Скачать или смотреть Northwestern at #17 Penn State - 11/14/1998

Penn State delivered one of its most impressive performances of the season - defeating the Northwestern Wildcats 41-10 in front of 96,382 at Beaver Stadium.

Penn State jumped on the Wildcats early, taking a 14-3 1st-qtr lead off a Mike Cerimele 1-yard TD run (1:34-mark) and an 18-yard hookup between Kevin Thompson and Joe Nastasi (2:08-mark). A 17-3 halftime lead grew to 24-3 when Eric McCoo raced 57-yards while scooping up his own fumble off a fortuitous bounce (6:11-mark). In the 4th-quarter, Penn State converted an Askari Adams' intercpetion (8:15-mark) into a Kevin Thompson 1-yard sneak (8:39-mark) to extend their lead to 34-3. After Northwestern finally reached the endzone with a 20-yard run by running back Sam Simmons (9:09-mark), backup quarterback Rashard Casey led the final scoring drive of the day which was capped by an Aaron Harris 3-yard td run (10:19-mark).

Penn State's defense -- led by future 4 first-team All-Big10 performers in defensive ends Courtney Brown and Brad Scioli and linebackers LaVar Arrington and Brandon Short - completely smothered the Wildcats while racking up an incredible 17 tackles-for-loss and holding Northwestern to 21 yards rushing. Courtney Brown racked up 6 tackles-for-loss by himself and Arrington (who had another "LaVar Leap" 5:04-mark) recorded 3 TFL's.

Penn State place-kicker Travis Forney converted FG's of 22 and 34 yards.

Eric McCoo paced a Nittany Lion ground game that rushed for 248 yards with 11 carries for 127 yards and 1 TD. Northwestern's All-Big10 receiver Dwayne Bates led the Wildcats in receiving with 4 catches for 127 yards.

Penn State improved to 7-2 on the season with Joe Paterno's 305th victory of his career.