THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610270172
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: 68 lines
Virginia Tech's football team continues to make the easy ones look hard.
For the third time this season, the defending Big East champions struggled to subdue a team they were favored to beat by four touchdowns or more. Virginia Tech trailed Pittsburgh late in the third quarter Saturday before scoring on three successive possessions for a 34-17 victory.
``We put ourselves in a bad situation where we have to score in crucial situations,'' Tech center Billy Conaty said. ``It makes me sick, because it's not what we should be doing. It's underachieving. It's not because it's Pitt - Pitt's a decent team - but we're not playing as well as we can.
``We've got to put it all together if we're going to compete for a Big East title. We can't be screwing around, up by three near the end of the game.''
Tech (5-1, 4-1 Big East) also trailed Akron in the third quarter, and was tied with Rutgers in the third. The only team the Hokies were expected to blow out this season that they actually have was Temple.
``As the game goes on when you start to get ahead of people, everyone tends to drift off to Wonderland or whatever,'' said Tech tailback Ken Oxendine (111 yards rushing on 19 carries with two touchdowns).
Actually, Tech left 43,625 at Lane Stadium wondering about a potential upset until the fourth period.
Pitt (2-6, 1-4) took a 17-13 lead with 6:15 to play in the third quarter on quarterback Matt Lytle's 2-yard run. The touchdown was set up when Tech's Angelo Harrison muffed an attempted punt return and Pitt recovered at the Hokies' 15.
So there was Tech, looking up at the scoreboard to find itself trailing a team that had lost its three previous road games by a combined score of 172-7.
``We had them on the ropes,'' Pitt running back Billy West said. ``A couple of big plays decided the game, and once again we were on the short end of those plays.''
And Tech's Shawn Scales was on the receiving end.
Tech drove from its 33 to Pitt's 7 with eight consecutive runs, then quarterback Jim Druckenmiller zipped a pass in the flat to Scales, whose touchdown put the Hokies on top 20-17 with 2:14 left in the third quarter.
Pitt's offense went three and out, and on the first play of the fourth quarter Druckenmiller launched a pass that traveled almost 60 yards before Scales ran under it at the Pitt 25. Scales, who had Rasshad Whitmill beat by about three steps, put Tech on top 27-17 with a 71-yard touchdown, Tech's longest pass play of the year.
Pitt, however, was not done - yet. The Panthers drove to the Hokies' 19, but on second down Lytle succumbed to Tech's defensive pressure. As Pierson Prioleau was about to bury him on a safety blitz, Lytle lofted a pass that Loren Johnson intercepted and returned 57 yards to Pitt's 26.
``It was a wounded duck,'' said coach Johnny Majors, who called his team's overall play perhaps its best game of the season. ``It shouldn't have been thrown.''
The Hokies capitalized, scoring on Oxendine's second touchdown run of the game to take a comfortable 34-17 lead.
``When they went up 17-13, I was like `We're not playing as hard as we should,' '' offensive tackle Jay Hagood said. ``I could feel it on the field, and even I was just going through the motions. We were being lackadaisical. I felt like at halftime we should have been up about three touchdowns.''
Tech churned up 265 yards rushing compared with Pitt's 76. But Tech receivers dropped at least six catchable balls, and the defense was hindered by the absence of perhaps its three best players.
All-American end Cornell Brown missed his second game following arthroscopic knee surgery, linebacker Myron Newsome was out with a shoulder injury and linebacker Tony Morrison from Chesapeake was suspended. Coach Frank Beamer would not say why.
``I didn't think we were a sharp football team,'' Beamer said. ``Every time they got up, we answered.'' by CNB