August 9, 1974
By Gavin Dance
OAKDALE, Long Island - A blistering talk and a new play worked wonders for the New York Stars.
The Stars (3-2) were being pushed around Wednesday night at Anaheim Stadium against the Southern California Sun, mainly because they couldn't hold onto the ball.
In the first half the Stars fumbled five times, losing three of them to the Sun and Coach Babe Parilli was livid as he took his troops to the locker room.
"Let's just say I was very upset," Parilli said. "And I sure talked to them because fumbles were inexcusable. It was a terrible performance."
Despite the over-generosity of the Stars, the Sun only led 8-3 although clearly in control of the game. It stayed that way until early in the fourth quarter when quarterback Tom Sherman, a Penn State product, began hitting on his passes.
"Sherman was a little off on his passing earlier in the game," Parilli admitted.
The 6-0, 200-pounder, hit on three passes and scrambled for eight more yards. Still, it was third and two at the Sun 40 and the game probably hinged on the next play.
The Sun bunched up to stop the expected run. But Sherman faked up the middle, dropped back and looked for Bert Askson, a second-year tight end from Texas Southern. Sherman found him a couple of steps behind two defenders on the 10-yard line. Askson took the pass, spun around and ran in for the touchdown. It was enough for the Stars.
"I put that play in this week, especially for the Sun," Parilli beamed. "And Sherman passed just perfectly on that play."
Parilli was also happy with the fourth quarter drive and blamed himself for some of the earlier problems.
"At the end, we were driving the ball down their throats," Parilli added, savoring the Stars' third straight victory. "Maybe, we just tried to get a little too fancy in the beginning."
And, maybe the Sun had something to do with it.
"Roller (DT Dave) was just great and their defense was too," Parilli summed up.
The Stars will try and make it four in a row Wednesday at Downing Stadium, Randalls Island, when they host the Portland Storm (0-4-1).
STARS STUFF...The Sun is one WFL team that can't be charged with overly inflating the crowd size as has been done in Philadelphia and Jacksonville. "It couldn't happen in Anaheim," says Sun owner Larry Hatfield. "In our contract with the city, we've got a limit of 500 free tickets. We can give more away - and we give more away - and we give out 1,300 a game - but we have to put it in writing," Wednesday's paid figures were 27,873 with a total attendance of 28,174 - only 301 freebies.