Buckeyes Surprise Hawkeyes : No. 11 Iowa No Match for No. 17 Ohio State

The Big Ten race is back to the “Big Two.”

“I don’t think it’s ever been gone to tell you the truth,” Ohio State Coach Earle Bruce said after his 17th-ranked team defeated No. 11 Iowa, 31-10, Saturday to remain tied with Michigan for first place in the conference.

The Ohio State-Michigan lock on the conference title and Rose Bowl berth has been broken three times in the last five years, but the two traditional powers are 5-0 in conference play this season.

Representatives from 12 bowl games saw surging Ohio State beat Iowa for the 19th time in 20 games.

With their seventh straight victory, the Buckeyes are 7-2 overall. Iowa, the defending Big Ten champion, is 6-2 and 3-2 with three games remaining.

“I knew Tuesday or Wednesday, by the way we were practicing, that we would play well,” Bruce said. “We’ve come a little bit each week and we just keep gaining. I thought this was our best game to date.”

Jim Karsatos passed to Cris Carter for a 72-yard touchdown during a 21-point second-quarter surge that wiped out a 7-0 Iowa lead. The Buckeyes dominated after that.

Karsatos wound up completing 10 of 20 passes for 195 yards, with Carter catching 6 for 121 yards.

Iowa had only 192 total yards, the first time the Hawkeyes have been held to less than 200 yards since losing to Iowa State, 19-7, in the second game of the 1982 season.

“You saw a great team in Ohio State today,” said Iowa Coach Hayden Fry, who has taken the Hawkeyes to the Rose Bowl twice since 1981. “We didn’t play very well today, and they made us look bad much of the time. It was a very frustrating day.

“I thought we could run the ball against them, but we couldn’t and that hurt us.”

Fry said the key to the game may have been a 30-yard loss on a bad snap on a field-goal attempt with Iowa leading, 7-0, at 2:08 in the first quarter.

“The poor snap on the field goal by (Mark) Sindlinger I think was the turning point in the game. It gave them a lot of momentum,” he said.

Carter’s touchdown pulled Ohio State into a 7-7 tie with 12:14 left in the second quarter. He caught the pass at midfield, spun around twice to escape the grasp of cornerback Ken Sims and sped to the end zone.

Ohio State drove 48 yards in only four plays to get its next touchdown, a nine-yard run by fullback George Cooper with 9:50 left before halftime. Less than four minutes later, Ohio State cornerback Greg Rogan plucked Richard Bass’ fumble out of the air and ran 31 yards for a touchdown and a 21-7 Buckeye lead.

Karsatos threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Everett Ross midway through the third quarter after Iowa’s Rob Houghtlin had kicked a 20-yard field goal to narrow the Buckeyes’ lead to 21-10. Matt Frantz kicked a 37-yard field goal for Ohio State in the fourth quarter.

Iowa scored less than three minutes into the game when linebacker Tyrone Taylor tipped a Karsatos pass and the ball went to safety Kerry Burt, who ran it back 17 yards for a touchdown.

But the Hawkeyes, who had been leading the Big Ten in total offense and scoring, were stifled after that and had only 125 total yards in the first three quarters.

Karsatos’ touchdown pass to Carter revived the Buckeyes after they managed only 41 yards in four first-quarter possessions against a 15 m.p.h. wind. The big play also seemed to take the fire out of Iowa, which had Ohio State facing a third and seven from its 28.

Ohio State regained possession on its 48 after Reggie Graves sacked Iowa’s Mark Vlasic on third down, and Gary Kostrubala’s punt traveled only 24 yards. Ohio State then got a break on its first play.

Karsatos completed a pass to tailback Vince Workman, who fumbled into the hands of Iowa cornerback Keaton Smiley. But Smiley couldn’t hang on, and Ohio State center Bob Maggs recovered at Iowa’s 28 for a 20-yard gain. Cooper scored three plays later to make it 14-7.

Freshman Jim Bryant, Ohio State’s leading rusher this season, was replaced by Workman in the second quarter after gaining only 6 yards in 4 carries. Workman finished with 53 yards in 17 tries.