| Score by Quarters | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Score |
| Purdue | 10 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 19 |
| Penn State | 3 | 10 | 0 | 13 | 26 |
| Scoring Summary | ||
| 1st | 14:46 | PUR - Dorien Bryant 98-yard kickoff return (Summers kick) |
| 10:23 | PSU - Kevin Kelly 26-yard field goal | |
| 08:47 | PUR - Chris Summers 45-yard field goal | |
| 2nd | 03:11 | PSU - Derrick Williams 5-yard pass from Morelli (Kelly kick) |
| 00:00 | PSU - Kevin Kelly 24-yard field goal | |
| 3rd | 08:28 | PUR - Chris Summers 28-yard field goal |
| 01:40 | PUR - Chris Summers 50-yard field goal | |
| 4th | 13:46 | PSU - Derrick Williams 12-yard run (Kick failed) |
| 03:46 | PSU - Evan Royster 26-yard run (Kelly kick) | |
| 01:53 | PUR - Chris Summers 37-yard field goal | |
UNIVERSITY PARK — A win on Senior Day, for obvious reasons, means
a lot to each group of Penn State seniors. It’s the last time they
will ride to the stadium in the blue buses, the last time they will run
through the tunnel and the last time they will play before 100-some-odd
thousand home fans.
But sending those seniors out with a satisfying, if
sloppy, 26-19 win Saturday over Purdue in Beaver Stadium meant just as
much to the rest of the Nittany
Lions.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about all week,” freshman
tailback Evan Royster said. “That was the main point.” Senior
linebacker Dan Connor broke the school’s career tackles record,
but junior partner Sean Lee made the game’s most important play,
knocking the ball out of Jaycen Taylor’s hand at Penn State’s
goal line late in the first quarter.
Senior quarterback Anthony Morelli
had an effective day throwing the football, but got a huge boost from
his main advocate, junior wide receiver
Derrick Williams, who piled up 151 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.
Senior tailback Rodney Kinlaw ran for 84 yards on 12 carries, but after
he lost a fourth-quarter fumble, Royster picked him up with a 26-yard
touchdown run.
The Nittany Lions (7-3, 4-3 Big Ten) needed every one of
those contributions to subdue a self-destructive but scrappy group of
Boilermakers (7-3,
3-3).
Pounded 37-17 by No. 1 Ohio State here the previous week, Penn State
trailed by seven points just 14 seconds into the game after Dorien Bryant
took the opening kickoff back 98 yards for a touchdown.
And, although
they racked up 243 yards of offense in the first half, the Nittany Lions
had just three points against a suspect Purdue defense
midway through the second quarter before Williams gave them a spark.
During
a 10-play, 77-yard touchdown drive (which would have started at the Purdue
44-yard line had Williams’ 26-yard punt return
not been wiped out for a block in the back), Williams caught a 9-yard
pass, rushed for 9 yards on an end-around and caught a 5-yard pass from
Morelli to tie the score at 10-10 with 3:11 left in the half.
Williams’ 12-yard touchdown run on a reverse in the first
two minutes of the fourth quarter gave the Nittany Lions a 19-16 lead
(holder Jeremy Boone mishandled the extra-point snap). The junior finished
with a career-high 10 catches for 95 yards, two carries for 21 yards
and had 35 yards on returns. His senior teammates were a big part of
his inspiration. “Those were the guys that came here not knowing
what way this program was going to come,” Williams said. “They’ve
been doing a great job showing their leadership, and there’s no
better way than to lead them out with a win.”
After the Nittany Lions forced a three-and-out on the next series, Kinlaw’s
25-yard run put his team in position for another score. But after cutting outside
on a 19-yard carry, he fumbled after a hit by Anthony Heygood, and Purdue’s
Cliff Avril recovered at the 6-yard line. Replays showed Kinlaw was close to
going out-of-bounds before the fumble but replays could not provide conclusive
evidence to overturn the call.
 |
On Penn State’s next series, Royster rushed for 47 of the 65 yards on a 12-play drive, including the final 26 on a burst up the middle.
“We ran that play probably 20 times today,” said Royster, who notched his first career 100-yard game with 126 on 21 carries. “It was just blocked right and everything opened up.”
It was Morelli’s 2-yard quarterback sneak on 4th-and-1 from the Purdue 45, though, that gave him the shot. “That was the football game if we make the first down there,” said Penn State coach Joe Paterno of the decision to go for it. “...I thought.”
The Penn State defense, which allowed 68 points in the previous two games and had been utterly dominated — failing to force a punt — by a balanced Ohio State offense, kept Purdue’s capable spread attack out of the end zone for the second straight year (Penn State beat the Boilermakers 12-0 in West Lafayette last season) and held it to 255 total yards. Purdue quarterback Curtis Painter was 27-of-48 for 255 yards but was sacked four times (twice by sophomore defensive end Maurice Evans) and completed just 13 of his final 31 attempts.
“He was trying to get the ball out quick to his receivers,” said Penn State sophomore A.J. Wallace, who saw increased playing time at cornerback. “But due to our good coverage and our defensive line just making him scramble, that provided the ill-advised throws and made the defense even harder to go against.”
Wallace batted down Painter’s desperation Hail-Mary pass in the end zone in the final seconds, but the defense’s biggest play came late in the first quarter.
An 18-yard completion from Painter to Selwyn Lymon on third down gave the Boilermakers, already up 10-3, a first-and-goal from the Penn State 5-yard line. Two plays later, from the 1, Taylor dove toward the end zone, extending the ball out with one hand. Lee knocked it away and recovered the fumble, and the Nittany Lions had momentum for the first time.
Bryant’s kickoff return wasn’t the only important special teams play. Purdue kicker Chris Summers connected on field goals of 45, 28, 50 and 37 yards and, after the last one pulled his team to within seven points with 1:53 to play, executed a near-perfect onside kick that went in and out of the hands of Greg Orton. Penn State’s Brett Brackett came up with the ball, allowing the Nittany Lions to run all but the final 18 seconds off the clock.
Penn State’s Kevin Kelly made field goals of 26 and 24 yards, the second — which gave Penn State a 13-10 halftime lead — coming after he had missed a 30-yarder but received another shot when Terrell Vinson roughed the kicker.
The Nittany Lion seniors finished with a 22-6 record at Beaver Stadium. They had plenty of help in recording the final win. “That’s the one thing I wanted to do — send those seniors out with a win,” said Penn State defensive end Josh Gaines, a redshirt junior. “I came in with those guys. They’ve been here since I’ve been here. They’re my brothers. I look up to those guys.” (Written by Jeff Rice, CDT)