In the End, Titans Give the Game to Long Beach

Just when it seemed that Cal State Fullerton would finally break Murphy’s Law, the old adage came back and kicked the Titans in the pants Saturday afternoon.

The team that has found every which way to lose in 1990 added another chilling chapter to its misery memoirs when Sean Cheevers’ 20-yard field goal with six seconds left gave Cal State Long Beach a 37-35 victory in front of 7,042 in Veterans Stadium.

For once, everything that could go wrong wasn’t going wrong for the Titans, who led the 49ers for most of the Big West Conference game.

Fullerton quarterback Paul Schulte was having his finest day of the season, completing 20 of 34 passes for 343 yards, three touchdowns--and no turnovers. A beleaguered Titan defense, which has been burned beyond recognition this season, actually held Long Beach on three critical fourth-quarter possessions.

Then came the Titans’ final, fateful possession. They had the ball, a one-point lead, and the 49ers were out of timeouts. All Fullerton had to do was get a first down, run out the clock and agree on a postgame party site.

“I thought the game was over, frankly,” Fullerton linebacker Clarence Siler said. “We were pretty much celebrating.”

On second and nine from the Titan 45, Schulte fooled the Long Beach defense with a bootleg play; he faked the handoff to running back James Mullins and ran around the left side. Schulte had daylight in front of him, but that quickly turned to darkness.

Long Beach linebacker Pepper Jenkins closed in, hit Schulte and forced a fumble. Defensive end Ed Lair recovered and the 49ers had the ball on the Titan 44 with 2:14 left.

Long Beach quarterback Todd Studer, who completed 21 of 40 pass attempts for 346 yards, hit Mark Seay for 19 yards and later teamed with Jeff Exum on a 15-yard pass play to the Fullerton 20. A personal foul (late hit) on Titan cornerback Darrell Bruce gave Long Beach a first down on the 10 with 31 seconds left.

Jeff Fassett ran seven yards to the Titan three, and Cheevers came on to kick the game-winning field goal. Long Beach improved to 4-5, 3-3 in the conference; Fullerton fell to 1-8, 0-4.

“It doesn’t seem like we can buy a win or buy a break,” said Titan kicker Phil Nevin, who missed a 32-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter and had a 48-yard attempt blocked in the third. “We played our butts off today and still lost.”

Long Beach Coach George Allen called the bootleg play “a real gamble,” but it appeared to be a good call until the fumble. Schulte had some running room but wasn’t fast enough to capitalize.

“We wanted to hang onto the ball, go north-south and stay on the wide side of the field,” Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy said. “But Jenkins against Schulte--there’s no trickery involved there.”

Schulte said he considered sliding to the ground as Jenkins, the 49ers’ best defensive player (16 tackles Saturday) approached. Schulte’s biggest mistake might have been trying too hard.

“I thought I’d try to get a few extra yards,” Schulte said. “I was close to being down, but he must have stripped the ball. I should have had two hands on it, but that’s over.”

Not even his best passing game, which pushed him past the 2,000-yard mark for the season, could console Schulte.

“We didn’t win, so it doesn’t matter,” Schulte said. “I didn’t play a complete game. I came up a couple minutes short.”

It appeared Long Beach would be in for a long afternoon when Fullerton took a 21-6 lead in the second quarter. Reggie Yarbrough capped an 87-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and added an eight-yard scoring run in the second.

Midway through the second, Schulte threw a 24-yard pass into the end zone for Greg West. Surrounded by three 49er defenders, West leaped for the pass, tipped it in the air and caught it as he lay flat on his back in the end zone.

The 49ers, meanwhile, put together two long drives that ended with field goals of 40 and 34 yards. But after West’s touchdown catch, Studer threw a quick out pass to Gerald Woodyard, who turned it into a 64-yard scoring play. That made it 21-13, Fullerton.

Long Beach pulled to within 21-20 early in the third quarter when running back Freddie Leslie took a pitch from Studer and passed to Exum, who was wide open down the left sideline for a 73-yard touchdown play.

Schulte’s 39-yard touchdown pass to Kerry Reed made it 28-20, but the 49ers took advantage of a blocked Titan field goal attempt to again trail by a point. Oliver Thompson blocked Nevin’s 48-yard attempt, and Leon Patterson returned it 30 yards to the Fullerton 37. From there, Studer hooked up with Seay for a touchdown that made it 28-27 with 4:36 left in the third quarter. Seay finished with nine receptions for 162 yards.

Long Beach took its first lead, 34-28, when Fassett capped a 95-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

But the Titans bounced back, driving 78 yards for a touchdown--Schulte’s 15-yard pass to Richard Harrison--to regain the lead, 35-34.

Fullerton had a chance to pad the lead when it drove from the Long Beach 45 to the 15 on its next possession. But usually reliable Nevin sent his 32-yard field goal attempt wide right.

Nevin, the former El Dorado High School standout, was feeling a bit hexed afterward.

“I don’t know what it is about this stadium--I missed three field goals in one game here during my senior year of high school,” Nevin said.

Like Nevin, the Titans don’t know what it is about this season. They’ve lost numerous starters to injuries and numerous games to turnovers and sloppy play. They finally put together a decent, all-around effort, only to have it end in a bitter defeat.

Can anything else go wrong?

“I don’t know,” Schulte said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”