University of Virginia Library

24-23 Homecoming Loss

Terps Edge Collapsing Wahoos

By DOUG DOUGHTY

End Dave Sullivan Sticks Foot In End Zone To Legalize TD

It might have been
wonderful. For Virginia coach
Don Lawrence and his team,
for the 21,500 Homecoming
fans and for athletic director
Gene Corrigan who
disconsolately paced the
sidelines 30 minutes after the
game.

But it wasn't, as the Wahoos
suffered their most solemn
defeat of the year to Maryland,
24-23, after the Cavs had gone
out to a 20-3 halftime edge.

Maryland kicked off to
Virginia and the Cavs drove 53
yards to the Terp 17 with
George Allen at the helm. Billy
Maxwell hit his longest field
goal of the year, 35 yards, to
put the Cavs on top 3-0.
During the drive Virginia
suffered a bad break that was
to hurt the team later in the
game, Kent Merritt injured his
tender ankle and had to sit out
the rest of the contest.

After the next kickoff,
Maryland broke huddle to the
dashing commands of Bob
Avellini, who in his second
start had been predicted to eat
up the Cavalier secondary.

Avellini wheeled after the
snap, set to throw a short flare
out to split end Frank Russell
and blindly bulls-eyed the ball
into Wahoo Billy Williams's
jersey and, after a shifty move
to avoid Avellini, Williams sped
down the right sideline and,
with fist clenched, strolled 30
yards to the score, making it
Virginia 10-0 with barely six
minutes gone.

Maryland drove the rest of
the quarter but a Steve
Mike-Mayer field goal to start
the second quarter was all it
could get. Billy Max quickly
offset Mike-Mayer's effort and
midway through the second
quarter it was 13-3 in favor of
the Wahoos.

Mike-Mayer later missed a
54-yarder and after a couple
abortive drives Maryland was
forced to punt at its own 33.
Steve Sroba, belittled as a
replacement for Gerard Mullins
all year, grabbed the kick at his
21 and, after dodging the first
potential Terp tackler, Sroba
hid among his blockers and
wrangled his way to the
Maryland 4, for the second
best return in the ACC this year.

So the Cavs went to the
locker room with the 17-point
bulge, thanks to a Dave
Sullivan grab on second and
goal. Sully, double-teamed
most of the day, and quite
effectively at that, just snagged
an Allen toss before stepping
out of bounds, beating Pat
Ulam for his only reception of
the game.

Now is the time to start
talking about Maryland. "I just
told them that whatever we
had had pride in we had done
poorly in the first half," was
what Maryland coach Jerry
Claiborne told his club at the
half, and he apparently worked
wonders.

Actually the Terp secondary
worked wonders: Allen, who
had completed 7 of 12 in the
first half and looked to all the
world like the answer to
Virginia's quarterback
problems, looked more like Joe
Bftsplk in the second half,
Allen threw eight times and
had five Intercepted, one
complete and two incomplete.

Bob Smith, sophomore
stalwart of the Maryland
secondary, claimed to have
analyzed a flaw in Allen's
system. "Allen looked at his
primary receiver before the
snap and then at the defender.
It helped me cheat on
coverage." Smith grabbed two
errant aerials, as did Ken
Schroy.

Avellini performed like the
pitcher who wins an 8-7
baseball game, he had terrible
statistics, but he won the game.

Soccer Final

   

Clemson	4
Virginia	1