Owls fall to W. Va. at Franklin Field

The Village People may have put on an exciting 10-minute set during halftime, but football played seemingly by village idiots stole the show last night on Franklin Field. West Virginia outlasted Temple, 29-24, in one of the most ineptly played games on 33rd Street in years. Interceptions, fumbles, failed fourth-and-one plays and ineffective punts abounded, as the Owls (3-2) fell for the first time in three contests on Franklin Field this fall. "That was a crazy game," West Virginia coach Don Nehlen said. "Our kicking game was just Owhew.' "But we showed a lot of character coming back at the end." Nehlen's warriors from West Virginia (3-1) controlled much of the second half, running out to a 23-10 lead in the third quarter, but had to rely on a length-of-the-field drive in the game's waning moments to pull out the victory. Mountaineers tailback Cooper Rego plunged in from one yard out with 5:22 remaining to cap off an 88-yard, nine-play drive that put West Virginia on top for good, 29-24. The Owls -- who put together two touchdowns within a four-minute span earlier in the final frame -- had one last gasp to pick up another Ohome' victory. But Temple backup quarterback Mike Frost was sacked on a fourth-and-one with 1:42 left, and the Mountaineers ran out the clock. "We ran a play-action with a quick flat-out to the fullback, but the cornerback covered it," Frost said. "I tried to run around and scramble for a bit, but I couldn't." Temple took a 10-0 lead following a career-long 66-yard touchdown run by Tanardo Sharps early in the second quarter. But West Virginia replied by running off 23 consecutive points and silencing the 25,263 partisan Owls fans in attendance. In a 5:32 span in the third frame, Khori Ivy and Tim Frost caught touchdown passes from Brad Lewis, and the Mountaineers blocked a punt out of the end zone, quickly turning a 10-7 deficit into a 23-10 lead. But the Mountaineers seemed determined to give the game away. A four-yard punt in the first half set a benchmark for futility that neither a 24-yard kick or a dropped pass on a fake punt in the fourth quarter could surpass. But when a member of the West Virginia punt coverage team inexplicably touched the ball as it was bouncing to a stop, allowing the Owls to take over inside the 10-yard line -- and subsequently score on the next play -- Temple rolled back to a 24-23 lead. "Last week we were our own worst enemy, and this week we were again," Nehlen said. "We had that pass off the punt that my grandmother could have run in and we dropped it." "Special teams play a big part in a game, but tonight was more their mistakes than things we did right," Temple coach Bobby Wallace added. Frost threw two touchdown passes, completing 6-of-10 overall, after coming off the bench in the fourth quarter. But he was outdone by Brad Lewis of West Virginia, who threw for a career high 242 yards to go with two scores.

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