Central Florida had allowed a touchdown and gone down 24-10 to BYU with just over nine minutes to play in the third quarter of Thursday’s game. But that’s just when the Knights defense decided the visiting Cougars were finished scoring.
Justin Holman threw his second touchdown pass of the night on the first possession of overtime and the UCF defense forced an incompletion on fourth down of the ensuing drive as the Knights won 31-24 at Bright House Networks Stadium.
In a second half marred by mistakes and missed opportunities, UCF (3-2) had the last when Shawn Moffitt’s 50-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Mitch Mathews with four seconds to play in regulation. That kept the game tied at 24-24 and in the extra session, Holman rushed for six yards, and on the play BYU was hit with a personal foul penalty. That set up the hosts at the eight and three plays later, the sophomore Holman found William Stanback out of the backfield and Stanback did the rest, scoring from five yards to put UCF up 31-24.
Christian Stewart, making his first career start at quarterback for the injured Taysom Hill (leg fracture), ran for seven yards, then hit Devin Mahina and Mitchell Juergens each for five-yard completions to the UCF 8. Stewart was nearly intercepted by Brandon Alexander on second down and the senior quarterback picked up only two yards on a third down carry before throwing high to Jordan Leslie on the final play of the night.
BYU, which lost its second consecutive game after starting the year 4-0, led 24-17 early in the fourth and was looking for more when Terrance Plummer forced and recovered an Algernon Brown fumble at the UCF 13. It was part of a huge night for Plummer, a senior linebacker, who added 17 tackles (4 1/2 for loss) and a sack. After both teams punted, Holman hit Josh Reese for a 37-yard touchdown with 10:17 to go that evened things up at 24-24.
Moffitt also missed from 46 yards with a chance to put the Knights ahead at the 6:11 mark of the fourth. Later, Holman was intercepted by Kai Nacua, but BYU couldn’t turn either bit of fortune into points.
The Cougars had erased a 10-0 deficit and gone ahead 24-10 thanks in large part to Stewart and an opportunistic special teams and defense. Stewart orchestrated a 10-play drive that culminated with a four-yard touchdown toss to Colby Pearson, tying the game at 10-10 in the beginning stages of the third. A BYU punt hit off the leg of UCF’s Sean Beckton and Brown recovered. Stewart then hit Mahina for a 15-yard touchdown that gave the Cougars their first lead of the game at 17-10. On the ensuing drive, Holman was flushed from the pocket and his pass went off the hands of Breshad Perriman and was intercepted by Skye PoVey. Stewart again connected with Mahina, this time for a 14-yard score, and it was a two-touchdown cushion with 9:05 to go.
Holman had a five-yard touchdown run on a bootleg to cap the opening possession of the game and give UCF a 7-0 lead at the 8:54 mark of the first. It was 10-0 a minute later when Moffitt booted a 42-yard field goal. The final six offensive possessions of the first half for the Knights ended in five punts and the sixth came to a close when Sione Takitaki sacked Holman and recovered the eventual fumble with 35 seconds left until halftime.
Holman finished with a career-high 326 passing yards for the Knights, who improved to 2-7 all-time in overtime games.
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