Sheppard Makes Point, and 49ers Win by One

Coach Mike Sheppard finally has some tangible evidence to show the improvement in Cal State Long Beach football.

It came Saturday in the form of a cliff-hanging, 14-13 victory over Western Michigan, squaring the 49ers’ record at 1-1.

“We won, which gives us a better start than either of the last two years,” said Sheppard, in his third season at Long Beach.

Sheppard started his first season 0-5, and the 49ers were 0-2 last season before winning.

“It’s good to beat a team like Western Michigan, which can play teams like Michigan State tough,” Sheppard said.

The Broncos lost to the Spartans, 7-3, last season, and have a return engagement at East Lansing, Mich., next Saturday, while the 49ers play UCLA at the Rose Bowl.

Long Beach’s winning touchdown came when Ricco Wilson scored on a one-yard run at 7:09 of the final period. Eric Weetman’s extra point gave the 49ers a 14-7 lead.

Western Michigan’s Chris Conklin threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Paul Sorce with 37 seconds left, but Conklin was pressured by the 49ers and threw incomplete trying to pull out the victory with a two-point conversion.

The Broncos (0-3) opened the scoring on Joe Glenn’s one-yard touchdown run with 1:21 left in the first period. Dave Creek added the extra point.

The 49ers tied the score when Jeff Graham passed 24 yards to Michael Roberts with 5:48 left in the half and Weetman kicked the conversion.

“We felt we could have a balanced attack against them and we did,” Sheppard said. “The rushing game opened up the passing.

“We felt we should have gotten into the end zone a few more times, but we just made mistakes at key times when we got in close.”

Western Michigan’s Chris Wagner stopped a third-quarter drive by the 49ers when he intercepted Graham’s pass in the Broncos’ end zone.

Graham completed 23 of 40 passes for 268 yards, hitting Greg Locy 7 times for 121 yards and Roberts 6 times for 61 yards. Roberts added 54 yards rushing, and Mark Templeton had 56.

Conklin was 12 of 22 for 114 yards, and became Western Michigan’s career leader in pass completions with 279, surpassing the 276 posted in 1983-84 by Steve Hoffman.

Long Beach linebacker Mike Dorff had 12 tackles, while defensive back Roger Beavers had 9 tackles and 3 pass breakups.

Linebacker Tyrice Grice had 12 tackles for Western Michigan.