SENIOR BOWL : Hollingsworth Leads AFC to a 38-28 Victory

The NFC team had the better-known quarterbacks, but the AFC had Gary Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth, from Alabama, led three first-quarter scoring drives on a wet field to build a 17-0 lead and the AFC defeated the NFC, 38-28, Saturday in the Senior Bowl.

“Hollingsworth did a good job throwing the ball and that was the key to it,” said Marty Schottenheimer, coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and the AFC.

Hollingsworth threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Louisiana State’s Harvey Williams late in the first quarter after his passing set up a one-yard touchdown run by Penn State’s Gary Brown and a 28-yard field goal by Alabama’s Philip Doyle.

Two other AFC quarterbacks also threw for touchdowns as the three outperformed two potential first-round draft choices for the NFC--Dan McGwire of San Diego State and Brett Favre of Southern Mississippi.

Rice’s Donald Hollas hit Tennessee’s Alvin Harper on a 54-yard scoring pass play in the second quarter and Louisville’s Browning Nagle connected with Harper on a 38-yard scoring pass play in the third quarter.

Harper was voted the game’s outstanding player and Hollas also scored a touchdown on a one-yard sneak.

The NFC’s scoring came on a two-yard run by Auburn’s Stacy Danley and McGwire’s seven-yard pass to Miami’s Randal Hill in the second quarter, on a one-yard run by Ricky Watters of Notre Dame in the third quarter and McGwire’s 15-yard pass to Oklahoma’s Adrian Cooper with 5:54 left in the fourth quarter.

The NFC rallied with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter but couldn’t take advantage of two other scoring chances.

William Thomas of Texas A&M;, who earlier set up a touchdown with a fumble recovery, blocked a 35-yard field goal attempt by Iowa State’s Jeff Shudak with 2:50 left.

Mississippi’s Chris Mitchell intercepted a pass by McGwire in the end zone with 1:43 left.