EAST ROUNDUP : Penn St. Shuts Down West Virginia

Penn State converted four fumble recoveries and an intercepted pass into four field goals by Ray Tarasi and Tony Sacca’s 31-yard touchdown pass Saturday as the 16th-ranked Nittany Lions beat No. 13 West Virginia, 19-9, at State College, Pa.

Penn State, which leads the nation in scoring defense, averaging 8.7 points a game, shut down West Virginia’s offense with the turnovers.

Major Harris completed 15 of 26 passes for 166 yards and scrambled for 135 yards in 21 carries. But he lost three of five West Virginia fumbles and was sacked four times.

Penn State (6-2) boosted its lead in the series to 45-9-2. West Virginia (6-2-1) hasn’t defeated Penn State at State College in 17 games, dating back to 1954.

Penn State’s Blair Thomas gained 150 yards in 32 carries, the 13th 100-yard-plus game in the senior’s career. He became the second runner in Penn State history to gain 4,000 or more yards (4,072). Curt Warner (1978-1982) had 4,892.

Syracuse 23, Boston College 11--At Syracuse, N.Y., Rob Moore caught two touchdown passes from backup quarterback Bill Scharr in the fourth quarter to set an Orangemen record for career touchdowns.

Syracuse is 5-3; BC is 1-7.

Moore’s second touchdown was his 18th, breaking the Syracuse record held by Tommy Kane.

Yale 34, Cornell 19--Darin Kehler threw for 158 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 89 and another score at New Haven, Conn., as the Bulldogs remained in a first-place tie with Princeton in the Ivy League.

Yale, 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the league, won its fifth consecutive game to set up a showdown next week with Princeton for the league title. Cornell is 3-4 and 1-3.

Princeton 30, Penn 8--At Philadelphia, Judd Garrett ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns in 35 carries to give the Tigers (6-1-1, 5-0) their fifth victory in a row. Penn is 4-3 and 2-2.

Harvard 27, Brown 14--Tim Perry passed for two touchdowns and rushed for a third at Providence, R.I., to give Crimson Coach Joe Restic his 100th career victory. The Crimson improved to 3-5, while Brown fell to 1-7.

Dartmouth 13, Columbia 12--Robert Birge blocked a punt at the Lions’ 13-yard line with 1:40 remaining and Karl Romero kicked a 19-yard field goal with 16 seconds left to give the Big Green a win at New York.