Pacific 10 Roundup : Washington Spoils Akers’ Debut at Purdue, 28-10

Chris Chandler overcame a shaky start and passed for three touchdowns, including two to Brian Slater, to lead 12th-ranked Washington to a 28-10 victory over Purdue before a crowd of 70,492 at Seattle Saturday, spoiling Fred Akers’ debut as the Boilermakers’ coach.

Akers, fired by Texas after last season despite compiling an 86-31-2 record and taking the Longhorns to 9 bowl games in 10 seasons, watched in frustration as the Purdue offense failed to produce a touchdown until the last two seconds of the game.

Chandler, a fifth-year senior, completed only 2 of his first 14 passes but finished with 200 yards on 13 completions in 31 attempts with 1 interception. Chandler threw scoring passes of 41 and 30 yards to Slater and 16 yards to Darryl Franklin.

“I’m not too thrilled,” said Coach Don James, whose Huskies improved to 2-0. “But it’s a win. They came out well prepared, and we were not passing or running very well. If it hadn’t been for the big plays on defense we would have been in trouble.”

Akers said: “We had far too many turnovers (four interceptions and a fumble) to stay with them.”

David Toy scored the Huskies’ last touchdown in the final quarter when he grabbed a Darren Myles fumble in the air and returned it 26 yards.

The Huskies, who opened with a 31-21 Pacific 10 victory over Stanford last week, intercepted four passes by Purdue quarterback Doug Downing in the first half while taking a 14-3 lead.

Two of the interceptions were by Washington free safety Darryl Hall, who left the game with a shoulder separation after returning the second interception 32 yards on the final play of the first half.

The Huskies’ Brandy Brownlee, a transfer from Southern Methodist, missed field goals of 47, 47 and 42 yards but had a 61-yard punt in the fourth quarter and a 49-yard punt that rolled dead on the Purdue one-yard line.

San Jose St. 27, California 25--San Jose State’s Sergio Olivarez kicked a 20-yard field goal with one second remaining, after Mike Perez completed a 36-yard pass to Johnny Johnson, and the Spartans stretched their winning streak to 11 games with a victory at Berkeley.

Perez, the individual total offense leader in college football last season, completed 29 of 44 passes for 378 yards. His final completion stopped the clock with six seconds left in the game.

Troy Taylor, Cal’s quarterback, threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Darryl Ingram with 27 seconds remaining to cut San Jose’s lead to 24-23, then sent the Bears ahead, 25-24, with a two-point conversion pass to fullback Todd Powers. Cal drew a damaging unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for overdoing its on-field celebration after the go-ahead conversion and had to kick off from its 20.

San Jose is now 2-0, Cal 1-1. The Spartans’ winning streak began when they beat Cal in their third game last season.

Oregon 10, Colorado 7--Red-shirt freshman quarterback Bill Musgrave completed an 8-yard touchdown pass to split end Terry Obee, and Kirk Dennis kicked a decisive 32-yard field goal early in the final quarter as Oregon upset Colorado at Boulder, Colo.

Colorado repeatedly drove the ball into Oregon territory, but the Buffaloes were thwarted by three missed field goals and five turnovers.

Musgrave, who completed 16 of 24 passes for 175 yards, turned in a poised performance in his first collegiate appearance as he completed clutch third-down passes on both of Oregon’s scoring drives.

Arizona St. 21, Illinois 7--Quarterback Daniel Ford threw two touchdown passes in the third quarter at Champaign, Ill., as 15th-ranked Arizona State pulled out a victory over Illnois.

Ford threw seven yards to Gary Knudson to tie the game, then passed 13 yards to Aaron Cox for another touchdown to put Arizona State ahead to stay.

ASU tailback Darryl Harris scored on an eight-yard run in the fourth quarter, after Ford set up the score by combining with Cox on a 69-yard completion.

Illinois (0-2) took a 7-0 lead early in the third quarter as Ken Thomas twisted and spun through a crowd of Sun Devil tacklers and raced 57 yards down the sideline.

Iowa 15, Arizona 14--Iowa fullback Richard Bass scored the go-ahead touchdown from the two in the fourth quarter as the Hawkeyes beat Arizona at Tucson.

Before Bass’ touchdown, Iowa (1-1) was held to three field goals by Rob Houghtlin--from 27, 21 and 19 yards.

Iowa Coach Hayden Fry replaced junior Tom Poholsky with Chuck Hartlieb at quarterback late in the third quarter, and the senior took the Hawkeyes on a 74-yard drive with Bass scoring. Bass failed on a two-point conversion try.

Arizona took a 14-9 in the third quarter on a three-yard run by quarterback Bobby Watters, a transfer from Southern Methodist.

Arizona had a chance to win it, but Gary Coston was short on a 46-yard field goal try with 4:58 remaining in the game.

Georgia 41, Oregon State 7--Georgia tailback Lars Tate scored four touchdowns at Athens, Ga., as the 20th-ranked Bulldogs overpowered Oregon State in the Beavers’ season opener.

Tate rushed for 132 yards in 22 carries as the Bulldogs chalked up 518 yards, 382 on the ground.

Georgia (2-0), mixing up its passing and running attack, moved to a 28-7 halftime lead as Tate scored on runs of 26 and 1 yards in the first quarter and added a 3-yard touchdown burst in the second quarter.