The Cavalier daily :: Monday, November 1, 1971 :: University of Virginia Library

The cows came home, the moon
fell from the sky and God took a
tumble from heaven as Virginia
snapped a conference loss streak of
major proportions and finally won
an ACC game, using two fine
touchdown catches and a tough
defense to edge N.C. State 14-10.

In winning, the Cavs ended an
ACC drought that had lasted since
September of 1969 and the Cavs
also accomplished the feat of
knocking off State for the first time
since the conference was formed.
The 'Hoos had dropped twelve
games in a row to the Wolfpack,
and a like number of successive
conference encounters, before
bringing both streaks to a
screeching halt Saturday afternoon.

After Kent Merritt fumbled the
opening kickoff away to State's
Bobby Pilz deep in Virginia
territory it didn't seem that
anything as extraordinary as a win
was going to develop. State passer
Bruce Shaw then stepped into the
breech and fired two interceptions
on his first two passes, one by Steve
Sroba killing the initial threat and
another by Bill Kettunen leading to
a missed field goal attempt.

State took the ball on their 20
after Billy Maxwell's unsuccessful
48-yard effort and drove smartly in
for a score. Halfback Willie Burden
lead the charge and got the TD on a
play off right tackle that required
three of his 108 total yards.

Quick Drive

The Wahoos then stunned the
complacent Homecoming crowd by
moving 69 yards in only six plays
for the equalizer. The drive featured
long runs by Larry Albert and Dave
Sullivan, who went for 15 yards on
an end-around play deep in State
country. Quarterback Albert
climaxed the drive by throwing 15
yards to Bill Davis, who made a fine
over-the-shoulder catch.

After a third interception, by
Kevin Michaels, in the second
quarter the Cavs stole the lead.
Unable to move the ball from th
State 30 where he had been given
it, Albert faced third and long and
arched a long pass to Sullivan in the
end zone. Sullivan seemed
well-covered by cornerback Pilz,
also beaten by Davis on the
preceding score, but made a diving
catch to close out the Cavs' scoring
and give Virginia a 14-7 lead.

State got to the Cavalier five
with time running out in the half
but mismanaged their time outs and
settled for a chip-shot field goal.
They wouldn't have done this, of
course, had they known that their
total of 10 points was all that was
going to be rationed out by the
Cavalier defense.

Each drove into threatening
position several times in the second
half but no scoring occurred.
Harrison Davis led two Virginia
marches, after Albert was retired for
the duration trying to recover a
fumble, but had them both end in
State territory with turnovers. State
drove to the Cavalier six early in
the fourth period but gained only
two yards in their allotted four
downs.

The only member of the Pack
who the Wahoos couldn't stop was
halfback Mike Stultz. Stultz a man
of little pre-game repute, was
consistently wide open on pass
patterns and set a new Wolfpack
yardage record by teaming up with
Shaw for six catches and 155 yards.
For non-Math majors that averages
to a tidy total of over 25 yards per
grab.

Selfridge Praised

Wahoo Coach Don Lawrence got
to give away his second game ball
and, much as it was the first time,
his choice was clear cut. Singling
out the defense as the main reason
for the victory he presented the
pigskin to tackle Andy Selfridge.
Big Set, the defensive captain, was,
in Lawrence's words, "all over the
field" and deserved his honor.

Final team totals showed State
with the edge in what was a very
even game from the outset. The
Wolfpack led in first downs, 16-14,
total offense, 345 yards to 276,
and, for a change, in turnovers,
chipping three interceptions and a
fumble to the Cavs' two fumbles
and one misplaced aerial. Many
potential interceptions were
dropped by members of both
defenses.

In the battle of sophomore
running stars State's Burden edged
Merritt in total yards, 108 to 97,
but since he carried the ball ten
fewer times, Merritt had a big
margin in yards per carry, averaging
4.6 yards on all rushes to Burden's
more prosaic 3.5. "Our kids are
paying the price of hard work and
dedication" concluded a victorious
Coach Lawrence afterward and,
although the game at times
resembled a match between two
senile prizefighters, the gist of his
remarks was borne out on the
playing field.