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Tulsa fights through adversity to defeat UCF, 34-31

TU coach Philip Montgomery was extremely proud of his team on Friday.
TU coach Philip Montgomery was extremely proud of his team on Friday. (Getty Images)

After facing incredible odds that included losing starting quarterback Zach Smith and being down double-digits, Tulsa showed amazing heart.

And that heart, combined with an outstanding second half, lifted Tulsa to a 34-31 victory Friday night over Central Florida in front of a crowd of 16,331 at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

Seth Boomer came in when Smith left the game with a left knee injury late in the first half, and he delivered. Boomer made several key plays, including two clutch passes to Sam Crawford that resulted in TU tying the game at 31-31 with 9:14 remaining.

“The adversity we faced throughout the year. Been close many times,” said Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery. “It was good to see us finish it tonight.”

Tulsa (3-7, 1-5 AAC) hung tough but looked over-matched in a first half where UCF (7-3, 4-2) took a 28-17 lead into halftime. Combine that with Smith, who was having a strong first half (10 of 14, 127 yards), being lost to injury, and that the Knights were getting the ball to start the second half, and things were looking bleak.

But Boomer, who started the last eight games as a redshirt freshman last year, was strong. He completed six of 10 passes for 87 yards and a touchdown, including five of nine for 61 yards in the fourth quarter.

“Zach has been playing great all year, and he goes down in the first half, and really, Seth comes in, and Seth every week is preparing himself,” Montgomery said. “He stays locked in on the sideline, he’s preparing himself throughout the week, and when his number was called...

“Boy, the confidence in his eyes, the team rallying around him, and stepping up and making big plays. Really, really proud of him tonight and his effort, and really our team. He made some really good decisions and really good throws with everything on the line, and I just couldn’t be happier for him.”

Tulsa’s defense was really outstanding in the second half against the explosive Knights. It came up with big play after big play in the second half.

Coming into the game with seven sacks for the season, the Golden Hurricane had six sacks for the game and put heat on UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel. Amazingly, Tulsa was sacked only once by a Central Florida defense that came into the game with 24 sacks.

After Tulsa tied the game at 31-31, the Golden Hurricane got an incredible break when UCF muffed the ensuing kickoff and Kendarin Ray recovered at the UCF 21-yard-line. But Jacob Rainey’s 35-yard field goal attempt bounced off the left upright, and the game was still tied.

Amazingly, Tulsa’s Reggie Robinson intercepted a pass around midfield (his fourth of the season in the last three weeks) and returned it to the UCF 18-yard-line. Tulsa again couldn’t punch it in, but Rainey connected on 23-yard field goal with 5:09 remaining that proved to be the game winner.

It was a great moment for Rainey, who had taken so much heat for missing two potential game-winners against ranked SMU and Memphis teams.

“He stepped up last week and hit four of four, and then did another great job and then had another opportunity to go win it,” Montgomery said. “Couldn’t be happier for him. Very proud of his resilience, you know, through all the tough times, because our team did a great job of rallying around him.”

“It was really big because he was down on himself after Memphis, but we all have each other’s back,” said Tulsa defensive end Trevis Gipson, who had two sacks to boost his team leading total to seven. “He persevered just like the team did.”

The win was a great moment for Boomer, whose highlights included a fourth-and-nine over the middle pass to Crawford down to the UCF 19-yard line. And then on the next play, he completed a TD pass in the right corner of the end zone to Crawford and the game was suddenly tied.

“That was huge. We absolutely had to have that,” said Boomer of his fourth down pass. “Sam ran a great route, and we’d been working that all week, where we let him clear out, and he got inside.”

“I was nervous because they called the play and I was the primary on this play,” Crawford said of the fourth down catch. “But I knew I had to catch this. He threw a great ball, so we just executed.”

But with UCF’s explosive offense, and Tulsa’s lack of luck this season, it was going take a lot to stop the Knights. And Tulsa did just that, coming up with the stop on fourth-and-12 at the TU 47 when Gabriel’s long pass was defended well by Allie Green and Cristian Williams and fell incomplete with 1:27 left.

However, with three timeouts left, Tulsa needed to get a first down to run out the clock. Facing 4th-and-one, Tulsa went for it and was stopped. But UCF clearly had 12 men on the field, and the penalty was called, effectively ending the game.

With resilience being the theme of the game, it was a proud moment for Cristian Williams, the senior safety who had led Tulsa with 10 tackles and had an interception. It was especially gratifying for Williams, whose career was thought to be over due to a back cyst last season.

For Robinson, a key to Tulsa holding UCF to only three points was the familiarity with the Knights’ offense, which is very similar to Tulsa’s offense.

“It was nothing that we hadn’t seen before,” Robinson said. “We run the same offense so we were prepared for it.”

Gabriel completed big plays in the first half, and finished 23 of 38 for 290 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Adrian Killens led UCF with 95 yards on 10 carries, including a 57-yarder for a touchdown in the first half.

It was only UCF’s fourth loss in the last three seasons. The Knights were around 17-point favorites.

But Tulsa has UCF’s number. Tulsa has won seven of its last eight games against UCF, including all three under coach Philip Montgomery. Tulsa is 5-0 at home against UCF.

It was a bitter trip back to Oklahoma for former OU national champion quarterback Josh Heupel, who is in his second year as UCF coach.

“Love our club. Love our guys. Love our football team,” Heupel said. "Love our program. Obviously, we weren’t good enough tonight, and that starts with me. It’s disappointing.”

For Montgomery, it was a long overdue win.

"We knew that we were a good football team," Montgomery said. "We've been close many times. It was good to see us finish tonight.

“We faced adversity again tonight, but we continued to battle. It was a back and forth game all the way through it. I couldn’t be more proud.”

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