Hula Bowl : Long Beach’s Gaynor Throws 2 TD Passes in West’s 23-10 Win

Doug Gaynor of Cal State Long Beach said he wasn’t surprised by the lopsidedness of Saturday’s Hula Bowl game.

“Watching our defense in practice, I thought that the East would have a tough time scoring a lot of points,” said Gaynor, who passed for two touchdowns to lead the West to a 23-10 victory over the East.

Jim Dombrowski of Virginia, one of the East’s highly touted offensive linemen, said it was a matter of timing. “The type of offense we used was a finesse type, and it’s hard to get the timing down in such a short amount of practice time,” he said.

East Coach Johnny Majors of Tennessee said the West’s timing and execution were good. “They were just better than us, both ways,” he said.

West Coach Barry Switzer of Oklahoma said his team’s running game made the difference. “They (the East) didn’t try to run the ball,” he said.

The West defense stopped what Majors had predicted would be a strong offensive show for his East team.

The East was held to only 90 yards in the first three quarters, including zero yardage in the third quarter, before coming alive in the fourth.

The East had only eight first downs, compared with 25 for the West.

Gaynor was named the game’s top offensive player, while Rogers Alexander of Penn State was selected as the outstanding defensive player.

Both teams got off to a slow start. The West finally began moving the ball late in the first quarter.

The West scored first, early in the second quarter, on a 42-yard field goal by James Hamrick of Rice. The score was set up by a 54-yard gain on a pass from Mike Norseth of Kansas to Walter Murray of the University of Hawaii.

Hamrick earlier missed a 34-yard field-goal attempt, which was set up by a 49-yard gain on a play from Norseth to Richard Estell of Kansas.

Kevin Wyatt of Arkansas intercepted an East pass by Stan Gelbaugh of Maryland on the first play from scrimmage after Hamrick’s field goal. Three plays later, Dalton Hilliard of LSU scored on a four-yard pass from Gaynor.

The East responded with a 29-yard field goal by Todd Solomon of Navy with 7:39 remaining in the half.

The West then drove 83 yards, scoring on a six-yard pass from Gaynor to Reggie Dupard of Southern Methodist with 1:32 left.

Hamrick left the game just before halftime with a dislocated shoulder suffered on another failed field-goal attempt.

The West moved 59 yards in 14 plays to open second half scoring. Anthony Toney of Texas A&M; capped the drive with a one-yard run.

Tommy Taylor of UCLA recovered a fumble by Ernest Givins of Louisville on the East 48 on the following kickoff, but the West was unable to score.

A 39-yard field-goal attempt by Nuu Faaola of the University of Hawaii fell short on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The East didn’t get its first touchdown until late in the game. Quarterback Jim Everett of Purdue scored on a nine-yard run with 4:53 remaining.