Brown and White

              legigh university brown and white special sports issue bethlehem pa tuesday december 2 l 1975 215-866-0331 late wildcat comeback ends engineers ' season by fred haynes a successful fake punt helped new hampshire engineer a three-touchdown fourth quarter rally leading the wildcats to a 35-21 upset victory over the engineer football team m the opening round of the ncaa division ii playoffs the loss by the lambert cup champions was their first of the year m taylor stadium and eliminated them from playoff competition with the score knotted at 21 all early m the fourth quarter the wildcats faced a fourth and six on the lehigh 46 yard line new hampshire lined up to punt but junior punter scott seero used his arm and not his leg completing a 18-yard pass to tight end mike moroney seven plays later the wildcats scored what proved to be the winning touchdown as al parchuck took a pitchout from quarterback jeff allen and rolled untouched into the endzone from three yards out plenty of time remained for the engineers to recover but joe sterrett fumbled on the engineer five yard line bill burnham ran it m from the three to sew-up the game and complete the scoring only three minutes and 50-seconds remained however the engineers did not give up sterrett who completed 24 of 40 passes for 309 yards hooked up with bob liptak and then twice with larry henshaw to move the ball to the wildcat six yard line there the engineers breathed their last gasp as sterrett fumbled again the engineers got the ball once again but with less than one minute to go and two touch downs behind the outcome of the game was sealed engineer head coach fred dunlap said our inability to move their defensive line out consistently was a key to the out come and added we could have used a few more points a bit earlier to take the pressure off the defense the engineer mentor said the fake punt was a surprise the wildcats had not tried the play at all during the year but dunlap said the team is always prepared for such a fake and all potential receivers are covered the game began as a defensive struggle both teams failed to produce long drives on their first possessions and it was not until late m the quarter that the wildcats did move the ball deep into engineer territory burnham did the bulk of the work including a final four carries culminating m a one yard touchdown run with four minutes remaining m the quarter what followed was probably the most exciting play of the season for the engineers mark weaver took the kick-off on his own 14-yard line and attempted to reverse fields the wildcats remained m pursuit and chased the sophomore half back all the way back to the goal line however weaver broke away from the new hampshire pursuers and raced the length of the field knotting the score at 7-7 the engineer's defense stopped the wildcats without allowing a first down and forced them to punt weaver took the punt and returned it 18 yards but fumbled turning the ball over to the wildcats m engineer territory allen wasted no time m capitalizing on the turnover hitting lee pope with a 45-yard touchdown strike and giving the visitors a 14-7 lead defense took over once again as the two learns traded possession of the football six times before the engineers finally b&w photo by hauser let me go fullback rod gardner attempts to break the grasp of new hamp shire's bob morris during ncaa playoff action gardner had a good day rambling for 64 yards on the ground and catching six of joe sterrett's passes good for 63 yards gridders bow to new hampshire generated a drive m the final two minutes of the half which knotted the score for the second time sterrett completed five passes m the game-tying drive three of which found dave aprill coming out of the backfield the score a seven-yard pass to larry henshaw came with only 24 seconds left m the first half the second half opened much the same as the first strong defensive play by both teams kept both offenses couped up m their own territory the engineers finally gained the field advantage when weaver punted the wildcats down to their one yard line on two consecutive punts following the second weaver punt the engineers were able to take advantage of the fine field position after stopping the wildcats the gridders got the ball on their own 42-yard line it took sterrett and the engineers only six plays to negotiate the 58 yards for the go ahead score sterrett s 10-yard aerial to weaver gave the gridders their only lead of the afternoon 21-14 the lead was short lived less than two minutes later dennis ouellette beat jimmy dutt and allen threw a perfect strike completing a 39-yard scoring play the game was t ied for the third time and it looked like the unusual tie-breaking system initiated by the ncaa might come into effect however the wildcats had other ideas and on their next possession they produced the play of the game con verting on the fake punt no award was given for the most valuable player but if one had been awarded burnham would have been a unanimous choice the wildcat sophomore accumulated 163 yards rushing on 34 carries caught two passes for 43 yards and scored two touchdowns the loss before 9,100 fans ended the engineer season at 9-3 which included a seven-game winning streak asked whether he thought the gridders had peaked too early dunlap replied i don't know if that was the reason but it was obvious that we were not as sharp during the second half of the season as we had been earlier bb.w photo by aaenard lots of room wildcat sophomore fullback bill burnham finds daylight through the engineer defensive line m saturday's ncaa play-off game m taylor stadium the bruising tailback accumulated 163 yards on the ground saturday and scored two touchdowns despite suffering from strept throat during the preceding week game stats lehigh 7 7 7 oãƒâ¢ã¢â€šâ¬ã¢â‚¬âÂ2l passing att com mt yds td nh 14 0 0 21ãƒâ¢ã¢â€šâ¬ã¢â‚¬âÂ35 sterrett,l allen,nh receiving 40 24 2 309 2 17 8 2 166 2 no yds td leh nh gardner l 6 63 0 first downs 27 21 liptak l 5 40 0 net yds rushing . . . 76 253 henshaw l . . . 4 58 1 net yds passing . . . 309 184 pope nh 3 77 1 total yards 385 437 weaver l 3 51 1 passes attempted . . 40 18 aprill l 3 47 0 24 9 rushing att yds avg td intercepted by 0 2 burnham nh 34 163 4.7 2 punts 6 8 gardner l . . . 17 64 3.7 0 avg distance 36 40 allen nh . . . . 14 40 2.8 0 fumbles lost 3 1 parchuck nh 10 28 2.8 0 yards penalized 23 60 foley nh . . . . 7 22 3.1 0