The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, September 10, 1990, Page 7, Image 7
Huskers defeat Huskies; 60-14 rout earns praise By John Adkisson Staff Reporter The Northern Illinois football team was frozen in 85-degree heat Satur day at Memorial Stadium by a Ne braska defense that held the Huskies to their lowest point total since 1988. After the 60-14 Comhusker rout, Northern Illinois coaches and players could do nothing but praise Nebraska’s defense. “They have one of the top de fenses in the nation,” said Northern 11 linoiscoach Jerry Pettibone. ‘ ‘ It was the finest defensive team we’ve ever played.” Although Nebraska gave up 295 yards to the visiting Huskies, the Huskers put the clamps on the Hus kies’ main threat, quarterback Stacey Robinson. Robinson was held to 58 yards rushing, the second-lowest total of his career. His lowest total was 13 yards in last year’s Nothem Illinois Nebraska game. The senior from Danville, 111., also threw an intercep tion and fumbled once. “Several times in the game Stacey was close to breaking a big one, but the defense just closed in on him,” Pettibone said. Robinson echoed his coach’s comments. “They kind of wore us down,” Robinson said. “They’re definitely a better defensive team than they were last year, just because of their experi ence.” The 14-point output was the low est for the Huskies since they scored 10 points in a win against Southern Illinois two seasons ago. Northern Illinois mounted two scoring drives in the first half to cut the score to 16-11, but could only muster 70 total yards in the second half. “We showed in the first half we could move the ball against them,” Robinson said. “I just wish we could play two halves instead of one.” Pettibone singled out Nebraska players Reggie Cooper (strong safety), Pat Tyranee (inside linebacker) and Mike Croel (outside linebacker) call ing them, “bonafide All-American candidates.” Robinson also said that Nebraska’s team speed caused trouble for him. “It was hard for me to get around the defensive ends and turn the cor ner,’ ’ he said. Depth also became a factor in the game. Nebraska used 96 players in the game. Northern Illinois used 59. “We just don’t have the depth they do,” Pettibone said. “The physi calness of the game certainly took a toll on us.” Northern Illinois fullback Erik Jensen was lost for the year with a knee injury sustained in Saturday’s game, and the Huskies also lost de fensive end Scott Van Bellinger for an extended period. The Nebraska-Northern Illinois series ends with Nebraska also taking last year’s game 48-17. Pettibone said that this game was * ‘not worth it’ ’ for the Huskies. “I’m glad we’re through playing Nebraska,” he said. “I’d just as soon play teams at our own development level.” Pettibone said he also was im pressed with the way the Nebraska offense moved the ball. “I said before the game that their offense looked like it was ready to explode,” Pettibone said. “I guess that’s what happened out there to day.” Despite other players’ efforts, I-back Flowers remains on top By Paul Domeier Senior Reporter Leodis Flowers has to run as fast as he can just to stay ahead of his back ups at 1-back. Last week, Scott Baldwin rushed for 92 yards and the game’s only touchdown with a long run of 53 yards against Baylor. Saturday against Northern Illinois, highly touted freshman Derek Brown scored a one-yard touchdown on his first carry as a Nebraska Comhusker, and later busted a 59-yard touchdown on a pilch to the left side. Brown finished with 72 yards on five at tempts. George Achola also saw his first action at 1-back, rushing twice for 13 yards. Is it getting hot at the top for Row ers? “Oh, yeah, it’s getting hot at the top,” Rowers said. Rowers, though, cooled off any See FLOWERS on 10 ^™ MicnSn^auTmarvbally Nebraskan Nebraska l-back Leodis Flowers eludes Northern Illinois linebacker Steve Henriksen during the first quarter. Flowers rushed for a career-high 124 yards Saturday. Michelle Paulman/Dailv Nebraskan Nebraska volleyball assistant coach Cathy Noth loads a fresh pineapple into her trunk at the Lincoln Municipal Airport. The volleyball team returned Sunday from Hawaii, where it beat No. 1-ranked UCLA, No. 2 Hawaii and No. 11 Ohio State to improve its record to 4-0 this season. Volleyball team tops No. 1 UCLA By Cory Golden Staff Reporter Members of the Nebraska volley ball team scaled the Diamond Head Volcano in Hawaii on Saturday morn ing. It should only take the Comhuskcrs until Tuesday to reach the summit of the NCAA coaches’ poll. In three days work, the third-ranked Huskers dusted three top 20 teams at the 1990 Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Invitational: No. 1 UCLA, host No. 2 Hawaii and No. 11 Ohio State. Then again, this ranking business means nothing to Nebraska, now 4-0. “I’m sure we will be (No. 1),” said Coach Terry Pettit “That’s interest ing for the fans and it promotes the sport, but you can’t cash it in.’’ It’s not whether the Huskers win, lose or what they’re ranked to the 14 year coach; it’s how they play. And Pettit said he was happy with the performance. “They did a nice job,” he said. “We played 10 players and they all did a good job. They’re starting to come together.” Pettit said defense is what helped the Huskers prevail when it came to crunch time. After losing the first game Thurs day, 12-15, Nebraska rallied to top UCLA 16-14 in the second game and 15-13 in the third. The Huskers dropped the fourth 11-15 and were close to losing the fifth and deciding game. Crunch time. “The team just refused to give in,” said Assistant Coach John Cook. “They showed they were tremendously competitive and had a lot of guts.” At 9-14, backs to the wall, Ne braska turned up the level of their play, Pettit said. “Bccki (Bolli) made some great digs,” Cook said. “Val (Novak) got the ball to Cris (Hall) and she put it «.vay.” The Huskers, led by Hall’s26kills, won 16-14 in two hours and 48 min utes — the longest match in Nebraska history. In its second match, Nebraska became the first team to sweep Ha waii in six years on its home floor, winning 15-11,16-14 and 15-5. Nebraska’s defense, led by Bolli’s team-high 12 digs, held Hawaii to a .137 hitting percentage before a crowd of 2,680 fans. “In the first game they went up 5 0 and we came back to win,” Cook said. “In the second game they had a few passes at game point and couldn t get it. That seemed to really take the wind out of their sails.” Nebraska picked up its thud vic tory of the tournament by handing Ohio State its third loss. ‘‘Ohio State was very emotional, they were playing very hard,” Cook said. “We were a bit flat. But with a deeper bench and more consistency, we just wore them down.” Hall said the tournament champi onship and the number one ranking are, in the end, just one more step in climbing to the top of the national championship mountain. ‘‘I don’t know that anyone on the team thought we could win three straight,” said the outside hitter from Chanutc, Kansas. “I thought we played well but this is just training. ‘‘We have a lot more top 10 and top 20 teams to play. We have 33 more games to get to the big one, the national championship.” Cook agreed. ‘‘We didn’t even get the chance to enjoy winning,” he said. ‘‘We were in a van 10 minutes after the match ended and on the way to the airport. W'e had a tremendous three days. ‘‘But we’re back in the gym to morrow.” NU JV holds Snow to seven points By Chris Hopfensperger Senior Reporter Snow (Utah) Junior College’s of fense knocked Friday afternoon and the Nebraska junior varsity defense answered, holding the Badgers to only seven points in allowing them to gain 300 total yards. Bill Weber, the Comhusker JV coach, said he was happy with the defensive play against Snow’s pass ing offense. “They run a difficult offense to stop,’’ he said. “You’re going to have them move the ball a little bit and get in scoring position. But when the defense rises to the task like we did, we’ll shut them down. “They’re going to be as good as we’re going to play.” Snow nearly tore the door down in the second half, moving into scoring position four times -- twice inside the Huskcrs’ 10-yard line, but big defen sive plays and offensive mistakes kept them from converting. “Wc had opportunities, oifcnsivcly, to score and we didn ’t take advantage of them,” said Snow coach Paul Tidwell, whose team last year aver aged more than 30 points a game on ihcir way to a 6-3-2 record, including a 23-23 tie at Nebraska. “I think we really have to spend more time on discipline. We’ve got to gel our of fense in synch. ‘ Defensively, I thought we played quite well, holding Nebraska to 14 points with their option and their counters. I felt we did a good job defensively. We didn’t really give up any big plays.” Nebraska started the scoring with the game’s lone scoring drive, an 11 play, 44-yard march that ended with a 5-yard pitch play around the right end by I-back Chad Pieters. In the second quarter, a 67-yard interception return by Husker strong safety Brian Pollard, pul the ball on 21-yard line, setting up an 11-yard pass from John McMillcn to light-end Malt Shaw. In the second half a blocked punt gave Snow the ball on the Huskcrs’ 13, but linebacker David Leader’s 13-yard sack on second down pushed the Badgers back to the 22. The at tempted field goal two plays later was wide left. Snow threatened to score on its next possession, driving to Nebraska’s six, but pressure on Snow quarter back Bret Barben forced him to throw the ball away into the end/one where it was intercepted by strong safely Travis Giesbrecht. Barben wasn’t the only quarter back under pressure. Scholarship player Matt Jones, a passing quarterback in high school, was badgered by Snow’s defense and an unfamiliar offense. Both put a lot of pressure on the quarterback from Michigan City, Ind. Weber said. “With our option game, 1 was expecting some execution problems, but he generally did pretty good,” Weber said. Nebraska’s junior varsity is tradi tionally composed of freshmen, but the high number of players being redshirted this year forced Weber into supporting his team with a number of upperclassmen who seldom see var sity action. “It gets a little tiring playing with the scout team all the time without a chance to contribute,’’ Weber said. “I would hope the kids are excited to play football. A couple of them even thanked me for having them down. That’s a good attitude.’’