ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610150034
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
After being knocked to the canvas at Syracuse two weeks ago, Virginia Tech's football team obviously decided it was time to administer some punishment of its own.
In a classic show of smash-mouth football Saturday afternoon in front of 44,208 fans at sunny Lane Stadium, the Hokies threw the hammer to Temple 38-0.
Going back to blue-collar basics - running the ball down the opponent's throat and playing suffocating defense - Tech came out throwing haymakers early and quickly floored punchless Temple.
``We really needed this,'' said Tech coach Frank Beamer. ``We needed this to kind of wipe out the memory of that bad game at Syracuse [a 52-21 loss].''
Mission accomplished.
Getting holes big enough to steer 18-wheelers through, Tech's 1-2 tailback tandem of Ken Oxendine and Marcus Parker combined for all but 96 of a season-high 349 yards rushing. Oxendine rumbled for a career-high 163 yards and three touchdowns, while Parker, in his first game back off an August suspension, ran six times for a career-best 90 yards.
Defensively, Tech (4-1 overall, 3-1 Big East) looked like its old self despite playing without All-American end Cornell Brown, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery this week. A week after running up 619 yards and scoring 52 points at Pitt, Temple (1-5, 0-2) mustered just 197 yards and a doughnut against Tech.
``Oh, yeah, this was Tech defense today,'' said junior end Danny Wheel. ``If we play defense like this the rest of the year, we won't lose another game.''
There was no such concern this day.
On its first possession, Tech lined up and ran the ball 10 straight times in going 62 yards to make it 7-0. Oxendine carried the final eight times for 52 yards, including a 1-yard sweep off a pitch for the touchdown on fourth-and-goal.
Two drives later, the Hokies made it 14-0 when Shawn Scales took a flanker screen from Jim Druckenmiller and followed a convoy of blockers 64 yards to the end zone.
Less than three minutes later it was 21-zip. Parker, on his second carry, brought the crowd to its feet with a 73-yard scamper to the Temple 1. The former Salem High School star got the score on the next play, bowling over the left side into the end zone.
Leading 24-0 at halftime after a Shayne Graham 20-yard field goal, Oxendine finished off the beleaguered visitors in the third quarter, ripping off touchdown runs of 25 and 71 yards.
``It's great to make a block and look down the field and see your running backs running untouched,'' said Tech center Billy Conaty.
While Parker declined to discuss his game with the media afterward, Oxendine was glad to talk. After all, career rushing days don't come along every week.
``Any game you play you want to be in the spotlight and be the dude,'' Oxendine said. ``I guess a lot of things I did was right.''
Oxendine said he and Parker roomed together Friday night and talked about how they go about business come game time. Saturday, it became a friendly contest of one-upsmanship.
``After he had that long run I said, `I've got to top that,''' Oxendine said.
The Oxendine-Parker show certainly was a splendid sight to Beamer. After all, this was the way the coach figured things would be, at least until Parker was suspended Aug. 14 for shoplifting.
``Marcus Parker will make an impact on this team,'' Beamer said. ``We're going to work him some at fullback this week so we can get him in the game even more, which he deserves.''
Tech averaged 7.6 yards per rush and 8.1 yards per offensive play against the Philadelphia visitors'swiss-cheese defense.
``Temple has some nice-sized guys up front and I thought it would be a tough game,'' Oxendine said. ``I didn't think it would be as easy as it was today.''
On the other side of the ball, Tech made for a miserable day for Temple quarterback Henry Burris, who entered the game Saturday as the Big East's leader in passing yardage (1,219 yards) and total offense (253.2 yards per game).
Burris, who registered a league-record 495 yards total offense last Saturday, was held to 103 yards passing and 12 rushing by Tech. He was sacked seven times for 41 yards in losses.
``This was no game,'' Burris said. ``If you don't put no points on the board being a Big East team and Division I, that's just no game. We didn't move the ball. We didn't execute good. It was just bad offense.''
Or if you're Tech, it was just good defense.
``It was really nice to see our defense swarming that quarterback,'' Beamer said. ``When you can get around that quarterback, make him move his feet we did a good job of disrupting things.
``It was especially good to know our defense could play that well with some key people out of the lineup. Of course, we miss Cornell Brown. But some others took up the slack.''
Temple coach Ron Dickerson said he figured his team could be walking into a baited trap.
``We were expecting pressure,'' Dickerson said. ``Earlier this week I told our offensive coaches that they got embarrassed at Syracuse and we happened to be [the] next date. We knew they were going to pin their ears back and come at us.''
Tech got big efforts up front from a defensive line that because of injuries started three former walk-ons - Wheel, Kerwin Hairston and John Engelberger.
Engelberger and Waverly Jackson, who didn't start because of a sprained back, each had two sacks.
Would Brown, who was conspicously absent on the Tech sideline, have approved?
``Yes sir,'' Wheel said. ``Cornell would have liked it.''
So did thousands of others wearing Chicago maroon and burnt orange. see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. GENE DALTON STAFF Virginia Tech's Myron Newsomeby CNB(center) and Kerwin Hairston bring down Temple quarterback Henry
Burris in the first half. color
2. GENE DALTON STAFF Marcus Parker shakes loose Temple's Tom Indio
on a 73-yard run to the 1, from where he scored on the next play.
color
3. ALAN KIM STAFF Tech's Ken Oxendine scores the first of his three
touchdowns. The junior rushed for 163 yards.
4. ALAN KIM STAFF Tech's Keion Carpenter blocks a Jeff Boies punt
midway through the first quarter. The Hokies recovered on Temple's
37-yard-line, but didn't score.