Big Eight Roundup : Texas Barely Beats Missouri, 27-25

Bret Stafford engineered three first-half scoring drives, and Texas weathered a 22-point second-half rally for a hard-fought 27-25 victory over Missouri Saturday at Columbia, Mo.

The Longhorns (1-1) led, 24-3, at halftime and seemed on their way to an easy victory. But sophomore quarterback Ronnie Cameron scored on runs of 10 and 68 yards and threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Junebug Johnson as the Tigers (1-1) outscored the visitors from the Southwest Conference, 22-3, in the second half.

Stafford, who completed 17 of 24 passes for 248 yards, led long touchdown drives on Texas’ first two possessions. Tim McCray caught a 2-yard scoring pass to cap an 82-yard march, then Darron Norris’ 1-yard plunge finished a 13-play, 89-yard drive.

Texas’ Jeff Ward kicked field goals of 49 yards in the first half and 39 in the second, pushing his career total to 50 and breaking the school record of 49 set by Russell Erxleben in 1975-78.

Houston 28, Oklahoma St. 12--At Stillwater, Okla., backup quarterback Mark Davis threw two touchdown passes, and Sloan Hood scored twice on one-yard runs to lead the Cougars over the Cowboys.

Davis replaced starter Gerald Landry, who suffered a hip pointer, and connected with Dwayne LeBlanc on a 23-yard touchdown pass play, and hit Paul Smith for a 49-yard touchdown to give the Cougars a 21-3 halftime lead.

Hood was the game’s leading rusher with 111 yards in 18 carries.

Houston is 1-1, and Oklahoma State is 1-2.

Iowa St. 64, Indiana St. 9--Alex Espinoza passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more at Ames, Iowa, to trigger the Cyclones’ biggest offensive explosion in six years.

Indiana State (2-1) took a 3-0 lead on Matt Schroeder’s 39-yard field goal with less than five minutes elapsed, but Iowa State (1-1) scored on eight of its next nine possessions and got another touchdown from its defense.

The Cyclones led, 29-3, at halftime, then hit the Division I-AA Sycamores with a four-touchdown barrage in the first 9:20 of the third quarter. The 64 points were the most in the four-year tenure of Coach Jim Criner and the best output for an Iowa State team since a 69-0 victory over Colorado State in 1980.

Espinoza moved into second-place on Iowa State’s career passing yardage list by hitting 14 of 23 attempts for 210 yards. Espinoza’s 3,609 career passing yards moves him ahead of Tim Van Galder, and in striking distance of David Archer’s total of 4,104 yards.

Kansas 16, Utah St. 13--Milt Garner returned a punt 58 yards for a touchdown at Lawrence, Kan., as the Jayhawks won for the first time under Coach Bob Valesente and evened their record at 1-1.

Garner had returned a punt 74 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, but it was called back because of a holding penalty.

Dean Garner had kicked two second-half field goals of 42 and 45 yards for a 13-10 lead for Utah State (0-3).