East Roundup : 200th Win for Paterno Is a 45-19 Cakewalk

Penn State began defense of its national championship by providing Coach Joe Paterno with his 200th career victory, a 45-19 rout of Bowling Green Saturday at University Park, Pa., before a sellout crowd of 84,574.

Michael Timpson returned a punt 63 yards for one Penn State touchdown and Blair Thomas scored another on a 67-yard screen-pass play as Paterno became the ninth major-college coach to reach 200.

Paterno, now in his 22nd season at Penn State, has a record of 200-44-2.

“I’m thinking of 201. Alabama is a fine football team,” Paterno said, looking ahead to next Saturday’s game against the Crimson Tide, who opened the season Saturday with a 38-6 romp over Southern Mississippi.

As for No. 200, “It’s a great honor for our program,” Paterno said. “It’s nice. It’s good. It’s fine. Especially, I am proud to have worked with hundreds of wonderful people who have enriched my life.”

Penn State fell behind, 7-3, in the first quarter against Bowling Green, but rallied for four touchdowns in the second to take a 31-16 lead at halftime.

Penn State, ranked 11th by Associated Press, extended the nation’s longest major-college winning streak to 13 games and its regular-season winning string to 23.

Bowling Green’s Rich Dackin completed 23 of 40 passes for 288 yards and 2 touchdowns for the Mid-American Conference team.

Thomas, a junior, led Penn State in rushing with 94 yards in 18 carries. Quarterback Matt Knizer, a senior starting his first game, completed 9 of 13 passes for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns.

West Virginia 23, Ohio U. 3--Freshman quarterback Major Harris threw a 40-yard touchdown pass for his first collegiate completion, and West Virginia’s defense shut down Ohio University after an early field goal as the Mountaineers won at Morgantown, W.Va.

Coach Don Nehlen is now perfect in eight opening games at West Virginia.

Harris, a redshirt last year, completed only three of nine passes, but Harvey Smith pulled in a wobbly toss in the end zone with 11:42 left in the first half to give West Virginia a 7-3 lead.

In the third quarter, a 27-yard field goal by Charlie Baumann and a 9-yard touchdown run by Anthony Brown, a transfer from Pittsburgh, gave West Virginia a 16-3 lead. A 19-yard touchdown run by Craig Taylor in the fourth quarter wrapped up the scoring.

West Virginia faces fourth-ranked Ohio State next Saturday at Columbus, Ohio.

“There’s no question we have to get better before next week,” Nehlen said. “We just fumbled way too often. If we do that next week, we’ll need two scoreboards to keep track of the score.”

West Virginia fumbled five times, and lost three.

Boston College 38, TCU 20--Mike Power, making his second career start, completed 16 of 31 passes for 379 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Eagles over Texas Christian at Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Power, red-shirted as a freshman and out with a broken left foot after one start last season, completed 8 of 12 passes, including 2 for touchdowns, during a 21-point second quarter for the Eagles.

Syracuse 25, Maryland 11--Tim Vesling kicked four field goals, three in the first half, as the Orangemen won at Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse scored touchdowns on one-yard runs by Robert Drummond and quarterback Don McPherson.

Maryland scored its only touchdown with 28 seconds remaining on a 42-yard pass play from Dan Henning to Vernon Joines. Henning passed to Azizuddin Abdur-Ra’oof for a two-point conversion.

Temple 13, Toledo 12--Bill Wright kicked two field goals and the deciding extra point and Todd McNair ran one yard for a touchdown with 2 1/2 minutes to play in leading Temple at Toledo, Ohio.

McNair, a junior tailback who is replacing Heisman Trophy runner-up Paul Palmer, rushed for 101 yards in 23 carries.

Rutgers 10, Cincinnati 7--Tailback Henry Henderson rushed for 199 yards and quarterback Scott Erney threw for 125 yards and one touchdown as Rutgers won at Cincinnati.

Cincinnati did not cross the 50-yard line during the second half.