Auburn Makes It a Perfect 10, 42-28 : SEC: Tigers stay unbeaten with victory over Georgia.

Coach Terry Bowden said he had a feeling Auburn’s running game would work against Georgia.

James Bostic made sure, covering 183 yards in 19 carries and scoring three touchdowns to lead the seventh-ranked Tigers to a 42-28 victory Saturday that gave Auburn the second 10-0 record in school history.

“I get more excited with every win and because this is the most recent game, it is the best to date,” Bowden said.

Bostic scored on runs of 41, three and 26 yards and Chris Shelling returned a tipped interception 73 yards for another score. The Tigers are bidding to stay in the national championship race despite being on NCAA probation. The only other time Auburn went 10-0 was in 1957. That team won the school’s only national crown and it, too, was on probation.

Auburn improved to 7-0 in the Southeastern Conference with one game remaining--against Alabama next Saturday.

“Today we proved on the field that we are the best in the SEC,” Bowden said, referring to the team’s record that can’t be bettered by any other SEC team.

Said Tiger quarterback Stan White: “With the type of offense Georgia has, we knew our defense would have a challenge stopping them. We knew we had to put points on the board, and I think we did exactly what we had to do to win.”

Leading after three quarters, 35-14, the Tigers had to overcome a rally by Georgia (4-6, 2-6) featuring Eric Zeier’s scoring passes of four yards to Brice Hunter and eight yards to Brian Bohannon, the latter with 3:48 to play.

Shelling recovered Georgia’s onside kick at midfield and the Tigers put the game away in nine plays, with Bostic scoring his third touchdown on a 26-yard run with 2:43 to play.

Zeier passed for 426 yards, completing 34 of 53. He had two passes intercepted and was sacked five times. “They have a good football team and good football teams put pressure on the quarterback,” Zeier said. “They’ve been doing it all year and it continued today.”