball it would be on their side of the field. We have an excellent field goal kicker. We were just going to move the ball close enough. We knew we would get three points out of the deal early.” UNLV’s defense forced the Husk ers to punt on their first two posses sions. The Rebels played Nebraska to a scoreless standstill until Huskcr running back Ken Clark scored a louchdown with 2:06 remaining in the 1 st quarter. Early in the 2nd quarter, Nebraska’s defense stopped UNLV and forced them to punt from its 42 yard line. Husker outside linebacker Mike Crocl blocked the kick and comcrback Cartier Walker picked up the loose ball and ran 34 yards for a louchdown to give the Huskers a 14 0 lead. Nunnely said the blocked punt was critical. “That was probably the biggest play of the game, in my opinion,’’ he said. “That gave them a quick six points and that hurt us. That gave them the momentum back. At that lime, I think there was a lull for Nebraska.” UNLV quarterback Charles Price said the Rebels had a good attitude about Saturday’s game. “We didn’t have anything to lose, so why not go for the gusto,” Price said. ‘Try to win the big one. We could have put UNLV on the map.” Price said the Huskers' defense played well. “Nebraska has a great defense, especially their defensive ends (out side linebackers),” Price said. “I have to give a compliment to Broderick Thomas. He's a good finesse player with a lot of speed on the outside.” Price said the Rebels' perform ance against Nebraska Should give them confidence heading into next week’s game with Big West Confer ence rival Pacific. “This is going to be a big momen tum booster for us,” Price said. “We came here to Nebraska, on their field and fought all the way until the last I_____ second ticked off the clock.” Nunnely said he was pleased with his teams’ effort ‘Tm very, very proud of the way our kids fought the entire game,” Nunnely said. We made our snare of mistakes and gave them some oppor tunities to score some big ones. We could have done a little better job of making some of the tackles they broke. “I was proud of the way our kids fought. We stopped them on fourth and short sometimes. We slopped them when we needed to at times.” Photos by Doug Carroll, Eric Gregory and Dave Fahlesen
