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Liberty Bowl 1981
Ohio State 31 Navy 28
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Scblichter's passing was off in the first half, he completed only 4 of 12, although he did hit Gary Williams with a 50 yarder (video). But he came on in the second half and his 9-yard toss to flanker Cedric Anderson in the fourth quarter broke a Buckeye record for touchdown passes for a season with 17 (video).
Gayle scored on touchdown runs of 1 and 2 yards. Backup quarterback and kicker Bob Atha hit a 35-yard field goal to round out Ohio State’s scoring.
Navy's first touchdown came with only eight seconds left in the first quarter.
The Midshipmen took the lead in the third period when middle guard George Herlong blocked Karl Edwards' punt and linebacker Kenneth Olsen ran it 20 yards for a touchdown to make it 20-17 (video).
Minute’s later Ohio got the ball on the Navy 37 after a 24-yard punt by Steve Fehr. Schlichter passed twice to tailback Tim Spencer and twice more to Anderson to put the ball at the 16. Five plays later Gayle ran it in from the 2 to put Ohio State ahead for good at 24-20.
Navy quarterback Marco Pagnanelli pulled the Midshipmen out of a 10-0 first half deficit by completing 7 of 12 passes for 142 yards, far above his usual 121-yard average for an entire game.
With Ohio State ahead 10-0, Navy put together a nine-play, 77-yard drive that ateup nearly eight minutes. It appeared stalled, but then Fehr faked a punt and threw his only pass of the season, a high spiral to Brian Cianelli for a 39-yard gain to the Buckeye 16. Six plays later Pagnanelli faked inside and threw 1 yard to tight end Gregory Papajohn for a touchdown that pulled Navy within three.
In the second quarter, another Navy drive stalled at the Ohio State 24 and Fehr kicked a 41 yard field goal to tie it 10-10.
The Buckeyes pulled ahead again minutes later when tackle Jerome Foster recovered a Pagnanelli fumble and seven plays later Gayle skipped in for his 1 yard score.
Navy then drove from its own 20 to tie Buckeye 23 and Fehr kicked a 23-yard field goal that made the halftime score 17-13.
Pagnanelli threw a 1 yard touchdown pass to Papajohn with eight seconds left and threw to Papajohn again for the 2-point conversion to bring the Midshipmen to within 3 points at the end.
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Navy kicker Steve Fehr tackled by OSU Cedric Anderson as he chases ball. |
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Navy's Eddie Meyers ran for 117 yards. |
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Navy quarterback Marco Pagnanelli outplayed OSU's Art Art Schlichter in the loss.
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Attendance- 43,216
Scoring Summary
First Quarter OSU- FG Atha 35 OSU- Williams 50 yard pass from Schlichter (Atha kick) Navy- Papajohn 1 yard pass from Pagnanelli (Fehr kick)
Second Quarter Navy- FG Fehr 41 OSU- Gayle 1 run (Atha kick) Navy- FG Fehr 23
Third Quarter Navy- Olson 20 yard block punt return (Fehr kick) OSU- J. Gayle 2 run (Atha kick)
Fourth Quarter OSU- Anderson 9 yard pass from Schlichter (Atha kick) Navy- Papajohn 1 yard pass from Pagnanelli (Papajohn pass from Pagnanelli)
Individual Statistics
Rushing Navy- Myers 30-117 OSU- Spencer 22-96, J. Gayle 15-88, Broadnax 4-11
Passing Navy- Pagnanelli 14-27-201 OSU- Schlichter 11-26-159
Receiving Navy- Papajohn 4-41, Weller 2-50, McCallum 2-45, Yelder 3-27, Meyers 3-15, Caimello 1-39, Jackson 1-13 OSU- Anderson 5-57, Williams 2-61, Frank 3-36
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MEMPHIS,
Tenn. (UPI) Art Schlichter threw touchdown passes of 50 and 9 yards and
Jimmy Gayle scampered for two more scores Wednesday night lifting Ohio
State to a 31-28 victory over Navy in the 23rd annual Liberty Bowl,
