The rains of Ivan slashed through Central Pennsylvania Friday and the winds continued into Saturday morning, but by kickoff time just after noon the sun shone brightly on Beaver Stadium and warmed the Nittany Lions to a 37-13 victory over the University of Central Florida.

The team that chased Ivan all the way from the Sunshine State to Happy Valley was given six turnover gifts but still could not score a touchdown against a fired-up Penn State defense that had been embarrassed by three TD passes at Boston College last week.

Traveling to and from the game was treacherous for many fans, but those who negotiated their way through flooded roads and muddy parking lots saw Penn State amass 524 yards of total offense and five TDs, after being held to just one score by Boston College seven days earlier.

The announced crowd of 101,715 obviously was based on tickets sold, because fans traversing the wet streets and walkways outside the stadium were waving extra tickets like surplus supermarket coupons. But as the clouds finally parted, they followed the Blue Band from Tailgreat in the Bryce Jordan Center to Beaver Stadium for an afternoon of sunbathing, while enjoying a great halftime show and a football game that was never in doubt, despite the four fumbles and two interceptions committed by senior quarterback Zack Mills.

In a game more sloppy than a pre-season scrimmage, the Nittany Lions aborted six potential scoring drives inside Central Florida territory, including one at the two-yard line and another at the 15.

After the Lions gave the ball away five times in Boston, Coach Joe Paterno lamented that you can never win a football game with five turnovers.

Ironically, the visitors from Orlando proved him wrong, when the inept Golden Knights could only score three points off the six turnovers, while themselves giving up a safety, a fumble and an interception that Penn State turned into a touchdown.

UCF’s only six-pointer came on a 54-yard fourth-quarter punt return by Tavaris Capers, who dropped the ball, picked it up, ran to the left sidelines and tightroped his way 20 yards, before reversing his field and scampering all the way to the end zone, while leaving the field strewn with would-be Lion tacklers.

To atone for his miscues, State’s southpaw signal-caller threw for 229 yards and one touchdown, while surpassing Tony Sacca’s 5,852 career passing yards to annex his 16th Penn State record. His TD pass to tight end John Bronson in the second quarter was his 36th, leaving him just one behind Chuck Fusina (1976-78) for fourth place on State’s career chart. Bronson, a senior who was moved from defensive end to the offensive side in spring practice, made his first career catch count for a touchdown, just as senior Ryan Scott did last week in Boston.

While posting his 14th career 200-yard passing game, Mills completed 65.5 percent of his 29 pass attempts, which helped set up three more of Penn State’s touchdowns in its final tune-up before starting the Big Ten schedule in Wisconsin next Saturday (that game will be televised nationally by ESPN at 5:45 EDT). Unfortunately the interception of his underthrown long pass toward Terrance Phillips in the second quarter thwarted another Nittany Lion drive toward paydirt, as did his first quarter fumble on the UCF 15-yard line, after the home team had moved 71 yards on the first nine plays of the game. Mills’ second interception should really be charged to Phillips, who let the ball bounce right off his chest into the arms of UCF’s Mike Walker, who had an open field in front of him. Walker dashed 59 yards down the west sideline, but Mills headed him off and tackled him at the PS-9.

At this point the Nittany Lion defense rose up again to prevent a touchdown, just as it had after Jeremy Kapinos shanked a 6-yard punt to the PS-26 in the first quarter. Both times the Golden Knights had to settle for short field goals by Matt Prater.

Overall, Penn State’s defenders shut down the visitors to just 60 yards on the ground and 121 through the air for a 181-yard total that was the lowest in four years — since Louisiana Tech was held to just 167 in 2000.

Sophomore tailback Tony Hunt had his second 100-yard rushing performance of the young season and scored a career-high three touchdowns, as the Lions’ ground attack piled up 247 yards. Hunting for holes, the 6-2 221-pounder followed fullback Paul Jefferson through a gap created by Isaac Smolko, Tyler Reed and Jordan Lyons for the game’s first touchdown, then burst through an opening on the right side, spun away from a linebacker, and galloped 26 yards for the second TD of the afternoon less than five minutes later. The speedster from Alexandria, Virginia climaxed his performance with a 33-yard blast up the middle for his third score of the day and third long-distance TD run of the season in the third quarter. Hunt’s total of 125 yards on 16 carries topped Larry Johnson’s 18 for 92 mark in 2002 as the best rushing performance in the UCF-PS series.

Field general Mills completed a 20-yard screen pass to Jefferson, a 15-yard strike to tight end Smolko on a third-and-12 situation and a 23-yard third-down aerial to Phillips to set up Hunt’s first touchdown in the second quarter. A 27-yard pass to senior wide receiver Gerald Smith heralded Hunt’s final TD burst, which raised the score to 30-6 and put the game out of reach for the Golden Knights. Mills got great protection from his offensive line of E. Z. Smith, Tyler Reed, Charles Rush, Levi Brown and Andrew Richardson, which allowed no sacks all day. Scott Davis also played well at guard, while spelling Rush.

Mr. Everything Michael Robinson rushed nine times for 51 yards from the shotgun or tailback positions, caught a career-high seven passes for a career-high 93 yards as a wideout, and completed his only pass attempt for 39 yards to his quarterback colleague, Mills, in the opening possession. His career-long 38-yard reception in the fourth quarter was wasted, when the Lions had to punt. But his last catch for 20 yards keyed State’s final scoring drive, climaxed by Mike Gasparato’s 22-yard run in the waning minute of the contest.

"We were sloppy, but we played hard," was Paterno’s assessment after the game. "There was more intensity and sometimes when you do that, you get a little careless."

When queried about the six turnovers, Paterno replied, "We’re on them all the time about turnovers and protecting the football . . . They might have been a little too emotional today."

Two of the fumbles came on the snap from center E. Z. Smith to QB Mills — and one of those came right after Calvin Lowry had recovered a fumbled punt by Capers just two yards from UCF’s end zone.

"We should never have a fumble on an exchange," said Paterno. "And to have two in one game is very disturbing."

The veteran mentor said he thought the Lions’ offensive and defensive lines played better Saturday, and "our defense turned it up when they had to."

Tim Shaw, the first-year starter at middle linebacker, said, "The defense was on the field for quite a while, and I think we learned more and made good stops when we needed to."

Strong safety Calvin Lowry was more philosophical about it, saying, "We knew going into the game that sometimes there are ebbs and flows. The offense really did what they had to do and sometimes there were some turnovers, so the defense had to go out there and step it up."

Asked what he said to his buddy Zack after the turnovers, Michael Robinson replied, "I just told him to have a short memory. He’s a great player, and he’s had highlights and lowlights. He can bounce back from anything."

Senior wide receiver Gerald Smith was asked if this team is ready for Big Ten play. He replied, "We have to be more focused and pay attention to the details."

Staring down the gun barrel of the Big Ten season, where the Lions must play five straight opponents ranked in the Top 25, Paterno said simply, "We have to go to Wisconsin and Minnesota to play two of the better teams in the country."

For the glory,