Long Beach Again Is in Over Its Head; Oregon Rolls, 52-10

Cal State Long Beach played about as well Saturday as a Big West Conference team with a losing record can against a Pacific 10 opponent. The 49ers, though, were still crushed by Oregon, 52-10.

Last season, the 49ers lost here, 49-0.

“We played much better than a year ago,” Long Beach Coach Larry Reisbig said. “We made it much more competitive, and in the first half I thought we had a chance. . . . then we just got overwhelmed.”

What overwhelmed the 49ers, who dropped to 3-6 before 31,381 at Autzen Stadium, was Oregon runners Derek Loville and Latin Berry.

By halftime, Loville had rushed for 95 yards and scored two touchdowns, and Berry had 80 of his eventual game-high 117 yards. When Loville caught a 32-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Bill Musgrave to break a 3-3 tie with 28 seconds left in the first quarter, he became Oregon’s all-time scoring leader. He passed Bobby Moore (Ahmad Rashad), who had held the record with 226 points.

Oregon ran at will, but Long Beach couldn’t run at all. The 49ers had 11 yards on the ground in the first half and finished with 46 to the Ducks’ 302.

Long Beach’s offense consisted almost entirely of passes from quarterback Paul Oates to Sean Foster. Foster caught eight of the 15 passes Oates completed for 119 yards. Six of his catches came in the first half.

The first time the 49ers got the ball, Oates drove them 52 yards to set up Kenneth Allen’s 38-yard field goal to tie the score, 3-3.

After Loville’s touchdown catch, the 49ers gambled on fourth and one on Oregon’s 49-yard line, but Oates was stopped.

“I looked up to find a gap, and you can’t do that in Division I football,” Oates said. “I should have just put my head down.”

Two possessions later the Ducks drove 43 yards in nine plays for a 17-3 lead. Loville carried seven times in the drive.

Late in the half, Oregon put together a 59-yard drive, this one dominated by by Berry, who scored on a one-yard run to make the halftime score, 24-3.

Loville didn’t play in the second half because of a thigh bruise, but the Ducks, 5-3 overall, didn’t miss him.

Taking advantage of poor Long Beach punting, they scored three touchdowns in the third quarter on drives of 48, 43 and 45 yards.

The 49ers’ only touchdown came in the fourth quarter on a 17-yard run by Reggie Webb.

“I wouldn’t feel too bad about playing a team like Oregon six weeks ago when I had some players,” Reisbig said, alluding to the many injuries his team has suffered this season. “We are so thin.”

And it was a familiar story Saturday. The 49ers got blown out again by a superior team, and they lost yet another player when defensive back Leon Patterson broke his leg in the first half.