James the Star as Miami Ends Losing Streak

Miami needed the best rushing performance in school history by Edgerrin James and a failed two-point conversion in overtime to stop its longest losing streak in 20 years.

James ran for 271 yards and three touchdowns, all in the first four quarters, and the Hurricanes beat Boston College, 45-44, Saturday in a Big East game at Boston.

Both teams scored touchdowns on their two overtime possessions, which start 25 yards from the end zone. But the Eagles tried--and missed--a two-pointer after their second score.

That meant if the Hurricanes scored a touchdown on their second possession, all they’d need was a kick to prevail. They faced third-and-18 at the 21 when Ryan Clement threw a touchdown pass to Daryl Jones and Andy Crosland kicked the extra point.

The Hurricanes, 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Big East, won the first overtime game in conference history despite squandering a 24-3 lead after scoring on their first four possessions.

Boston College (2-5, 2-3) wasted rushing performances of 185 yards and three touchdowns, two in overtime, by Omari Walker, and 157 yards and one touchdown by Mike Cloud.

Miami had to play the overtime without James, who left the game holding his shoulder with 3:56 left in the fourth quarter. By that time, he already had scored on a 69-yard run and set records for his school and for the seven-year-old conference.

Syracuse 60, Temple 7--Quinton Spotwood scored three times, including his NCAA record-tying fourth punt return for a touchdown this season, as the Orangemen (5-3, 2-1) rolled over Temple (2-5, 2-2) at Syracuse, N.Y.

When Spotwood returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter it tied the NCAA season record set in 1971 by both Cliff Branch of Colorado and Golden Richards of BYU and equaled in 1987 by James Henry of Southern Mississippi.

Spotwood also had six catches for 92 yards.

Army 37, Rutgers 35--Rob Lalumondier scored two touchdowns and set up Eric Olsen’s game-winning 28-yard field goal as Army (2-4), after blowing a 25-point lead, came back to beat winless Rutgers (0-7) at West Point, N.Y.

Navy 42, VMI 7--Chris McCoy threw three touchdown passes--two to Manny Metcalf--in pacing Navy (3-3) to a rout of VMI (0-7) at Annapolis, Md.

EAST

Senior quarterback Peter Sellers completed 14 of 22 passes for 198 yards, ran for one score and threw for another as undefeated Dartmouth (5-0, 3-0) rolled to a 21-7 Ivy League victory over Yale (1-4, 0-2) at New Haven, Conn. Dartmouth has won 15 in a row and its unbeaten streak has reached 22 games (21-0-1), tying two school records. The 22-game unbeaten streak is two shy of Division I-AA record set by Penn (24-0) in 1992-95. . . . Jim Finn rushed for 138 and a touchdown in 24 carries and returned an interception 18 yards for another score to lead Pennsylvania (2-3, 1-1) to a 24-7 Ivy League victory over Columbia (1-4, 0-2) at New York.

After throwing an interception that gave Colgate (4-2) a late lead, Harry Nakielny tossed a five-yard touchdown pass to Ken Nevarcz with 1:03 left to lift Princeton (4-1) a 31-28 nonconference victory at Hamilton, N.Y. . . . Brad Kiesendahl ran six yards for the game-winning touchdown, his third score of the game, as Cornell (2-3) won, 41-34, in double overtime over Lafayette (1-6) at Ithaca, N.Y. . . . Sophomore Chris Menick rushed for 261 yards--second most in school history--and three touchdowns and sophomore quarterback Rich Linden scored three touchdowns as Harvard (4-1) rolled to a 52-24 victory over Holy Cross at Boston.

MIDWEST

Chris Wallace threw three touchdown passes as Toledo (6-0, 4-0) rolled to a 41-14 victory over Northern Illinois (0-7, 0-4) in a Mid-American Conference game at Toledo, Ohio. Wallace completed 17 of 30 passes for 256 yards to eight receivers. . . . Marshall receiver Randy Moss caught 10 passes for 147 yards and one touchdown, but Travis Prentice set a school rushing record with four touchdowns and a career-high 203 yards in leading Miami of Ohio (6-1, 4-1) to a 45-21 MAC victory at Oxford, Ohio. Chad Pennington threw four interceptions for Marshall (5-2, 3-1). Moss now has 54 catches for 1,003 yards and 17 touchdowns. The game drew a Yager Stadium record 29,027. . . . Kareem Wilson threw two touchdown passes and Tezell Jones tied a school record with three interceptions in leading Ohio (6-1, 4-0) to a 24-0 MAC victory over Bowling Green (3-5, 3-2) at Athens, Ohio. . . . Charlie Batch completed 20 of 23 passes for 439 yards and three touchdowns and Eastern Michigan (3-4, 3-3) amassed 632 yards in a 45-0 MAC victory over Akron (1-6, 1-4) at Ypsilanti, Mich.

SOUTH

Shaun King passed for 258 yards and four touchdowns to lead Tulane (4-2, 3-0) to a 33-16 victory over East Carolina (1-5, 0-2) in a Conference USA game at New Orleans.

SOUTHWEST

Sebastian Villarreal kicked a 37-yard field goal to put Houston (2-4, 1-0) ahead in the second overtime and William Fields recovered a fumble to seal a 41-38 victory over Cincinnati (5-2, 1-2) at Houston. The loss ended Cincinnati’s four-game winning streak. . . . Backup running back Gavin Reed ran for 94 yards and a touchdown and starter Nicko Tatum had 110 yards in leading Boise State (3-4, 2-0) to a 17-14 Big West victory over North Texas (2-5, 0-2) at Denton, Texas.

WEST

John Dutton completed 24 of 32 passes for 470 yards and four touchdowns to lead Nevada (2-5, 1-0) to a 42-23 Big West victory over Idaho (4-3, 1-1) at Reno. . . . Demario Brown ran for three touchdowns to lead Utah State (3-4, 1-0) to a 38-7 Big West victory over New Mexico State (1-6, 0-1) at Logan, Utah. . . . Eric Kinnaman and Travis Wright each rushed for 100 yards and Rob Compson threw three touchdown passes to lead Montana State (4-2, 3-1) to a 31-20 Big Sky Conference victory over Cal State Northridge (3-4, 1-2) at Bozeman, Mont.