UTSA rolls past Rice
UTSA uses big third quarter to blow game open in 34-14 win over Rice
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UTSA's Maiden Voyage through the American Conference continued its undefeated run Saturday night with a 34-14 win over Rice in the annual Military Appreciation Game before a crowd of 28,245 in the Alamodome. The game could be considered as one half of rough football followed by a half of good football for the Roadrunners.
For one half of football it was stalemate between UTSA (7-3, 6-0 AAC) and Rice (4-6, 2-4 AAC). The Roadrunners and Owls combined for 17 points in the first 30 minutes and 14 of those points came in the final minute of the second quarter.
"First half (was) a little frustrating. Rice is just Scrappy. Bunch of overachievers and Mike (Bloomgren) has done a really good job. We outplayed them but score didn't really show it," UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said. "we were not flustered at halftime. Just told them that execution always outlasts momentum. We just got to keep executing. We'll be fine. And we did."
UTSA never trailed against Rice although it looked like Rice might make it a contest when they scored with 22 seconds left to cut UTSA's lead to 10-7.
The Roadrunners built their lead with a first quarter 26-yard field goal from Chase Allen and a six yard touchdown pass from Frank Harris to Josh Cephus with 57 seconds left in the second quarter.
"Offensively we came out sluggish at first but we responded in the second half," Harris said. "That's just something we have to go out there and execute. We can't get down in the red zone and not capitalize."
UTSA could have had a 13-0 or 17-0 lead as they had gotten to the Rice four yard line early in the second quarter before Rice stripped the ball from the hands of Oscar Cardenas.
Instead the Roadrunners went into halftime with a 10-7 lead and a game that felt like it could go either way.
"First half we got a lot of yards but weren't getting very many points from it," Rocko Griffin said. "We just stayed true to it and in the second half we came out on top."
That drive that ended in the Cardenas fumble in the second quarter began rough for the Roadrunners. On the first play of the drive Harris completed a pass to Willie McCoy across the middle. McCoy was met by a pair of Rice Owls and was badly injured. Play was stopped while the trainers stabilized McCoy's neck in a brace and then put him on a stretcher before taking him off the field in an emergency cart.
In the third quarter UTSA provided an update saying "McCoy (had) full function and feeling in all his limbs and was able to communicate with the medical staff."
Traylor spoke of McCoy in his post game press conference.
"That one scared me," Traylor said. "They were very careful, and (we're) very grateful for the medical attention he got immediately and the information we got very soon. So good kid. Praying for you, brother Willie."
UTSA snuffed out any hopes of a close game in the third quarter. The Roadrunner defense forced Rice into a three-and-out on their first possession. Just nine plays was all it took for the Roadrunner offense to push their lead to 17-7. It came with a one yard touchdown run by Robert Henry with 9:46 left in the third quarter.
The Owls offense had another three-and-out after Trey Moore sacked Rice quarterback AJ Padgett on back-to-back plays. Rice Punter Conor Hunt punted the ball 42 yards to the 50 where Chris Carpenter caught it, made a couple of Owls miss and went the distance for a punt return touchdown. Chase Allen added the extra point and UTSA pushed its lead to 24-7 with 8:01 left in the third quarter.
"We just came out (of halftime) and executed where we needed to execute and cleaned everything up and started rolling," Moore said. "Rice is a good team. They're a good offense. We've seen them through the year but up a bunch of points on good defenses."
Rice had to punt on their third drive of the third quarter but this time they were able to force Carpenter out of bounds at the UTSA 48. The Owls couldn't stop the Roadrunner offense as Harris led the team 52 yards down the field and Rocko Griffin scored on a one yard run with 3:24 left in the third quarter to give UTSA a 31-7 lead.
UTSA pulled its starters in the fourth quarter and backup kicker Tate Sandell provided the only points of the final quarter with a 47-yard field goal at the 5:09 mark of the fourth quarter. Sandell's field goal gave UTSA a 34-7 lead. Less than four minutes later Rice got one final touchdown with a 22-yard pass from Padgett to Landon Ransom-Goelz with 1:11 on the clock.
The Race for Tres is still on for UTSA
The final scoreline of 34-14 matched the final scoreline of the first time UTSA and Rice played each other in a non-conference game back in October of 2012. That day in Rice Stadium, the Owls were on the high end with 34 and UTSA only managed 14 points.
Since that first game, UTSA and Rice have played 10 times as members of the same conference. UTSA has now won the last eight in a row against Rice going back to 2015 after Rice won in 2013 and 2014. The Roadrunners also improved to 2-0 against Rice in the Military Appreciation Game (other win was 2015) and 8-5 all-time in their annual game celebrating the Military and its contributions to San Antonio.
UTSA also pushed its conference winning streak to 14 regular games in a row and 16 games in a row when counting conference championship games. The Roadrunners have the third longest conference winning streak in the country behind Georgia and Michigan.
The Roadrunners also improved to 17-0 at home against conference opponents in the Jeff Traylor era and 26-3 in conference regular season games (28-3 counting championsip games) since the Gilmer Gambler took over prior to the 2020 season.
UTSA was able to beat Rice without starting running back Kevorian Barnes who was out with an undisclosed injury but who Traylor said should be good to go for Friday nights home finale against South Florida.
Rocko Griffin and Robert Henry helped fill the void left by Barnes and got some help from Frank Harris, Owen McCown, Kaedric Cobbs and Brandon High. Griffin led the Roadrunners with 81 yards and touchdown on 12 carries. Henry had 63 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries. Harris, McCown, Cobbs and High combined for the other 55 yards for UTSA on the ground.
Harris completed 15 of his 24 pass attempts for 175 yards and a touchdown in his second to last home game in the Alamodome.
On defense Trey Moore led with two sacks to bring his season total to 14. The Roadrunners combined for six sacks on Saturday night with Donyai Taylor, Jimmori Robinson, Tai Leonard and Brandon Matterson accounting for the four non-Moore sacks.
Roadrunner fans will have one more chance to see the Roadrunners in the Alamodome in the regular season and it comes on Friday night against South Florida. Any chance of getting to possibly host the American Conference championship game will hinge on the Roadrunners beating the Bulls and keeping their many win streaks going.
The Maiden Voyage of the Roadrunners in the American is a few weeks away from its final port of call. By beating Rice on Saturday the Roadrunners kept alive the hope that the final port of call in the conference season won't be made until the American Conference Championship game the first Saturday of December. Now they just need to keep the roll going in the home finale on Friday night.
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