EAST ROUNDUP : Kicker Leads Texas Past Penn State, 17-13

Michael Pollack’s experience as a kicker for Texas was limited to two kickoffs in two seasons.

But Saturday against Penn State, Pollack stepped to the forefront as the Longhorns’ top kicker with field goals from 30, 29 and 20 yards as Texas defeated No. 21 Penn State, 17-13, at State College, Pa.

Texas was behind, 7-6, when Adrian Walker returned the second-half kickoff 88 yards to set up the Longhorns’ go-ahead score. Walker took ball at the six, ran straight up the field to the Penn State 45, veered right and was bumped out of bounds by Willie Thomas at the six.

Chris Samuels ran the ball in on first down, and the Longhorns completed a two-point conversion pass to go ahead 14-7.

Texas (1-0), attempting to rebound from consecutive losing seasons for the first time in 50 years, increased the lead to 17-7 with 2:40 left in the third on Pollak’s 20-yard field goal.

Penn State twice threatened in the late minutes. The Nittany Lions drove from their 20 to the Texas 14, but Henry Adkins missed a 31-yard field-goal attempt.

Penn State drove to the Longhorns’ 27 in the final minutes, but quarterback Tony Sacca’s pass fell incomplete in the end zone on the last play of the game.

Texas quarterback Peter Gardere completed 14 of 28 passes for 210 yards.

Penn State’s Sacca completed 13 of 31 for 244 yards and had one interception.

No. 17 Pittsburgh 29, Boston College 6--The Panthers intercepted a school-record-tying six passes at Pittsburgh.

Louis Riddick had two interceptions and Doug Hetzler had one that he returned 15 yards for a touchdown as the Panthers (2-0) tied the record they set in a 1977 victory over Boston College (0-1).

Pitt running back Curvin Richards gained 117 yards and scored a touchdown and quarterback Alex Van Pelt completed 18 of 26 passes for 181 yards.

Maryland 14, No. 25 West Virginia 10--The Terrapins (2-0) won at Morgantown, W.Va., on Scott Zolak’s 59-yard touchdown pass play to Gene Thomas with 2:27 left.

The touchdown pass, Zolak’s second of the game, came on third and 10. Thomas caught the ball then ran untouched down the middle of the field for the score.

Zolak completed 23 of 42 passes for 313 yards.

Maryland’s winning drive was sustained when West Virginia (1-1) was called for a holding penalty on a third-and-10 play on which Zolak was sacked by Mountaineer tackle Jim Gray.

Navy 28, Richmond 17--Alton Grizzard threw for touchdowns on plays of 69, six and 18 yards to Jerry Dawson and ran for another score at Annapolis, Md. as George Chaump gained his first victory as coach of the Midshipmen in the opener for both teams.

Grizzard completed 17 of 33 passes for 258 yards in guiding the wide-open offense of Chaump, who is at Navy after four years at Marshall University.

Grizzard, who averaged only 13 passes a game last year while operating a wishbone attack, threw 23 times in the first half alone in helping Navy wipe out an early 10-0 deficit.

The Midshipmen had not thrown more than 20 times in a game since 1986.

Rutgers 24, Kentucky 8--Tom Tarver threw two touchdown passes and Willie Wilkes returned an interception--one of Kentucky’s eight turnovers--for another score at East Rutherford, N.J. as Rutgers welcomed new Coach Doug Graber.

Rutgers outgained the Wildcats, 351-179, and intercepted six passes, two more than the team had in the entire 1989 season.

Kentucky (1-1) was held to minus seven yards rushing in 26 carries.

Syracuse 19, Temple 9--A 45-yard pass play from Marvin Graves to Rob Carpenter in the third quarter set up a one-yard touchdown run by David Walker that put the Orangemen (1-1) ahead to stay at Alfred, N.Y.

Red-shirt freshman Shelby Hill scored on a 63-yard pass play with 7:56 left to widen the Syracuse lead and keep Temple (0-2) winless.