South Roundup : South Carolina Gets a Lift From Kickoff Return

Sophomore Sterling Sharpe returned the second-half kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and a school record Saturday as South Carolina rebounded from a string of three straight losses to defeat Duke, 28-7, at Columbia, S.C.

The run electrified the Homecoming crowd and spurred South Carolina’s defense, which overwhelmed the Blue Devils.

Interceptions by Greg Philpot, his fourth and fifth of the season, stopped two Blue Devil drives.

The victory evened the Gamecocks’ record at 3-3.

Duke, which played most of the game without starting tailback Julius Grantham, fell to 2-3.

Clemson 27, Virginia 24--Stacey Driver rushed for 121 yards and Kenny Flowers added 111 more before a crowd of 78,000 at Clemson, S.C., as the Tigers defeated the Cavaliers for the 24th straight time.

The victory improved Clemson’s record to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia fell to 3-2 and 2-1.

Miami 38, Cincinnati 0--At Miami, Vinny Testaverde passed for two touchdowns and scrambled for another, and the Hurricanes (4-1) scored on six of their first nine possessions against the Bearcats (3-4).

Testaverde hit only 6 of 12 passes in the first half for 72 yards with one interception. But he came to life in the second half with touchdown passes of 12 yards to Mike Irvin and 21 yards to Melvin Bratton.

Georgia Tech 24, Western Carolina 17--At Atlanta, freshman Jerry Mays rushed for 206 yards, including touchdown runs of 61 and 28 yards, as the Yellow Jackets (4-1) came from behind to beat the Division I-AA Catamounts.

Western Carolina (3-2-1) depended almost entirely on the passing of Willie Perkins, who completed 23 of 54 for 341 yards, including a 71-yard touchdown play to sophomore Vince Nowell.

Mays eclipsed by 15 yards the previous Georgia Tech freshman rushing of 191 yards set by Robert Lavette against Navy in 1981.

Virginia Tech 40, William & Mary 10--At Blacksburg, Va., Maurice Williams rushed for 165 yards and a touchdown and Eddie Hunter added 159 rushing yards and three touchdowns as Virginia Tech (2-4) amassed a school-record 467 yards rushing.

Williams, who carred 20 times, scored on a two-yard run. Among Hunter’s 18 carries were scoring runs of 1, 17 and 41 yards.

William & Mary (4-2), the nation’s third-ranked Division I-AA team, was limited to minus 22 yards rushing and lost both its starting quarterback, Stan Yagiello, and its leading receiver, Ron Gillam, to concussions.

Yagiello had hit 10 of 17 passes for 106 yards before leaving midway through the second quarter. Gillam, who left the game with 3:46 left in the third quarter, had 7 receptions for 124 yards. North Carolina 34, Wake Forest 14--Kevin Anthony passed for a school-record five touchdowns--three to flanker Earl Winfield--as North Carolina raised its record to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the ACC. The Demon Deacons dropped to 3-3 and 0-2.

Anthony, who completed 23 of 31 attempts for 279 yards, teamed with Winfield on touchdown passes of 11, 26 and 2 yards and with split end Eric Streater on scoring passes of 6 and 34 yards.

Anthony’s five touchdown passes broke a school record set by Chris Kupec in 1974 against Army and tied the ACC mark set in 1968 by Tommy Suggs of South Carolina against Virginia.

Memphis St. 38, Tulane 21--Despite a 100-yard kickoff runback by Tulane freshman flanker Maurice Nelson, the Green Wave was no match for Memphis State in a nonconference game at Memphis, Tenn.

Freshman tailback Terry Douglas scored two touchdowns and senior quarterback Danny Sparkman passed for two more scores to boost Memphis State’s record to 2-2-2 for the season, while Tulane is 0-6.

Sparkman completed 11 passes in 19 attempts for 137 yards.

Southern Mississippi 42, Louisville 12--Andrew Anderson threw two touchdown passes, including a school-record 83-yarder on the first play of the game at Louisville.

Anderson’s 83-yard pass to flanker Andrew Mott set the stage for a romp over the Cardinals, who lost five fumbles and fell to 1-5 while Southern Mississippi improved to 4-2.