Titans Get Lost, Then Lose to Akron, 48-17 : College football: After Fullerton finds the Rubber Bowl, Akron capitalizes on five interceptions.

Cal State Fullerton was heading north for Cleveland Saturday until someone informed the bus driver that the Titans were playing at Akron.

How foretelling: Fullerton’s game against the Zips turned just as abruptly as the Wrong-Way Titans did on Interstate 77.

Fullerton took a 10-point lead in the first quarter but collapsed amid a flurry of turnovers and mistakes and lost, 48-17, in front of 10,241 at the Rubber Bowl.

The Titans (1-3) looked like world-beaters in the first quarter but did a good job of beating themselves during the next two, in which they were outscored, 48-7.

Quarterback Paul Schulte, who threw for 183 yards in the first quarter and appeared headed for a school passing record, set a record all right--for interceptions in a game. He was picked off five times, tying Bob Caffrey’s mark of five against Utah State in 1981.

Fullerton also lost two of its three fumbles, had a punt blocked deep in its own territory, missed several tackles and dropped several passes, one for a potential touchdown.

The Titan defense, which held Auburn and Mississippi State to less than 200 yards rushing each, couldn’t contain Akron’s option offense, which featured the running of quarterback Jeff Sweitzer (111 yards and two touchdowns) and tailbacks Doug Lewis (63 yards, two touchdowns) and Marcus Reliford (86 yards). The Zips had 285 yards rushing and 443 total yards.

“We met the enemy and the enemy was us,” Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy said. “We dropped passes, lost fumbles, threw interceptions . . . After the first quarter, we should have got on the bus and got out of there.”

The game turned during a four-minute span early in the second quarter. First, Fullerton kicker Phil Nevin’s 32-yard field goal attempt that would have extended the lead to 13-0 was ruled no good, a call the Titans disputed and the Zips even wondered about.

“I thought it went right through the uprights,” said Akron center Mike O’Connor, a Mater Dei High School graduate. “I couldn’t believe the call. We got a break there.”

Then, after Daron Alcorn’s 37-yard field goal cut the deficit to 10-3 with 13:22 left in the second quarter, J.J. Celestine fumbled on the ensuing kickoff and Chris Owens recovered for the Zips (3-0-1) at the Titan 16-yard line.

It took Akron one play to tie the score at 10, as Lewis took a pitch and raced around left end for a touchdown and Alcorn added the extra point.

Akron forced Fullerton to punt on its next possession, but Nevin’s attempt was blocked by Kenneth Greene and recovered by Shawn Donaldson at the Titan 10. Two plays later, Lewis scored on a two-yard run for a 17-10 lead with 10:48 left in the quarter.

The rest of Fullerton’s game went just like the All-American Soap Box Derby course located behind the Rubber Bowl--all downhill.

Schulte, who completed seven of 12 attempts and ran a successful no-huddle offense in the first quarter, completed one of 12 passes in the second and third quarters before being pulled in favor of Terry Payne early in the fourth.

Zips cornerback Shawn Vincent had three of the five interceptions, helping Akron increase its season total to 15 in four games.

“There were no major changes in the second quarter, we just started picking up their offense,” Vincent said. “After they drove on us a few times, our coach (Gerry Faust) got on us on the sideline, screaming and yelling at us, and we started playing ball.”

And having a ball too. The Zips began picking up chunks of yardage on option runs, many of them by Sweitzer. Sweitzer also evaded several Fullerton blitzes, turning one scramble into a 30-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

“Watching Fullerton on film, I was more scared of them than any other team we’ve faced,” Sweitzer said. “I was surprised at how much running room we had.”

The running game also opened up the passing game for Sweitzer, who completed four of 13 attempts for 47 yards in the first half but improved to five of six for 94 yards and two touchdowns in the second.

“We were down at the beginning of the game, but we showed what we’re made of and came out and blew them away,” Sweitzer said.

Murphy isn’t sure what the Titans are made of. Fullerton played well in losses to Auburn and Mississippi State, teams the Titans weren’t supposed to beat, then they’re blown out by a team they were expected to be competitive with.

Murphy believed the Akron game would give him an indication of how Fullerton would do in Big West Conference play, which begins next week at Fresno State.

“If you take this game from the second quarter on, it doesn’t look to good for us,” Murphy said.

Titan Notes

What should have been a 15-minute ride to the Rubber Bowl became a 75-minute trip because the bus driver thought the Titans were playing at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. About 20 minutes into the trip, Titan associate athletic director Walt Bowman, realizing they were going the wrong way, ordered the driver to stop the bus. But the driver didn’t know how to get to the Rubber Bowl. “Three gas stations later, we finally made it,” Bowman said. . . . Some Fullerton highlights: Schulte’s 48-yard pass to Richard Harrison in the first quarter, his 63-yard pass to Greg West, who made a leaping catch between two Akron defenders in the first quarter, and Reggie Yarbrough’s 63-yard touchdown run in the third. . . . Zips cornerback Shawn Vincent got a hand on Phil Nevin’s 32-yard field goal attempt, but the ball caromed off the right upright and through the goal post in the first quarter. . . . Akron linebacker John Clark, who is on the watch list for the Dick Butkus Award, and fellow linebacker Brian Hilk each made 18 tackles. . . . Titan offensive tackle Mike Simmons didn’t play because of an ankle injury.