Titans Fail to Seize the Moment in 23-20 Loss : Football: Trailing by three with eight minutes to play, Fullerton’s offense stalls twice against Pacific.

The fact that anyone could even second-guess Cal State Fullerton’s strategy in the final minutes of a football game is a sign of progress for the Titans, who have won five games in the last three seasons and haven’t been in a position to win many others.

It’s not often that Fullerton has an opportunity to win a game on the road against a team it isn’t expected to beat, but victory--or at least a tie--was there for the taking Saturday in the University of the Pacific’s Stagg Memorial Stadium.

The Titans just failed to grab it. Pacific, which couldn’t stop Fullerton for much of the afternoon, came up with two defensive stands in the final eight minutes to hold off the Titans, 23-20, in a Big West Conference game played in front of 7,412.

Tiger senior Eddie Ausherman’s third field goal of the day, a 25-yarder with 8 minutes 24 seconds remaining, erased a 20-20 tie, and quarterback Troy Kopp, in his first start in seven weeks, completed 22 of 35 passes for 295 yards and a touchdown to help Pacific improve to 3-6, 2-2 in conference.

Fullerton (2-7, 0-4) had excellent field position at its 41-yard line after Ausherman’s last field goal, but failed to gain a first down in three plays and punted.

The Titans then stopped Pacific, forced a punt and took over on their 25-yard line with 3:59 left--enough time to mount a comeback, but with Fullerton’s ground-oriented attack, there wasn’t a moment to waste.

But the Titans seemed to go into a prevent offense. Three running plays up the middle netted six yards, and with Fullerton failing to get out of bounds and huddling after each play, more than a minute ran off the clock.

“I was a little surprised because I figured that wasn’t much time for them,” said Pacific linebacker Grant Carter, who had 15 tackles, including three for losses. “But that’s their bread and butter. They had some good drives throughout the game, and I guess they thought they might break one on us.”

But it was Pacific that got the next break. On fourth and three from the 32, Trendell Williams’ short pass over the middle intended for tight end Gerry McDonald was intercepted by Jami Anderson with 2:31 left, and the Tigers ran out the clock.

“It wasn’t one of those games we could have won--we should have won,” Titan Coach Gene Murphy said. “We had been successful running up the middle, and we were trying to do that again on the last possession. I wanted to get the first down and then go, similar to what we did (in a 14-10 victory) against Southwestern Louisiana.”

There were no surprise endings for the Titans as there had been Oct. 17 at Southwestern Louisiana. But there was a surprise middle after a disappointing beginning.

Pacific took a 10-0 lead on Ryan Benjamin’s four-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and Ausherman’s 39-yard field goal early in the second. Benjamin, who ran for 86 yards in 22 carries, became the seventh player in Big West Conference history to rush for 1,000 yards in each of two seasons.

But Fullerton stormed back with two touchdowns before halftime, one on Jermaine Hill’s two-yard run and the second on Hill’s 37-yard halfback pass to Polee Banks, to take a 14-10 lead.

The Titan defensive front, headed by Shambi Scott, Randy Strickland, Joe Elizondo, Jason Wells, Mike Allen and David Breuninger, began to pressure Kopp, the former Mission Viejo High School standout who passed for 861 yards and 11 touchdowns in two previous games against Fullerton.

The Titans batted down four Kopp passes and sacked him five times, including two each by Breuninger and Elizondo.

“They blitzed almost every play,” said Kopp, who had been sidelined because of an ankle injury. “Besides Washington, they put the most pressure on us this season. They came at us with seven people.”

Kopp hit one more big play before halftime, a 49-yard pass to Aaron Turner that set up Ausherman’s 46-yard field goal that cut Fullerton’s lead to 14-13 with 43 seconds left in the second quarter. Turner caught eight passes for 152 yards.

It wasn’t until later in the third quarter that Kopp got the Tiger offense moving again, as he led a 10-play, 89-yard drive that ended with his 21-yard touchdown pass to Ron Smith. Kopp, who kept the drive alive with a two-yard run on fourth down, froze defensive back Dan Seymour with a pump fake and then hit an open Smith in the end zone with 6:05 left in the quarter for a 20-14 lead.

But Fullerton came back with a long, leisurely drive of its own, going 80 yards in 17 plays, consuming almost eight minutes, and scoring on Williams’ one-yard, play-action pass to McDonald. However, Noel Prefontaine’s extra-point attempt was blocked, and the score remained tied, 20-20, with 13:07 left.

The Titan defense, which had played well for most of the game, unraveled on Pacific’s next possession. Two personal-foul penalties, one for a late hit and the other for excessive taunting, aided the Tigers on their game-winning drive, which ended with Ausherman’s 25-yard field goal.