Fullerton’s Damon Allen Helps South Win Senior Bowl

MOBILE, Ala. —  Coach Forrest Gregg of the Green Bay Packers got a little help from the weather Saturday in the 36th Senior Bowl all-star football game.

“We got the wind in the fourth quarter and then things started happening for us,” Gregg said after his South team struck for 17 points in the final period to defeat the North, 23-7.

The first break came early in the final quarter when Ron Mattes of Virginia dumped Colgate’s Steve Calabria for a 12-yard loss at the North 4.

It forced a short punt that gave the South possession on the North 38. Four plays later, Kevin Butler of Georgia kicked a 49-yard field goal, his third of the game, to put the South ahead, 9-7, with 10:34 remaining.

The South then secured the win in the final six minutes when Damon Allen of Cal State Fullerton threw two touchdown passes--a 45-yarder to the game’s most valuable player, Paul Ott Carruth of Alabama, and a 10-yarder to Joe Jones of Virginia Tech.

“It was an even ball game until the fourth quarter,” said North Coach Jim Hanifan of the St. Louis Cardinals. “Our defense played a heck of a game against some very, very talented kids.”

A week of practice for the game was held in spring-like weather, but a cold front sent the chill factor into the mid-teens for Saturday’s game, played in gusty, 20 m.p.h. winds.

The second touchdown pass by Allen, brother of Los Angeles Raiders’ star Marcus Allen, came after Texas Christian’s Sean Thomas raced 29 yards to the North 7 after intercepting a pass.

Butler, kicking pro-style--without a tee--for the first time in his football career, had field goals of 30 and 32 yards in the first half. The first was set up by a Carruth’s 55-yard punt return to the North 20.

Butler, the fourth all-time leading scorer in major college history, missed a 50-yard attempt in the first quarter and had a 51-yarder blocked by Brian Noble of Arizona State. It was the first blocked field goal attempt of Butler’s career.

The North’s only score came on an eight-yard pass from Paul Berner of Pacific to Stacy Robinson of North Dakota State in the second quarter. That touchdown capped a 68-yard drive in which Berner completed four passes for 39 yards.