Rice battles Texas in Ausin in rematch

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by John Fredland

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Last Oct. 16, the Owls hosted the University of Texas on a rainy Sunday night. Rice had not beaten the Longhorns since 1965.

In front of a national-television audience, the Owls pulled out a 19-17 victory and sent all followers of the team into a state of delirium.

Rice, 1-2-1 this season after a 21-21 tie last week at Army, will go for a second straight victory over Texas tomorrow at 1 p.m.

The game will be the final Southwest Conference game between the two teams, although they will begin a non-conference series with a game in Houston in 1997.

The Longhorns, 3-1 overall, 1-0 in the SWC, are ranked 16th in the USA Today /CNN coaches' poll.

Immediately following its 35-10 victory over Southern Methodist University last week, Texas turned to the Owls.

"They embarrassed us last year," nose guard Chris Atkins said. "It was the turning point of our season. We'll be ready to play for sure this week."

Receiver Matt Davis said, "We didn't play like we would have wanted (against SMU). We want to score a bunch of points next week against Rice."

The Owls are downplaying Longhorn revenge rhetoric.

"Some of those guys talking this week didn't really show up for the game last year," quarterback Josh LaRocca said.

"So, let them talk. It's all fun and games. Personally, I don't think what is said in the newspapers means a hill of beans. Once you get on the field, that's when the real talking starts."

Rice linebacker Larry Izzo claims that the greater annoyance is the attitude of Texas fans.

"I don't have a problem with the Texas players," Izzo said.

"I hope they come out to play. Their players are great. It's really the little frat punks that bother me."

Offensively, they deploy a strong collection of skill players and protect them with a huge offensive line. Texas is averaging 479.0 yards of total offense per game.

The Longhorn offense, however, has been mistake-prone. In their last three games, they have committed 13 turnovers.

"We would like for them to give us turnovers," Hatfield said. "When you go for big plays, like they do, you are more suspect to turn the ball over."

Defensively, the Longhorns have been hurt by the absence of their top defensive player, defensive end Tony Brackens. He is listed as being questionable to play against Rice.

In action from this weekend, J. Parker's 44-yard field goal as time expired rallied the Cadets to a 21-21 tie last Saturday against Rice. Army set up the tying kick by driving for 54 yards on 14 plays in the final 1:46 without the benefit of a time out.

The tie was bitter for the Owls, who were in control of the game when they took a 21-7 lead with their first drive of the second half.

"It's more than a loss because, basically, we blew it," LaRocca said. "We scored to start the second half, and we let them get back into it. I'm sick right now."

The Owls had jumped to the 21-7 lead on the strength of their most consistent offensive and defensive play of the season.

After Army marched down the field on its first possession to take a 7-0 lead on a John Conroy 8-yard run, the Rice defense shut down the Cadets for the rest of the half.

LaRocca, running a balanced offense, led the Owls on two second-quarter scoring drives.

On the first, he tied the score by hitting split end Thad Bridges with a 25-yard touchdown pass.

When Rice got the ball back, LaRocca moved them to a second touchdown. LaRocca hit Jamey Whitlock for 18 yards and pitched to Rodd Newhouse for 21 yards.

Whitlock capped the drives with a 1-yard run to put Rice up 14-7.

Rice extended the lead on its first drive of the second half. Starting at his own 35, LaRocca hit Venghaus with passes of 14 and 18 yards to get the Owls started.

Five plays later Keilone Gordon scored on a 14-yard run for a 21-7 advantage.

The Owls didn't pick up another first down for the rest of the game.

"We thought we had some good plays (after we took the 21-7 lead), but we made some blocking mistakes," Hatfield said. "We did get conservative, but we also didn't execute very well."

Army then came back to life on offense and drove for a 42-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 21-10.

The Army defense forced a quick punt, and the Cadet offense responded with a 5-yard Steve Carpenter touchdown run.

Rice appeared to have stopped the ensuing two-point conversion, but defensive back Bobby Dixon was penalized for defensive holding. Carpenter ran the ball in on the second try to make it 21-18 with 13 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Owl defense recovered from those two drives to stymie Army for most of the fourth quarter.

Rice stopped Army three times on fourth down in the final quarter. Izzo led the way with 20 tackles on the afternoon, the most for an Owl since Dan Foster had 21 in1981.

However, the team could not control the ball on offense for long enough in the fourth quarter, which allowed Army its final opportunity.

Disappointed by losing a game which they felt they had won, the Owls left West Point hoping that they could achieve consistency in time for the SWC schedule.

"Our goal for this year is a SWC championship and a bowl," nose guard Larry Thompson said. "We need to get five more wins in our next seven games...We've made it real tight for ourselves."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the October 6, 1995 issue.

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