September 19, 1998

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Now this is how Penn State-Pitt games used to be - and how

almost nobody outside of Pittsburgh's locker room predicted it would be.

Kevin Thompson hit Chafie Fields on a 60-yard scoring pass in the third

quarter and No. 8 Penn State, played unexpectedly tough by 25-point underdog

Pittsburgh, was forced to rely on its defense to win 20-13 Saturday.

It was the Penn State's sixth consecutive victory in a 105-year-old series

that was interrupted from 1993-96, but it didn't come nearly as easily or as

quickly as the Nittany Lions figured it would.

"We didn't expect it to be this close," said Travis Forney, who kicked

field goals of 34 and 27 yards.

So much for the talk that Penn State's first close game wouldn't come until

its Oct. 3 showdown with No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus.

"I thought we needed a good tough football game to get us into the next

part of the season, and it was close," said coach Joe Paterno, whose 301st

career victory came much tougher than No. 300, a 48-3 romp over Bowling Green.

"It always is in Pittsburgh."

Penn State (3-0) converted two of Pittsburgh's three turnovers into Forney

field goals and sacked Pitt's Matt Lytle eight times - four by LaVar Arrington

- for 53 yards. Arrington also made an interception.

But the Lions led only 13-6 until Fields got behind cornerback Tray Crayton

on a second-and-7 play with 21 seconds left in the third quarter.

Crayton tried to bump Fields, but got turned around and the much-faster

Fields was five yards ahead when Thompson hit him in stride. It was Fields'

third career touchdown and his first this season. Fields made four catches for

66 yards.

The Fields touchdown no doubt dampened Crayton's postgame engagement party.

He planned to marry his girlfriend hours after the game until deciding at

midweek to delay the ceremony until May.

Until Fields' score, the thousands of Penn State fans in the

standing-room-only crowd of 56,743 were getting anxious as Pitt (1-1), which

barely beat Division I-AA Villanova 48-41 on Sept. 5, kept the score close.

"We came out pretty flat," said Penn State receiver Joe Nastasi, who set

up Mike Cerimele's first-quarter touchdown with a 40-yard reception. "We

weren't playing the way we should have played and certainly the way we are

capable of playing. Pitt took us out of our game."

The Panthers trailed 10-3 at halftime and had a chance to tie it early in

the second half. But a cautious Pitt coach Walt Harris went for Paul Ruzila's

30-yard field goal on fourth-and-1 from the Lions 13 rather than the touchdown.

Penn State had opened a 10-0 lead on Cerimele's recovery of his own end zone

fumble after a 16-yard run in the first quarter and Forney's 34-yard field goal

following Kevan Barlow's fumble.

Harris' decision to forego the possible tying touchdown meant Lytle's 2-yard

scoring dive with 3:26 remaining made it 20-13. As a result, Pitt was not in a

position to tie it with a field goal on its final possession.

"It was my decision, and I thought the right thing was to go for it,"

Harris said. "We had some momentum and I had confidence in our team."

Lytle's 24-yard keeper to the Penn State 16 led to his own score on a drive

that saw the usually efficient Lions defense called twice for pass

interference.

Pitt, trying to duplicate its breathless fourth-quarter comeback in its

final regular season game against West Virginia last season, got the ball back

with 1:26 to play. But Lytle was sacked on three consecutive plays, then threw

incomplete on fourth down with 18 seconds remaining.

Lytle, Pitt's 1996 starting quarterback but a benchwarmer last season after

being beaten out by Pete Gonzalez, finished 13-of-29 for 164 yards and two

interceptions.

Lytle disagreed that a close loss was a big morale booster for a painfully

inexperienced Pitt team that isn't expected to duplicate last year's 6-6

record.

"A loss is a loss, whether it's 20-13 or ..." he said. "A close game only

makes it worse. We didn't execute on offense, and their defensive front seven

is the toughest I've seen."

Thompson, playing most of the way as Paterno scrapped his two-quarterback

rotation with Rashard Casey in the second quarter, was 8-of-21 for 146 yards.

Penn State's leading rusher, Cordell Mitchell, was held to 56 yards after

averaging 101.5 yards in the first two games.

"I don't know what happened but we didn't play well offensively at all,"

Nastasi said. "We need to go back and correct whatever mistakes we made."

The crowd on a humid, 83-degree day was the largest at Pitt Stadium since

57,158 saw the 1989 game against Penn State. The Nittany Lions had played in

Pittsburgh only once since then, in 1991.