Big Ten Roundup : Ohio State Gets Some Breaks and a 24-22 Victory Over Indiana

Indiana, looking for its first win over Ohio State since 1951, had to use a freshman kicker Saturday because its regular kicker, Pete Stoyanovich, was attending his mother’s funeral.

As things turned out, the previously unbeaten Hoosiers fell a field goal short, 24-22, in a Big Ten game at Bloomington, Ind. Not since a 0-0 tie in 1959 had these two teams played a game this close.

Stoyanovich’s absence may have been costly as Indiana freshman walk-on Jay Tuttle missed field goal attempts of 39 and 35 yards in the first half.

Ohio State quarterback Jim Karsatos ran for a first-quarter touchdown and passed 21 yards to Cris Carter in the third quarter to lead the Buckeyes, 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten.

Indiana (4-1, 1-1) controlled the ball five minutes longer than Ohio State, but a third-quarter fumble set up Carter’s touchdown reception that proved to be the winning points.

Indiana starting quarterback Brian Dewitz was injured late in the first half. His replacement, Dave Kramme, directed a 95-yard drive that led to a one-yard touchdown run by freshman Anthony Thompson with two minutes to play. Kramme then passed to Dave Lilja for a two-point conversion.

Michigan 27, Michigan St. 6--Quarterback Jim Harbaugh passed for two touchdowns and ran for another, but it was the play of the Wolverines’ steadily improving defense at Ann Arbor, Mich., that drew the most praise from Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler.

“Our defense overall played its best game this season,” Schembechler said. “It hustled, tackled hard and played hard. I had expected this one to go down to the wire.”

Michigan blocked a punt, recovered two of three Spartan fumbles and sacked Michigan State’s Dave Yarema six times for minus-63 yards before 106,141 fans, the second-largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.

Michigan, ranked fourth in the nation, is 5-0, 2-0 in the conference. The Spartans, playing without injured All-American tailback Lorenzo White, are 2-3 and 0-2.

Yarema was held to 13 completions in 22 attempts for 139 yards. Harbaugh completed 14 of 22 passes for 219 yards.

Iowa 17, Wisconsin 6--After his Hawkeyes managed to win at Iowa City, Coach Hayden Fry said his team’s concentration was sidetracked by a report in Friday’s Dallas Morning News that claimed he has agreed to replace Texas Coach Fred Akers at the end of the season.

“We had terrible practices all week, and that University of Texas thing was disruptive,” Fry said. “That’s the first thing the kids asked me about at last night’s meeting.”

Fry coached at Southern Methodist and North Texas State before arriving at Iowa eight years ago.

“I realize you (reporters) have a job to do, but have a little trust and faith in me. This guy (Morning News reporter Harless Wade) has been after me for 25 years.”

Freshman quarterback Tom Poholsky completed 10 of 20 passes for 116 yards to push the Hawkeyes to 5-0, 2-0 in the conference.

Wisconsin (1-5, 0-2) is off to its worst start since 1973.

Illinois 34, Purdue 27--Alternating quarterbacks Shane Lamb and Brian Menkhausen on nearly every play, the Illini won at Champaign, Ill.

Illinois Coach Mike White decided Wednesday to go with the two-quarterback offense. “I did it at California, with Vince Ferragamo and Steve Bartkowski,” he said. “We’ll probably do it again.”

A 53-yard bomb from Lamb to James Gordon set up Ray Wilson’s three-yard touchdown run with 1:05 left to break a 27-27 tie for the Illini (2-3, 1-1). Purdue fell to 1-4 and 0-2 in the game played before 73,720, the 23rd consecutive home sellout for Illinois.

Minnesota 44, Northwestern 23--At Minneapolis, Mel Anderson scored on a 90-yard kickoff return in the closing seconds of the first half to rally the Gophers past Northwestern.

Northwestern (2-3 and 0-2) had taken a 17-0 lead on Brian Nuffer’s 1-yard touchdown dive, John Duvic’s 34-yard field goal and Mike Greenfield’s 26-yard scoring pass to Randy McClellan 12 seconds before halftime.

Darrell Thompson, who rushed 26 times for 176 yards, sandwiched a 37-yard touchdown run and a 13-yard touchdown reception around a 47-yard touchdown reception by Anderson as Minnesota (3-2 and 2-0) won its first homecoming game in five years at the Metrodome.