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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 625220, member: 289"] THE GAME “Coach Ben Schwartzwalder came back to his alma mater today and was carried off the field in triumph as an underdog bunch of battlers overcame bad breaks to come from behind and give Syracuse a 20-13 victory over highly-rated West Virginia on snow-swept Mountaineer Field today … So furious was the Orange second half rally that the Mountaineers were held without a single first down through the third quarter and made only one first down, two minutes form the end through the entire second half… The Mountaineers who had been leading the nation in total offense, , were held to total of five yards rushing and 10 yards passing in the whole second half.” “It took rare courage for the men of Schwartzwalder to keep battling because two apparent touchdowns were called back against Syracuse and the Southern Conference officials 95 yards in penalties against the Orange while accessing 24 yards against the Mountaineers.” Ben got called for a 15 yard penalty himself when he entered the field of play to protest a call. The series with West Virginia, famous for controversies, was off to a good start. “Overnight snow made the field heavy and light snow fell throughout the game. Even so the crowd was estimated at 22,000 with fans sitting in snow piled in the concrete seats. …The Mountaineers played their first game in four seasons without without their great quarterback Freddie Wyant, who was hurt in the Pitt game last week. Timarki ran the team well but the Orange kept constant pressure on the sophomore signal caller. “ “The jubilant Orangemen were so delighted at their hard-won triumph that they refused to worry about getting home. They were slated for a 70 mile bus ride to Pittsburgh and were booked to take a plane from there to Syracuse. If they went according to schedule they were due home about 11PM tonight. However, the weather was so miserable with mists hanging low over the Blue Ridge Mountains, that it was questionable a plane could take off from Pittsburgh. If, as reported Pittsburgh ‘locked in’ it might mean that the Syracuse group would have to finish the trip by train, arriving sometime Sunday afternoon.” Those words were printed, obviously, in anticipation that a crowd of supporters could be expected to greet the team after such a big upset. “The Orange hit paydirt on its second play from scrimmage but it didn’t count. Jimmy Brown electrified the crowd when he took (Sam) Huff’s kickoff on his own 10 and ran it 71 Yards to the Mountaineer 19. (Huff provides some backstory on this play in this article: [url]http://timeswv.com/wvu_sports/x2056569580/HERTZEL-COLUMN-Orange-up-there-with-biggest-rivals/print[/url] ) Brown, after barreling through the defenders at the Syracuse 35 but he hit a muddy spot at midfield where the home team had drilled briefly before the game. The slip threw him offside and he was pushed out of bounds at the 19. After Laacksonen hit for 3, Brown cut off tackle found daylight and raced to the end zone. However the touchdown was nullified because Syracuse was penalized for holding. A pass interference penalty gave the Orange a first down on the 22 and Laacksonen and Brown picked up another first down in two smashes. Micho tripped when he tried to go wide. Brown picked up 4 and on third down Albright tried to pass. He was and tackled on the 21 by Bosley, a loss of 13 yards. A fourth down pass was knocked down in the end zone. After an exchange of punts, Bob Moss bolted for 35 yards but that drive was ended when Pete Schwert recovered a fumbled pitch-out on the SU 28. After another Syracuse punt, Moss broke through again and kept running until Ed Ackley caught him from behind at the 6 after a 64 yard run. On third down, Trimarki pitched out to fullback Joe Marconi. (who later played for the Rams and Bears: I had a football card of him), who “swept wide to his left for the touchdown. Ted Warholak broke through to block Ted Holmes’ conversion attempt to keep it 0-6. After another exchange of punts another Trimarki pitch-out went awry and Don Althouse recorded at the Mountaineer 38. A “pop” pass from Albright to Althouse got 12 yards. The Post-Standard provided this sentence: “A four yard penalty against Mountaineers, who were offside, helped Brown make it a first down on the 9.” OK. A sweep by Brown got it to within inches of the goal and Albright, (who was apparently OK), poked it over from there on a quarterback sneak. “Brown, getting his kick away slowly, had it blocked by Ton Huston to leave it at 6-6 at 9:31 at the period. “ Getting kicks off cleanly was a chronic problem in those days, (and would come back to haunt the Orange the following year). West Virginia now went to the air with Trimarki finding Ralph Anastasio for 23 yards. Anastasio “dodged” for 18 yards. On fourth down Trimarki again looked for Anastasio. “The Orange failed to rush the passer. Trimarki had time enough to spot his receiver and he fired a touchdown pass to Anastasio who seemed to be covered but managed to catch the ball anyway.” This time Huff booted the ball through the uprights and the home team had a 6-13 lead, which became the halftime margin. Syracuse forced West Virginia to punt after they received the second half kick-off but the Orange could get only one first down. They again forced a Mountaineer punt. And Billy Micho returned it 14 yards to the Neer’s 48. “From there, on third down, Albright passed to Ridlon, who caught the ball on the Mountaineer 20. He was covered by two men. But the Orange end faked them so skillfully that they ran into each other and Ridlon, cutting away from the sidelines, raced the rest of the way to score. “ Brown kicked the PAT to tie the game at 13-13. On the first play after the kick-off, Moss fumbled and Brown recovered on the W Va. 46. Syracuse drove to the 18 on runs by Brown and Zaso and another pop pass to Althouse. A delay of game pushed the Orange back and “on 3rd down with 13 yards to go, Albright fad the pop pass, then waited until Althouse got clear. Don caught the ball at the 5 and then dived into the end zone with the ball in his arms. An official ruled the pass incomplete, however, and, after Schwartzwalder was penalized for complaining about it, the ball was “marched all the way back to the 40”. Althouse kicked a “coffin corner” punt, the ball going out on the 1 yard line. Marconi punted it back to get it out of danger, with the Orange taking over at the 45. Syracuse went to its big gun. Jim Brown ran for 11 yards and then for 7. Laacksonen was the change of pace and got 5 yards up the middle. Three more Brown carries got the ball to the 11. “Micho took a pitch-out and carried it to the 3 but the play was called back and Syracuse penalized five yards because the officials ruled that Albright had thrown the ball forward instead of laterally on the play. Again, Albright faked the pop pass, drew in the Mountaineer defenders and the spotted (Dick) Lasse at the goal line. As he was about to catch it, two Mountaineers converged on him, but Lasse leaped and came down with the ball for the winning tally.” Brown kicked the point to make it Syracuse 20, West Virginia 13. The scoring was over but not the game. There were still 11 minutes to play. But now SU took over the game on defense, forcing consecutive 3 and outs. Jim Brown got another good return, for 24 yards but 20 yards in penalties forced another punt. West Virginia had one more shot. “With 1:53 left Trimarki completed a 10 yard pass to Gary Bunn for the Mountaineers only first down of the second half. Bill Brown, who had been laid low with an upset stomach before the game, rose up to snuff out the Mountie’s final chance by intercepting Trimarki’s pass at the West Virginia 43. “Albright wisely kept the ball himself until time ran out.” Someone in Newark, New Jersey was happy but not for long. Duke beat Wake Forest 14-0. Syracuse outgained West Virginia, who had been averaging n 407 yards per game, by 234-208 and had 12 first downs to 8. Bob Moss, with his two long runs, was the game’s leading rusher with 124 yards on 11 carries. Jim Brown ran for 86 yards on 21 carries but also had 102 yards in kick returns. But maybe the big hero was Eddie Albright, playing hurt in his last game and running for one score and passing for two others, including the winner, thus accounting for all of SU’s scoring except for Brown’s place-kicks. (We’ll never know what the result might have been if Freddie Wyant could have played for West Virginia.) The photographic coverage was more limited than the Colgate game and the quality of the pictures was poor, due to the weather and the rather primitive copying technology for the Post Standard archive. On the front page of the Post Standard, Dick Lasse is show leaping at the goal line to make the winning catch, Joe Marconi reaching toward him and Mickey Timarki lying on the ground at his feet. The ball is just beyond Marco0ni’s reach. It’s hard to make it out but obviously Lasse’s hands must be grasping it or about to. His body seems to be perpendicular to Marconi’s and turning away from him, as if Dick had to reach back for the ball. On the front of the sports page, Billy Micho is shown on a four yard sweep during the winning drive, (presumably the one that was called back). Below that was a shot captioned “BROWN ON THE MOVE: Syracuse’s ground attack in its conquest of West Virginia was led in spectacular fashion by halfback Jimmy brown. Here he is under a full head of steam for a sizeable gain.” Jim, in a very muddy uniform, has the ball cradled in his left hand, looking to his right. The specific play is not identified. Two ages later, “Cal Smith, Orange guard, is shown Joe Marconi, Mountaineer’s right halfback, for a six yard loss in the third quarter. ”Marconi is moving forward, toward the line of scrimmage, with an Orange lineman waiting for him, bracing for impact. But Smith has come up from behind Marconi and has his arms around Joe’s waist. Next to that shot, Mickey Trimarki is thrown of a fourth quarter loss by an unidentified Orangeman and Dick Lasse comes up to finish the play off. Below that is a shot of Ralph Anastasio leaping into the line for no gain over the caption “HITS STONE WALL”. This one was won primarily on defense. The Herald-American repeated the Micho shot, (All these were AP Wirephotos). On a pictorial page, they repeat the Lasse shot and also have the Jim Brown and Anastasio shots but switch the captions, saying the brown shot is Anastasio being held for no gain and the Anastasio shot is Brown gaining yardage. They also have Timarki being thrown for a loss. But they also have Anastasio running for 15 yards past a blocked Jim Ridlon amd Anastasio picking up 3 yards. Highlights of the 1955 Syracuse-West Virginia game are in this U-Tube clip at the 33:40-35:34 mark. [media=youtube]U95wTTPFbX0[/media] You can also see the strange ending of the West Virginia-Pitt game just before that. West Virginia’s colors were “Old Gold” and Blue. They wore all gold uniforms with blue numbers and trim, both at home and on the road, until the Syracuse game when they switched to blue jerseys, (which they also wore for their final game vs. NC State). Here are the plays shown: -[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]Bob Moss’s 64 yard run. Note how Ed Ackley misses a tackle just beyond the line of scrimmage but stays with the play and runs down Moss from behind at the 6. You never know what you can do if you keep playing until the whistle. -[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]Marconi goes over for the score. -[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]The second fumbled pitch which was recovered by Don Althouse at the West Virginia 38. -[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]The pop pass from Albright to Althouse(an alliterative combination), during the first SU scoring drive. -[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]Jim Brown’s sweep to inside the one. -[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]Albright goes over for the first score. -[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]#39, (I think it’s Laacksonen- Upperdeck’s site is down) makes a short run and then Jimmy Brown makes a longer one. -[FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]Then comes Albright’s fake pop pass and the floater into the end zone that Lasse leaps to catch for the winner. The picture in the paper was bit deceiving. It was taken from the back of the end zone and Lasse is not over the goal line but behind it, in the end zone. It was a cold, wet, muddy but splendid way to end Ben Schwartzwalder’s 7th season at the Syracuse helm. The 1955 Syracuse team had taken on 8 opponents, 7 of them with winning records, and who had a combined regular season record of 50 wins and 25 losses, (Pittsburgh would lose 0-7 to Georgia Tech in the Sugar Bowl while Maryland would lose 6-20 to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl). Against that schedule we had gone 5-3, including a 1 point loss to Penn State after we had a 20-7 lead. That was our only road loss in four games. We’d outscored the opposition 180-130 ((22.5-16.25). It created a great deal of optimism as to what might happen in 1956. We were on the verge of the Big-Time. [/QUOTE]

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