Temple rallies in the second half to win conference opener

PHOTO BY IKRAM ADAM

PHILADELPHIA, PA- Big win for Temple in what some might say was the most important game in Philadelphia on Saturday.

The Owls rallied in the second half to comeback and win 27-21 against UTSA, starting conference play with a win.

Temple won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half, giving the UTSA Roadrunners a chance with the ball first.

And UTSA took full advantage of that, scoring an opening drive touchdown after a long 12-play drive, highlighted by a flea flicker that got them into the red zone. On 3rd and goal from a yard out, quarterback Owen McCown, son of former Eagles quarterback Josh McCown, punched it in to make it 7-0 UTSA early on.

Wide receiver Tyler Stewart set up the Owls at their own 30 with a kick return. Temple then got the ball to the 50 on a pass interference call on UTSA’s Davin Martin. Quarterback Evan Simon took advantage, stringing together 3 straight completions to set up the Owls in the red zone. Unfortunately, the Owls couldn’t find the endzone, instead settling for a 31-yard field goal by Carl Hardin, making it 7-3.

Neither team scored for the remainder of the first quarter, still sitting at 7-3 UTSA after one.

To start the second, UTSA strung together a 14-play, seven-minute drive to score another touchdown, this time McCown finding tight end Patrick Overmyer in the end zone for the touchdown, with UTSA holding a 14-3 lead.

For the rest of the second quarter, neither team scored again, making it 14-3 UTSA at halftime.

The Owls needed a spark after a rough showing in the first half, so leave it to head coach K.C. Keeler to fire them up.

“I said this is the first time in 10 months I’ve been embarrassed to be your coach,” Keeler told his team at halftime. “We’re walking on the field, it was like all the work we had put in over the last 9-10 months hadn’t mattered.”

And so, after Keeler’s speech to the team, they came out ready to put up some points on the board. The Owls strung together a 10-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a touchdown where Simon found wide receiver JoJo Bermudez, who avoided some tackles, slipping his way into the end zone. It was 14-10 after the first drive in the second half.

During this drive, Simon found tight end Peter Clarke for a deep pass where Clarke basically dragged two defenders with him for an extra 10 or so yards. Clarke actually brought in a few contested catches this game, as he was the Owls’ leading receiver with 82 yards.

Following the game, Clarke put emphasis on his ability to bring in these contested catches.

“So contested catches, goes back to like my size, first of all, [Simon] delivers a football that is going to allow me to make a play on the football and like, shove the defender with my body.”

Once UTSA got the ball, it didn’t take long for the Owls to get it back, as McCown was picked off by defensive back Jamere Jones to set the Owls up at their own 46.

Temple once again was able to score quickly, as running back Hunter Smith, who hasn’t seen a whole lot of snaps so far this season, broke one off for a quick 54-yard touchdown to give the Owls a 17-14 lead.

UTSA answered right back with a touchdown of their own, with McCown finding wide receiver Devin McCuin for an 18-yard completion. But this would be the last time UTSA put up any kind of points in the game.

After the Temple defense forced the UTSA offense to punt on 4th and 32 thanks to a sack from defensive end Sekou Kromah on 2nd down, Simon wasted no time finding Clarke again, this time for a 15-yard touchdown to regain the lead.

Simon credited a lot of the offense’s success to being able to trust their training and their efficiency on third down, with the Owls going 6-15 on third down conversions. The fifth-year senior finished the day with 181 yards and two touchdowns.

“The message kind of down the road today was just trusting your training, and that’s what we did, and some third downs were huge. Keep us on the field, keep the defense off,” said Simon.

After that, the offense only needed one more field goal to extend the lead, and from there, the defense held it down, including another interception, this time from Avery Powell off a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage.

On 4th and 20, and 1:31 left in the game, defensive tackle Demerick Morris sacked McCown to turn the ball back over to the offense and seal a strong comeback win.

The Owls move back over .500 this season, and move to 1-0 in the American Conference. They will welcome the Navy Midshipmen into the Linc next weekend for the homecoming game at 4 p.m.