Titans’ Dismal 1st Quarter Is Too Much to Overcome

Cal State Fullerton, buried beneath the rubble of a 24-0 deficit against rival Cal State Long Beach, nearly dug itself out Saturday night in Veterans Stadium.

With 18 seconds left in the third quarter, the Titans were seven points away from a tie. Miraculous recovery, you say? Big deal, Titan Coach Gene Murphy says.

Long Beach left with a 30-20 Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. victory in front of 7,205 spectators. Murphy was left to contemplate his team’s sixth loss in seven games, and continue his search for bright spots in a dark and dismal 1986 season.

“If there is a positive, it’s that we came back and played hard in the second half,” Murphy said. “But that doesn’t cut it anymore. Not when you’re 1-6.”

Ron Knight recovered a Fullerton fumble early in the fourth quarter to halt a Titan drive and help preserve the victory for Long Beach (1-0, 2-2). But, for the most part, the outcome of this game was decided long before then.

Fullerton has had some rather tragic first quarters in starting the season at 1-5, but Saturday’s bordered on comedy. From the opening kickoff, this was 15 minutes of material for a Football Follies film festival. When it was over, the Titans had fumbled, stumbled, bobbled and bumbled their way into a 24-0 hole. The 49ers needed only to enjoy the show and take advantage of what was handed--or mishandled--to them.

Long Beach followed the lead of most Fullerton opponents in opting to kick away from Rick Calhoun on the opening kickoff, directing the ball instead to Tyrone Pope. Pope ran to his left to field the kick in the air near the Fullerton 10-yard line, but the ball bounced off his chest and back toward the Titan goal line. By the time he caught up with it, Pope was buried by Long Beach tacklers at the four. Three plays later, Titan punter Jim Sirois was kicking from beneath the goal posts. The snap was good, and Sirois got the kick away. Sirois would not be so lucky on his next two punts. For those, he would need stilts.

Long Beach had taken a 3-0 lead on Eric Weetman’s 38-yard field goal at the 8:56 mark before Sirois had the ball snapped over his head by George Pritchard on successive punt attempts. The first gave Long Beach the ball on the Fullerton 22 and set up Jeff Graham’s six-yard scoring pass to Derek Washington to make the score 10-0 with 5:52 left in the first quarter. The second left the ball at the Titan 27 and lead to Mark Templeton’s seven-yard touchdown run. Now it was 17-0 Long Beach with 3:15 left in a quarter the Titans would like to forget.

Reserve quarterback Rich Sheriff replaced Pritchard as the snapper on Fullerton’s next punt. Sheriff’s accurate snap drew a round of sarcastic applause from a group of Fullerton fans. But after Graham connected with tight end Greg Locy for a 19-yard gain to the Titan 26, those fans turned their attention back to a portable television and the broadcast of the American League Championship Series from Anaheim Stadium. What was taking place on the field was too painful to watch.

Michael Roberts’ six-yard touchdown run and Weetman’s point after extended Long Beach’s lead to 24-0 and the curtain dropped on the Titans’ vaudevillian first quarter.

A 67-yard touchdown pass from Ronnie Barber to John Gibbs with 3:02 left in the half made it 24-7 and helped Fullerton gain a 222-164 advantage in offensive yardage in the first half. But the damage had already been done. The Titans special teams were anything but special.

“We take a lot of pride in one area of the game (in particular) and that’s special teams,” Murphy said. “Tonight, we dropped a kickoff, had two snaps over the punter’s head and had terrible coverage on kickoffs. And we gave up 24 points in the first quarter. You’re not going to win doing that.”

Calhoun finished with 131 yards in 26 carries to exceed the 100-yard mark for the fifth straight game. The Titans outgained Long Beach, 391-349, in total offense and outscored the 49ers, 13-6, in the second half.

But all of that mattered little to Murphy. His team, which many predicted would finish second to Fresno State in the PCAA standings this season, fell to 0-3 in conference play.