Temple Advances to AAC Title Game After a 37-10 Win Over ECU
Jahad Thomas ran for 155 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead Temple to the AAC title game after a 37-10 win over East Carolina Saturday night at Lincoln Financial Field
Ryquell Armstead added two more touchdowns and Phillip Walker completed 12 of 20 for 158 yards in the win for the Owls.
For East Carolina(3-9), Gardner Minshew went 21 of 34 for 183 yards and a touchdown while James Summers led the Pirate rushing attack with 52 yards on 19 carries. Jimmy Williams caught five passes for 86 yards and a touchdown.
Zay Jones hauled in seven catches in his final game as a Pirate for 61 yards. In doing so, Jones set the FBS single-season receptions record passing Freddie Barnes old record of 155 at Bowling Green in 2009. Jones ended the season with 158 catches for 1,746 yards - both of which are ECU records. His 399 receptions for 4,269 yards is the most ever in the FBS division of the NCAA in catches and the second most receiving yard in ECU history.
ECU committed just four penalties for the day while Temple played a penalty free contest on Saturday, but it proved to be another tough day at the office for ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery. He did not like the taste that he had in his mouth after his team's ninth loss in his first season as a head coach and vowed to change it soon.
“There is no worse feeling than when you have to punt the ball when you’re down without a chance to win. I can’t stand the way that I feel having to give the ball away at the end when the game is out of reach,” Montgomery said after the game, “The feeling we have right now, we won’t have this feeling again and I’ll make sure of that."
Temple ran for 256 yards to just 42 net yards for the Pirates and won the battle in the trenches on both sides of the football. Temple generated 6.27 yards per play to just 3.69 for the Pirates.
Things looked promising for the Pirates when they took an early 7-0 lead on a 13-yard strike from quarterback Gardner Minshew to wide receiver Jimmy Williams just five minutes into the game.
But Ryquell Armstead and Temple struck right back with a pair of touchdown runs and then Jahad Thomas added a three-yard score with 1:09 to play in the first half to give the Owls a commanding 21-7 halftime lead.
Temple(9-3) went on an 11-play 76 yard drive that culminated in a three-yard Jahad Thomas’ touchdown run. It was his second touchdown of the day that extended Temple's lead to 27-7 ballgame with 1:21 to play in the third quarter. Aaron Boumerhi's extra point attempt was blocked.
After Jimmy Williams bobbled a first down catch attempt at the Temple 10-yard line, Davis Plowman came on to kick a low 41-yard line drive field goal that just cleared the goal post. That cut the Temple lead to 17 with 12:46 to play.
The Owls struck right back with a 35-yard Boumerhi field goal that expanded Temple’s lead to 30-10 and all but put the game out of reach with 7:19 remaining. Just in case it didn’t, Jager Gardner’s 14-yard touchdown with 3:33 added icing to the cake for the Owls.
With the 37-10 win, Temple will face Navy in the American Athletic Conference Championship game next Saturday. With Saturday’s defeat, ECU lost nine of it’s last ten games this season after starting off 2-0. The Pirates haven’t won a game since October.
