Wildcats no match for Lions

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Northwestern's Tyrell Sutton finished with 40 yards in the 33-7 loss.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — In a matchup of the oldest and youngest coaches in Division I-A, Joe Paterno and Penn State defeated Pat Fitzgerald's Northwestern Wildcats, 33-7, Saturday.

Deon Butler set a Penn State record with 216 yards receiving yards and Tony Hunt ran for 137 yards and three touchdowns.

Linebacker Sean Lee had a sack and an interception to thwart back-to-back Northwestern drives in the third quarter, and Penn State took advantage each time by following up with scoring runs by Hunt to break open the game.

Trademark

The second TD, from 6 yards out, was trademark Hunt — stopped just short of the goal line before trudging forward, with help by a gaggle of teammates, to give the Nittany Lions (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) a 33-7 lead.

Penn State was able to move the ball easily most of the day behind Hunt and long completions from Anthony Morelli to Butler. The Lions outgained the Wildcats 329-127 by halftime, but led just 16-7 after having to settle for field goals early.

Penn State finally broke the game open in the third quarter thanks in part to big plays on defense.

Northwestern (2-3, 0-1) redshirt freshman Andrew Brewer, making his first start in place of injured starter Mike Kafka, was sacked at his own 10 by Jay Alford. A penalty pushed Northwestern back another 5 yards before a Maurice Evans and blitzing Lee sacked Brewer at the 1.

Three plays later, Hunt scored from 14 yards to give the Nittany Lions a 26-7 lead.

Lee then picked off Brewer's pass at the Wildcats' 44 on Northwestern's next play from scrimmage. Morelli hit Butler on a couple short completions and connected with a jumping Derrick Williams on a perfect throw over tight coverage before Hunt had his 6-yard score.

Clark involved

Butler finished with 11 catches, and set the Penn State record on his last reception, a 7-yard reception from backup quarterback Darryl Clark late in the fourth quarter. Butler broke O.J. McDuffie's single game receiving yards record of 212, set against Boston College in 1992.

Morelli, making his fifth career start, finished 19-of-33 for 288 yards. Brewer was 14-of-30 for 157 yards and one interception, and ran 17 times for 41 yards.

The Wildcats' only score came in the second quarter after Nick Roach picked off Morelli's only interception of the day and returned it to the Penn State 16.

On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Tyrell Sutton took an option pitch from Brewer and was tackled just short of the end zone by Paul Posluszny but was able to extend the ball over the goal line to cut the Penn State lead to 9-7. Sutton finished with eight carries for 40 yards.

Sunday, October 1, 2006