South Roundup : Florida State Gets Away With a 20-10 Victory

With all the problems 11th-ranked Florida State created for itself against North Carolina, Coach Bobby Bowden said his Seminoles were fortunate to leave Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday with a 20-10 victory.

Florida State’s mistakes gave the Tar Heels numerous opportunities to pull off the upset, but it was North Carolina’s own problems that eventually set up Derek Schmidt’s 51-yard field goal and Martin Mayhew’s 62-yard interception return, the margin of victory for the Seminoles.

“The biggest thing about this game is the fact that we were lucky to be in the game and that our offense had to stop fumbling the dadgum ball,” Bowden said. “If we had 10 great plays today, eight of them were on defense. Boy, our defense played great.”

It was the third time this season Florida State rallied from a halftime deficit to win. In earlier victories, the Seminoles trailed Memphis State and Kansas at intermission.

“Maybe this team just plays well enough to win,” Bowden said. “I don’t think we were looking ahead, but now I hope we were, just so we can correct those problems.”

North Carolina Coach Dick Crum said his team should have been able to take advantage of Florida State’s errors.

“When you play a team with the capabilities of Florida State and opportunities come by, you’d better get something out of them,” Crum said. “In the second half, they took advantage of some good things that happened to them.”

The Seminoles committed five turnovers in the first half, and the Tar Heels parlayed two of them into scores. The first was Kevin Anthony’s six-yard scoring pass to Earl Winfield and the second was Ken Miller’s school-record 54-yard field goal late in the period.

But North Carolina’s offense was ineffective against the Florida State defense, and its own turnovers gave the Seminoles a chance.

Florida State is 6-1, and North Carolina is 4-3.

Maryland 40, Duke 10--Rick Badanjek’s two-yard touchdown run, his second of the day, snapped a 10-10 tie in the third quarter at College Park, Md. to ignite the Terrapins, who went on to score 30 consecutive points for their 12th straight victory over the Blue Devils.

Maryland Coach Bobby Ross was not pleased when his team, a 23-point favorite, went into halftime leading only 7-3.

“That was the worst first half in my 3 1/2 years here,” he said. “We were booed and we deserved it. I was very upset and I let the team know it. Luckily, we had another half.”

Stan Gelbaugh, who completed 18 of 32 attempts for 314 yards, passed for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

He completed scoring passes of 2, 12 and 29 yards on three consecutive Maryland possessions, with an interception by Al Covington and a fumbled kickoff recovery by Kevin Walker setting up two of the scores.

Maryland, which leads the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 3-0 mark and is 5-2 overall, drove 80 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. It was the 43rd touchdown in 43 games for Badanjek, who also scored on a two-yard run in the first quarter.

The loss dropped Duke to 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the ACC.

Clemson 39, North Carolina State 10--At Clemson, S.C., Kenny Flowers rushed for three touchdowns, and the Tigers recorded eight sacks to rout the Wolfpack.

Flowers scored on runs of four, five and six yards to help Clemson improve to 4-3, 3-1 in the ACC. North Carolina State fell to 1-7 and 1-4.

Stacey Driver sprinted 29 yards on a fake reverse for another Clemson touchdown.

While Driver and Flowers were romping through the Wolfpack defense, Clemson intercepted four passes to shut down North Carolina State, which scored its only touchdown with five minutes left on a 30-yard pass from John Heinle to Haywood Jeffires.

Virginia 20, Wake Forest 18--Don Majkowski passed for one touchdown and ran for another, and tailback Barry Word rushed for 137 yards as the Cavaliers held off the Demon Deacons at Winston-Salem, N.C.

The victory snapped a two-game losing streak for 4-3 Virginia, which is 3-1 in the ACC. Wake Forest, 3-5 and 0-4, lost its fourth straight.

Virginia took advantage of three interceptions off Wake Forest’s third-string quarterback Mike Elkins, who was starting because of injuries to Foy White and Jamie Harris. But Elkins led the Deacons’ comeback bid, completing 19 of 37 pass attempts for 185 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Majkowski hit only 4 of 11 pass attempts for 62 yards, but his first completion was a 30-yard touchdown pass to flanker Quanah Bullock.

S. Carolina 52, E. Carolina 10--South Carolina gained 540 yards in total offense on 28 first downs to blitz East Carolina at Greenville, N.C.

Mike Hold, who completed 9 of 15 passes for 188 yards, hit Sterling Sharpe on a 70-yard touchdown play and rushed 24 yards for another score for the Gamecocks (4-3) in front of a record crowd of 35,047 at Ficklen Stadium.

East Carolina (2-5) managed 263 yards total offense on 16 first downs, but two Pirate quarterbacks managed to complete 10 of 24 passes.

Freshman Greg Welch, who led all rushers with 77 yards in only 4 carries, scored on runs of 15 and 55 yards in the final 6 1/2 minutes for South Carolina.