The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 6, 1987 Page: 15 of 20
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THRESHER Sports Friday, November 6. 1987 15
Owls go down fighting in tough SWC match
by Steve Nations
And then, frustration set in....
The Rice Owls played another
tough game against a tough opponent,
and again they put a scare into their
foe before falling short in the fourth
quarter. After losing 38-14 to Arkan-
sas on Halloween the Owls know
more than ever the frustration associ-
ated with coming close.
"I'm glad we're not playing this
week," said Head Coach Jerry Berndt
at his Monday press conference,
"because I'm not sure our guys could
get fired up for this week after two
tough losses like we've had."If you'll
recall, Rice lost to Texas A&M the
week before despite playing the
Aggies very close through three quar-
ters.
Against Arkansas, Rice was trail-
ing only 17-14 going into the fourth
quarter, but three late touchdowns by
the Hogs butchered any chance for a
Rice upset.
Rice has now played on Halloween
ten times, and strangely enough all ten
of those have been home games for
the Owls. But this latest game could
easily have been the spookiest of
them all. "Saturday had all the ingre-
dients of a very special day," Berndt
said. The members of Rice's 1937
S outhwest Conference championship
team were holding their reunion last
weekend; the parents of most of the
players were in attendence at the
game and were introduced at
halftime; and Rice was facing one of
the better teams in the Southwest
Conference. An upset would have
made for an unforgettable weekend.
Unfortunately this game will very
likely go down as the game that saw
the quickest score by a Rice opponent
After only 16 ticks of the clock the
Razorbacks had a 7-0 advantage, and
from there they never looked back.
But the real crusher came early in the
fourth quarter, when Arkansas took
the ball on their own 11 yard line and
drove 89 yards, all on the ground, in
17 plays to take a 24-14 lead. From
there it was all Hogs, as they added
two more touchdowns before time
expired.
Mark Comalander started the game
in place of the injured Quentis Roper,
and proceeded to rack up some fine
numbers. Mark completed 15 of 28
passes for 191 yards, including two
touchdowns and two interceptions.
"It felt good to be out there,"
Comalander said. "I'm tired, but it's a
good kind of tired. I felt like I did
some good things, and I did some
things I need to work on." As fine a
game as Mark played, though, and as
beautiful as those two touchdown
passes were (and they were very
beautiful), his first play was a com-
plete disaster.
After receiving the opening kick-
off, Rice was penalized for holding on
the first snap. So the first real play of
the game was a first and 20 to-go play,
with Comalander calling an audible at
the line of scrimmage. But tailback
Todd Jones didn't hear the audible
and hence was not where Comalander
thought he would be when he pitched
the ball. The fumble rolled down to
the one-yard line, where it was recov-
ered by Arkansas Safety Steve Atwa-
ter. Halfback James Rouse dove over
for the Hogs on the next play, and
Arkansas was quickly on top 7-0.
"We just handed them their first
touchdown," noted Berndt.
The Owls seem to be in a habit of
digging themselves a hole early, but
they have never been in a habit of
letting that early deficit bother them.
"We always fight back," said flanker
Chris Nixon, "and that's something to
be proud of." And in this case the
Owls' pride led them back quickly.
Recovering from the early miscue,
Comalander launched a 53-yard pass
to receiver Darrell Goolsby, burning
Atwater in the process, and setting up
a 15-yard scoring strike to Goolsby
just a few seconds later. Unfortu-
nately, Goolsby sustained a shoulder
injury in the play and will be out for at |
least two weeks.
Later in the first quarter Arkansas
blocked Rice' s Glen Ray Hines' punt,
leading to a 48-yard field goal by Hog
kicker Kendall Trainor. The find
score of the first half came early in the
second quarter when Arkansas just
pounded out a 45-yard drive in 11
plays, taking a 17-7 lead. Arkansas
started six of its 13 drives in Rice
territory, and only three times drove
the ball across rpidfield, either be-
cause it didn't have to in order to
S
Ue supply boarding passes,
car, reservation, passport
hotel,
inf...
Donald Hollas confronts a Hog from hillbilly country
score, or the Rice defense intervened.
Although Rice put the only points
on the board in the third quarter, the
period really belonged to Arkansas.
Comalander had the hot hand early in
the second half, and completed passes
of 30, 18, and 15 yards, the last a
touchdown toss to Chris Nixon that
was one of the finest passes anybody
has thrown at Ricc S tadium in a while.
Those points brought the score to 17-
14.
Through the third quarter, though,
Rice held the ball for less than five
minutes. All those minutes on the
field began to wear down the defense.
This tired Rice defense finally al-
lowed the Arkansas running game to
kick into gear.
Late in the quarter Arkansas was
backed up to their 11-yard line, the
worst field position they would have
all day, and ran off 17 consecutive
rushing plays to go the length of the
field. "I was hoping that at some point
we'd come up with a big play," said
Bemdt. "Maybe get somebody in the
gap and cause a fumble." Safety
Donald Hollas agreed that this was a
key poifit in the game. "It seemed like
when they had that drive it really took
us out of our game," Hollas said. "I
—H. Turner
think their size was a big factor. They
wore us out."
After the Razorbacks pounded out
the touchdown and took a 24-14 lead
it was all down hill for Rice, despite
playing very well for three quarters.
But the strong showing didn't sur-
prise the Owls. "When the fourth
quarter started," said Comalander,
"only us 65 players and the coaches
thought we'd be where we were."
"We always have faith in our-
selves," echoed linebacker Kyle Falk.
"Nobody else has faith in us except
our parents and coaches." Believe in
yourself and anything is possible.
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Raphael, Michael J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 6, 1987, newspaper, November 6, 1987; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245677/m1/15/?rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.