Toledo Erases a 14-point Deficit and Beats Temple 49-48 in Overtime
Toledo trailed 42-28 with 6:40 left. It won 49-48 in overtime. Eleven seconds of game clock separate the two touchdowns that got it level, and the Rockets needed every one of them.
Temple led most of the way. Carl Hardin kicked a 41-yard field goal, CJ Miller answered with a one-yard run, and Ajani Sheppard threw to Joey Schlaffer from two yards to make it 10-7. Samuel Brown V ran in from three yards, Connor Walendzak answered for Toledo from two, and Sheppard hit Brown from nine yards with two seconds left in the half for a 24-14 lead. John Alan Richter found Jacob Newell from nine yards to cut it to 24-21, Hardin's 48-yard field goal made it 27-21, and Richter threw to Walendzak from nine early in the fourth to put Toledo up 28-27. Five lead changes in all.
Then Temple hit back. Sheppard's 69-yard touchdown pass to Colin Chase (plus a successful two-point conversion) made it 35-28 with 11:40 left, and Brown's two-yard run with 6:40 left made it 42-28. Richter then threw to Miller for 10 yards at 1:05 and to Daryl Barnett Jr. for 23 at 0:54 to tie it at 42. In overtime Walendzak scored from a yard out to make it 49-42, and Sheppard answered with a 22-yard run, but the two-point pass failed, and that was the difference.
Richter went 36 of 51 for 429 yards and four touchdowns. Toledo ran for only 107 yards on 25 carries, while Temple ran 49 times for 261 and passed for 164. Toledo is 2-1. Temple is 1-2 and will think about that two-point pass for a while.