HALL OF FAME BOWL : Slack Lifts Auburn Past Ohio State

Ohio State’s Zack Dumas gave Auburn a wake-up call Monday. The riled Tigers answered with Reggie Slack and a suffocating defense that punished the Buckeyes the rest of the day.

Slack shrugged off a slow start to pass for three touchdowns and run for a fourth, and Auburn’s stingy defense held the Big Ten’s top offense to 81 yards in the second half for a 31-14 victory in the Hall of Fame Bowl.

Slack, the Auburn quarterback, was intercepted twice in the first half, but he completed his last 12 passes--including an 11-yard touchdown to Greg Taylor just before halftime--and a four-yarder to Taylor five minutes into the third quarter that gave the Tigers a 17-14 lead.

Slack put away the game with two fourth-quarter touchdowns--one on his five-yard run that capped a 16-play, 80-yard drive, and the other on a three-yard pass to Herbert Casey.

The 28-point surge followed a vicious hit by Dumas on Auburn running back Stacy Danley early in the second quarter. Dumas, the Ohio State safety, celebrated with teammates while Danley, the intended receiver on an incomplete pass, remained down.

“That changed the complexion of the game,” said Auburn Coach Pat Dye, who urged Danley to get up and run off the field after learning he only had the wind knocked out of him.

“I told him, ‘If there’s any way you can walk off this field--or better yet, run off--you should do it,’ ” Dye said. “I told him don’t you dare let those Ohio State people think they’re tougher than you are.”

Danley returned and finished with 85 yards in 20 carries. Slack had 16 completions in 22 attempts for 141 yards and was voted the game’s most valuable player.

“We started the game in sort of a daze,” said Taylor, who had four catches for 33 yards. “The minute Stacy got hit, it pumped us up . . . They were wearing out in the second half and we took advantage.”

“We were flat in the first half,” Slack said. “I think everybody realized that if we didn’t start to play, then it was going to be a long day for all of us.”

The victory was the sixth in a row for Auburn (10-2), which won 10 games for the third time in four seasons. Ohio State, which won six of its last seven regular-season games, finished 8-4.

Slack completed his last three passes in the first half and all nine of his attempts for 67 yards in the second half. Auburn converted twice on third down and once on fourth during the 80-yard drive he capped with his touchdown run on third-and-four.

The drive took more than eight minutes and gave Auburn a 24-14 lead with 9:22 remaining. Danley set up Casey’s touchdown reception with a 17-yard run after Ohio State failed to pick up a first down on a fake punt play.

“Reggie Slack was the difference offensively,” Ohio State Coach John Cooper said. “Time after time he got away from the rush to make big plays. “The drive that put them up by 10 points was a big factor. “After that we had to come out and throw more, and they knew we would be throwing.”

The loss was Ohio State’s worst in a postseason game since the 1978 Sugar Bowl, when Alabama beat the Buckeyes, 35-6.

Carlos Snow scored on a one-yard run and Greg Frey threw a nine-yard scoring pass to Brian Stablein to help Ohio State take a 14-3 lead before Auburn’s defense stiffened.

Ohio State threatened once in the second half, but a drive that reached the Auburn 15 stalled when Quentin Riggins intercepted a Frey pass.

“They killed us early, but we started rotating a lot of people,” Riggins said. “Fresh people will always take it out on your opponent.”