COLLEGE FOOTBALL : East Roundup : McNair Rushes for 213 Yards; Temple Rallies to Upset Pitt, 24-21

Temple discovered in its first two games that it couldn’t replace Paul Palmer, the nation’s leading rusher last season. So the Owls decided to make believe he never left.

Todd McNair, Palmer’s understudy last season, rushed for 213 yards, and quarterback James Thompson passed for 1 touchdown and raced 2 yards for the go-ahead score to rally Temple from a 14-0 deficit to a 24-21 upset victory over No. 16 Pittsburgh Saturday.

Pitt, the nation’s top-ranked defense against the run, couldn’t contain McNair’s sweeps as the 20-point underdog Owls overcame 171 rushing yards by Craig (Ironhead) Heyward to beat Pitt in Pittsburgh for the second straight year. McNair rushed for 129 yards in the second half against a Pitt defense that had allowed Brigham Young and North Carolina State only 31 yards in 66 carries.

“We tried to be too diversified in our first two games because Paul wasn’t back, so we decided to go back to playing bash ball and just run the ball right at them,” Temple Coach Bruce Arians said. “Our offensive line controlled the tempo of the game. Pitt hadn’t had a tough game yet and hadn’t had to play in the second half, and we were in better condition.”

Temple, a 20-point underdog, scored on four straight possessions to wipe out a 14-0 deficit. Bill Wright kicked field goals of 51, 34 and 34 yards, and Thompson hit Keith Gloster on a 68-yard touchdown pass.

Pitt (2-1) scored on Sal Genilla touchdown passes of 21 yards to Reggie Williams and 29 yards to Hosea Heard and a 46-yard scoring run by Hayward, a career-best. Genilla finished 20 of 34 for 228 yards and 1 interception.

Penn St. 41, Cincinnati 0--John Greene’s search for a position at Penn State is over.

Greene, who was moved from the defensive secondary to tailback during spring practice, was shifted to fullback Saturday and responded with 124 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead the 20th-ranked Nittany Lions at University Park, Pa.

Penn State fullbacks carried the ball only three times in the Nittany Lions’ first two games, but Greene had 11 carries before leaving the game early in the second half. Combined, Penn State (2-1) rushed for 374 yards on the rain-slickened Beaver Stadium field, led by a career-high 154 by tailback Blair Thomas.

Greene scored on a 1-yard run in the second quarter and on a 2-yard run in the third quarter. Thomas scored on a 1-yard dive in the first quarter. This was the first time two Penn State running backs gained more than 100 yards in the same game since D.J. Dozier and Steve Smith did it against Boston College on Nov. 3, 1984.

Cincinnati drops to 1-2.

Syracuse 24, Miami (Ohio) 10--At Syracuse, N.Y., Don McPherson completed 15 of 24 passes for 256 yards and 2 touchdowns and ran for a third as the Orangemen improved to 3-0 for the first time in 12 years.

Leading, 10-3, Syracuse scored two touchdowns in just over three minutes in the fourth quarter.

Miami drops to 1-2.

Holy Cross 40, Lafayette 11--Gordie Lockbaum, given a rare day off on defense, scored three touchdowns at Worcester, Mass., as the Crusaders opened defense of their Colonial League title.

Lockbaum, fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting last year as a junior, scored on runs of 3 and 6 yards and caught a 27-yard touchdown pass. Quarterback Jeff Wiley (20 of 31 for 276 yards) threw for 3 touchdowns, hitting Tom Kelleher for 22 yards and Mark Gallagher for 18 in addition to the scoring toss to Lockbaum.

Lockbaum, who usually plays most of the way on offense and defense, carried 8 times for 39 yards and caught 6 passes for 84 yards as Holy Cross (2-0) built a 26-0 lead and substituted freely in the second half.

Lafayette is 1-1.

Colgate 19, William & Mary 7--Running back Kenny Gamble scored 1 touchdown and rushed for 143 yards to set an NCAA Division I-AA career record for all-purpose yardage, and quarterback Gary Aurora hit flanker A.J. Thomas with a 52-yard scoring pass to lead the Red Raiders to the upset win at Hamilton, N.Y.

Gamble accumulated 157 all-purpose yards to push his career total to 6,069, which broke Pete Mandley’s mark of 5,925 yards, set at Northern Arizona from 1979-83. Gamble, who is nursing bruised ribs, rushed 31 times and had one catch for 14 yards.

Harvard 35, Columbia 0--The longest non-winning streak in major college history reached 35 games at New York as the Crimson’s Tom Yohe passed for 2 touchdowns and 145 yards in 2 1/2 quarters, putting the Lions two losses away from breaking Northwestern’s record of 34 consecutive defeats. The Ivy League game was the season opener for both teams.

Columbia gained only 51 yards rushing and had 8 first downs.

Cornell 17, Penn 13--Junior quarterback Aaron Simuda, playing in his first collegiate game, connected with Shaun Hawkins for an 11-yard touchdown pass at Philadelphia as the Big Red beat Penn and ended the longest current winning streak among Division I-AA teams at 11 games. It was also the Quakers’ first loss in an Ivy League game at home since the season finale of 1981.

Simuda, a Hawaii native who did not play as a sophomore, completed 16 of 28 passes for 169 yards. Penn is 0-1.

Princeton 34, Dartmouth 3--At Hanover, N.H., split end Jeff Baker caught two touchdown passes from quarterback Jason Garrett, and the three Garrett brothers made an impact in their first game for Princeton as the Tigers won the season opener for both teams.

Jason Garrett threw for 219 yards and 2 touchdowns on 14 of 18 completions. Judd Garrett rushed for 134 yards and 1 touchdown in 18 carries. John Garrett caught two passes and intercepted one in a stint at defensive end. The brothers all transferred from Columbia before the 1986 season.

Lehigh 24, Navy 9--Lehigh spoiled the Midshipmen’s homecoming as flanker John Gorman caught two touchdown passes, one coming on the first pass ever thrown by halfback Lee Blum, at Annapolis, Md.

Lehigh, which had a 17-0 lead at one point, is 2-0. Navy is 0-2.

Brown 17, Yale 7--Quarterback Mark Donovan’s four-yard touchdown run, Alex Kos’ three field goals and six Bulldog turnovers combined to give the Bruins the Ivy League win at New Haven, Conn., in the season opener for both teams.