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 NCAA Football Recap (Arizona-Penn St) Posted: Sat August 28, 1999 at 6:19 p.m. EDT STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Ticker) -- Not even a bee sting could spoil the start of Joe Paterno's 50th season in Happy Valley. Paterno enjoyed a smothering performance by Penn State, as Chafie Fields caught a 37-yard touchdown pass and exploded 70 yards on an end-around in the game's first six minutes to trigger a 41-7 rout of Arizona in the Pigskin Classic. It was the first game of the college football season. Linebacker LaVar Arrington spearheaded a dominant defensive effort before getting injured with 3:48 left in the third quarter. It initially was believed Arrington, who returned to the bench without his pads, had cramps in his leg, but he is slated to be further examined. Paterno said he was stung by a bee on his hand late in the game and during his postgame press conference accidentally rubbed some of the medicine into his eye. He was sweating heavily. "I got him before he got me," Paterno said of the bee. Paterno, who has been head coach at Penn State since 1966 after starting 50 years ago as an assistant, watched his team get after Arizona, which had hopes for a national championship following the best season in school history. Paterno's all-time record climbed to 308-80-3 in a game he did not want to play. Athletic director Timothy Curley scheduled the game that the coach had wished -- at least beforehand -- was never slated. "I think it was an act of Jesus," Paterno said. "If you had asked me that last night, I would have said, `I wish Curly never scheduled it.'" The Nittany Lions, now 29-5 in openers under Paterno, took the opening kickoff and marched to the Arizona 37-yard line before Kevin Thompson hit Fields on a slant pass. The fifth-year senior broke a tackle and sprinted to the end zone for a 7-0 lead at 12:04. The Wildcats moved to the Penn State 23 on the next possession but Mark McDonald missed wide right on a 40-yard field goal. One play later, Fields took an end-around back through the middle of the field for a 70-yard scoring run and a 14-0 lead 5:49 into the game. "He's tough in the open field," Paterno said. "He made a couple of good moves. He sees things, he can change directions." Fields responded to criticisms that the offense failed Penn State last season and is overshadowed by the standout defense this year. "Coming off last season, we wanted to show how the offense could play the game," said Fields, who finished with 110 yards on three carries and 76 on three catches, a staggering 31 yards per touch. "We should have had more big plays last year. "This is my last season and I want it to be the best season I've had here." Penn State's momentum stopped on its next possession when backup quarterback Rashard Casey fumbled ball on a 4th-and-2 scramble on at the Arizona 27, halting a 73-yard march. The Wildcats came in with the highly touted tandem system at quarterback but Paterno explained why he let Casey take over the offense. "We had a series of plays that I thought I would leave Kevin in there, and there was another series where I wanted to get Rashard in there, and I didn't want to wait," he said. "There were a couple of games I promised Rashard I would get him in there last season and I didn't. So I didn't want to wait." Linebacker Eric Sturdifen came through with a blocked punt, leading to Travis Forney's 31-yard field goal and a 17-0 lead with 2:13 left in the first quarter. "We were prepared to play well," said Paterno. "We worked hard and I told the kids we were going to play well. We worked hard for 25 practices. Arizona is a great football team, but I didn't expect to go down the field and down the field like that." After a punt, Thompson threw a swing pass to freshman tailback Larry Johnson, who rumbled 60 yards through a series of bad tackles attempts to push the lead to 24-0 with 8:35 left in the second quarter. Kenny Watson returned a punt 28 yards to his own 39 and Fields started the next scoring drive with a 20-yard run. Casey threw a 31-yard pass to tailback Eric McCoo on 3rd-and-10 and fullback Aaron Harris blasted 15 yards for a touchdown on a draw to make it 31-0 still 5:13 before the half. Arrington had five of his seven tackles, including all three for losses, in the first half. Safety Askari Adams led the way with eight stops and defensive end Justin Kurpeikis had seven tackles and two sacks as Arizona concentrated on defensive end Courtney Brown and the standout linebacking corps. Brown also had two sacks. Penn State had 504 yards of total offense, 262 on the ground. Arizona finished with 356 yards but failed to score in the first half despite a combined 14-of-15 passing effort by Keith Smith and Ortege Jenkins. Smith, who left in the fourth quarter after a hit on his lower leg, was 17-of-21 for 128 yards. Jenkins was 8-of-14 for 104 yards. Casey was 6-of-10 for 107 yards while Thompson went 5-of-8 for 135 yards and threw the game's only interception. Forney kicked a 47-yard field goal and Omar Easy scored on a one-yard run in the third quarter to build the bulge to 41-0. Leo Mills foiled the shutout with a one-yard touchdown plunge with 47 seconds left.© 2000 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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