The UCONN Huskies football team came into today’s game against the Temple Owls as 29.5 point favorite. Judging by the way the game was played you would have thought the opposite. UCONN was lucky to escape their home confines at the Rent with a 22-17 win. The win makes the Huskies 3-0 on the young season while the Owls drop to 0-3.
For UCONN, Tyler Lorenzen was 19 of 29 for 222 yards. He did not throw a touchdown pass nor an interception. He was sacked 6 times by the Owls. Redshirt freshman Andre Dixon took over for an ineffective Donald Brown at running back and rushed for 129 yards in his first collegiate action. Former QB D.J. Hernandez led the Huskies in receiving with 58 yards. For Temple, Adam DiMichele was 9 of 18 with one touchdown pass and one interception by UCONN’s Robert Vaughn. Jason Harper led the Owls ground attack with 114 yards. Bruce Francis caught 4 passes for 84 yards and one touchdown pass.
UCONN got the scoring going on their first possession of the first quarter after Larry Taylor gave them excellent field position at the Temple 49. The two big plays of the drive were passes to Brad Kanuch and one to D.J. Hernandez that gave UCONN the ball at the Owls 13. Brown finished the drive up with a run of 5 yards and then a 8 yard run for the touchdown. The extra point by Tony Ciaravino was good for a 7-0 lead.
The second drive of the game for the Huskies netted them 3 points. Lorenzen was 4 of 5 for 53 yards. On 3rd and 19 at the Temple 40, Lorenzen hooked up with Brown for an 11-yard reception. Ciaravino lined up for a career long 47 yard field goal that was good for a 10-0 lead.
Temple got on the board late in the second quarter. After DiMichele threw two incomplete passes, the Owls were facing a 3rd and 10 at their 41. DiMichele went deep for Francis who caught the ball and beat two UCONN defenders on his way to a 59-yard touchdown pass. Jake Brownell’s extra point was good and the Huskies faithful were left stunned as the lead was cut to 10-7.
After the kickoff, UCONN went into their two-minute offense, honestly they should do this all the time, and got themselves down to the Temple 7. They closed out the half with Ciaravino chip shot field goal from 24 yards for a 13-7 lead.
Temple kicked off to start the second half and they recovered a fumble by Lorenzen to get the ball at the UCONN 45. On 1st down, Travis Shelton broke open a 31-yard run to get the ball to the UCONN 14 yard line. After a one yard run, Harper got into the end zone with a 13-yard run for the touchdown. Brownell’s extra point was good and it gave the Owls a 14-13 lead.
On the next possession following the kickoff, UCONN retook the lead on a Ciaravino 50-yard field ball. Dixon rushed for 27 yards on the drive.
The game was becoming a tennis match at this point as the Owls went back ahead on a Brownell 20-yard field goal. The drive for Temple was 11 plays for 64 yards. Harper had 59 of those yards on the ground.
UCONN got the ball back before the end of third quarter after the field goal by Temple and drove 69 yards in just 7 plays for a touchdown. Dixon had 31 yards on the ground and Kanuch had a key 21-yard reception. The third quarter came to an end with UCONN having the ball 2nd and 4 at the Temple 5 yard line. The first play of the fourth quarter was Brown 5-yard touchdown run. UCONN went for the two point conversion but Brown was stopped short of the goal line making the score 22-17 in favor of UCONN.
The score stayed the same the rest of the way but the game ended on a play that went to the replay booth. With 2:31 left in the game, Temple got the ball at their own 27 and got the ball all the way to the UCONN 11 with 58 seconds left to play. On 4th down, Temple ran a reverse and their wide receiver threw a pass to the corner of the end zone to Francis that was batted up in the air and Francis ended up catching the ball out of bounds. It did look like he had one foot in (in college, you only need one foot in bounds). The pass was ruled incomplete on the field. After a lengthy delay for a replay, the referee ruled the play stood as called and UCONN escaped with the win.
I saw the replay on NBC30 and UCONN should be very lucky that it wasn’t overturned. According to Chip Malafronte from the New Haven Register, a security guard had blocked the best angle there was. All the other angles were inconclusive. However, if they had used NBC30’s video, you would clearly see he was in bounds.
A lucky win for the Huskies but a win is a win. They are now 3-0 and halfway to being bowl eligible. UCONN takes to the road next week as they head to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers Saturday night at 7 PM. The game will be on ESPNU.
