BIG 10 ROUNDUP : Michigan State Stalls, Loses to Rutgers, 14-7

Things went from bad to worse for Michigan State Saturday, as the Spartans lost to Rutgers, 14-7, at East Lansing, Mich.

It marked the second time this season that Michigan State was upset by a smaller school. The Spartans (0-3) were knocked out of the national rankings when they lost to Central Michigan, 20-3, on Sept. 14.

Tom Tarver threw scoring passes of one and two yards to tailback Antoine Moore, the second with 46 seconds left, as Rutgers improved to 3-1 and took a 2-1 edge in the series against Michigan State. Both of the Scarlet Knights’ victories have been at East Lansing.

It was carbon-copy scoring passes that did in the Spartans Saturday.

On both plays, Rutgers faked a dive over the middle, and Moore broke free in the right flat to catch the quick pass from Tarver.

Moore was also the Knights’ leading rusher with 83 yards in 22 carries.

The game-winning drive was set up by a 20-yard punt return by Marshall Roberts to the Rutgers 46.

Tarver then completed three passes, the first two to wide receiver James Guarantano for gains of 15 and six yards. The third was a 26-yarder that Chris Brantley barely came down with in bounds at the Michigan State seven, with strong safety Myron Bell applying tight coverage.

Moore went up the middle for a five-yard gain, then hauled in the go-ahead touchdown on the next play.

Michigan State mounted a desperation drive, but could get only to the Rutgers 37.

Courtney Hawkins, who caught eight passes for 143 yards, scored the Spartans’ lone touchdown in the third quarter on a pass from backup quarterback Jim Miller. Hawkins caught the ball at the 20 and ran untouched into the end zone for a 38-yard play.

Neither Spartan quarterback had much success. Former UCLA quarterback Bret Johnson completed five of 15 passes for 38 yards; Miller was eight for 16 for 165 and an interception.

No. 9 Iowa 58, Northern Illinois 7--The Hawkeyes (3-0) piled up 577 yards and held the Huskies (1-3) to 233 for an easy victory at Iowa City.

But Iowa didn’t get off as quickly as it did in lopsided victories over Hawaii and Iowa State, when the Hawkeyes took first-quarter leads of 27-0 and 17-0. They led Northern Illinois only 7-0 after the first quarter.

But Iowa scored 24 points in the second quarter to turn the game into the expected rout.

“They didn’t roll over and play dead,” Iowa Coach Hayden Fry said. “We had to earn everything we got today.”

Northern Illinois Coach Charlie Sadler said it was simply a matter of Iowa being bigger and stronger.

“We knew we were going to have a tough game on our hands from the onset,” he said. “We felt that if we came in and competed hard and had a few things go our way, we could stay in the game with them.

“Iowa is a very solid, experienced, quality football team. Obviously their ranking shows that and they’re to be given all the credit.”

Iowa’s first-quarter touchdown came on an 11-yard run off tackle by Lew Montgomery.

Rodgers started the second-quarter barrage with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Mike Martens.

Northwestern 41, Wake Forest 14--Len Williams passed for three touchdowns and ran for one as the Wildcats scored 34 points in the second quarter at Evanston, Ill.

The victory ended a seven-game losing streak for Northwestern (1-2) and dropped Wake Forest to 1-2.

Williams connected with Mark Benson for touchdown pass plays of 45 and 25 yards as the Wildcats turned three interceptions and a fumble into first-half touchdowns.

Williams completed 10 of 14 passes for 190 yards.

Northwestern intercepted five passes thrown by Wake Forest quarterback Keith West. Cornerback Willie Lindsey had two interceptions.

Wisconsin 21, Eastern Michigan 6--Quarterback Tony Lowery threw the longest touchdown pass play in Wisconsin history, an 89-yarder to Lee DeRamus, as the Badgers won at Madison, Wis.

The Wisconsin defense extended its streak of not allowing a touchdown to 10 consecutive quarters.

The Badgers (3-0) go into their Big Ten opener next week at Ohio State undefeated for the first time since 1985.

The loss for Eastern Michigan (0-5) was its 13th in a row.

After trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Badgers scored in the third quarter on the record-breaking play from Lowery to DeRamus, who eluded Eastern Michigan cornerback Werner Blakely and ran untouched into the end zone.

The play broke Randy Wright’s record of 87 yards to split end Tim Stracka against Kansas State in the 1982 Independence Bowl.