No Rout, but No Victory for Fullerton : Nonconference: Titans play Georgia close before losing, 27-14. Yarbrough rushes for 192 yards.

The Athens, Ga., media had a field day with Cal State Fullerton, running front-page cartoons about the school’s football team, ridiculing it with one-liners and poking fun at Georgia for even bothering to schedule such an unworthy opponent.

But the Titans had a laugh, if not the last one, giving Georgia all it could handle Saturday before losing, 27-14, before 76,117 in Sanford Stadium.

Frank Harvey’s two-yard touchdown run with 32 seconds remaining sealed the victory for the Bulldogs, but Fullerton had several chances to pull an upset until then.

Twice in the fourth quarter, the Titans (1-3) had the ball in Georgia territory with a six-point deficit. Twice in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs (3-1) stopped Fullerton for no gain on fourth-down plays.

The last stop came with 3 minutes 25 seconds to play, when Curt Douglas stopped Fullerton running back Reggie Yarbrough at the Titan 41-yard line. The Bulldogs, of the Southeastern Conference, then drove to their final touchdown.

“The sad part is we had an opportunity to win the football game and couldn’t do it,” Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy said.

No one gave the Titans a chance.

One local headline read: “Bulldogs Should Be Able to Buy Another Win--For $225,000.” Wrote one columnist: “If 85,434 turn out for what should be a breather, it will be a true testimony to the devotion of the fans.”

Some breather.

“Our football team wasn’t prepared today,” Georgia Coach Ray Goff said. “There was a lot of stuff in the papers ripping Cal State Fullerton. They came out fired up, and we might have believed the stuff in the papers. We were lucky to win.”

Trailing, 20-14, early in the fourth quarter, Fullerton drove to the Bulldog 30-yard line, where the Titans faced fourth and two.

Yarbrough, who rushed for 192 yards in 43 carries and scored Fullerton’s second touchdown, tried the middle but was stopped for no gain. Later in the quarter, with third and one at the Fullerton 41, Yarbrough failed in two attempts.

“I’d give every yard up just to get those last two,” Yarbrough said.

The young Fullerton offensive line paved the way for 220 yards rushing (Georgia had 205 rushing yards) and redshirt freshman Chad May had some success in his second start at quarterback, completing six of 17 passes for 82 yards.

Still, “moral victories stink with a capital S,” Murphy said. “I don’t care what people think. . . . We played with Georgia right until the end, and the frustrating part is we could have won. But that’s good frustration compared to getting blown out.”