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 WICHITA
FALLS, Tex. (UPI) Maxie Lambright is a happy man. He has reason to be.
Lambright has been head football coach at Louisiana Tech the past five
seasons and has had a couple of outstanding quarterbacks lead him to
three bowl games in the past four years
"You can say what you want to about winning, but it sure feels good to
whatever's second." Lambright said Sunday. His Bulldogs defeated
third-ranked Eastern Michigan, 14-3, Saturday in the first annual
Pioneer Bowl to claim the NCAA College Division Midwest championship.
A big part of Lambright's success has been his quarterbacking. His first
two postseason games came with Terry Bradshaw at quarterback. Saturday’s
victory was led by Bradshaw's understudy, Ken Lantrip.
"Kenny apparently learned well." Lambright said of his senior signal
caller, who was voted the outstanding offensive player. "Just look what
kind of a day he had against Eastern Michigan and the number of school
records he set to wipe out some of Terry's footprints.”
Lantrip threw a 17-yard touchdown aerial to tailback Glen Bertreau with
2:17 left in the initial quarter, capping a 55-yard, nine-play Bulldog
drive. He finished the afternoon with 170 yards passing, hitting 15 of
24.
"I didn't have much of a game.” Lantrip said afterwards. “I should have
done better. We should have scored more. Although, I'm happy we won, it
was a disappointing way to end a collegiate career.”
Lambright was quick to admit the advanced billing of the game lived up
to every expectation,
"Eastern Michigan was certainly a defensive team.” he said "Both of
their tackles were really outstanding, and they shut us down pretty
well."
It was the first time this season that Louisiana Tech had been held to
under 20 points- and against the Hurons, Louisiana Tech not only had
trouble generating an offense, but had to play tough defense the fading
minutes to beat back two Eastern Michigan threats.
The only other touchdown in the game came midway through the third
quarter when Bulldog cornerback Weldon Wilborn broke a punt return and
galloped 91 yards
Eastern Michigan’s dreams of a victory in its first bowl in 79 years
were shattered as the Huron’s offense fizzled. The Hurons prevented a
shutout with a 22-yard field goal by Jackson Nunn just before the half.
Its next closest surge came on a 75-yard drive, but on fourth and three,
EMU's Tim Packrell- who picked up 125 yards rushing for the day- was
just short of a first down and Louisiana took over.
Huron gridmaster Dan Boisture was as gracious in losing as he had been
all season in winning despite his disappointment. "When you can't get
any points on the board, you don't make any excuses. Give the defense
all the credit, it turned in its usual fine game."
Boisture wasted little time in postmortems after the game. Instead, on
the plane ride back to Ypsilanti, he started looking ahead to next
year's team.
"We're far behind in recruiting and I'm going to have to get the staff
together Monday and get going on making contacts," he said.
The game was played before 7,000 fans and a regional television audience
of 77 stations in 22 states.
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