Football Tops WKU; Owls are now Bowl-Eligible

Saturday, November 2

Bowling Green, Ky.

4 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

6-3 , 4-1

WKU

5-4 , 3-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

FAU

WKU

11/2/2019 7:46:00 PM | Football

Box Score

Gallery: (11/2/2019) FAU at WKU

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Florida Atlantic University Owls leapt ahead of WKU and kept pace with Marshall for first place in the Conference USA East Division standings with a 35-24 win over the Hilltoppers at Houchens-Smith Stadium on Saturday. The Owls and Thundering Herd are now both 4-1 on the year in league play. To go along with the team's standing in the league, at a 6-3 overall mark, FAU is bowl-eligible for the fifth time in program history.

Quotable

"Crazy game, back and forth, a million different directions," said head coach Lane Kiffin. "Proud of (our) guys, the defense played hard, the quarterbacks played well, glad to get out of here with a win."

Quick Hits

FAU (6-3, 4-1 C-USA) kicked off to start, and both teams were forced to punt on their initial drives
WKU (5-4, 4-2 C-USA) struck first on a 54-yard touchdown pass, and doubled the lead near the end of the opening quarter
After another empty offensive possession for the Owls, punter Matt Hayball boomed a punt 77 yards to pin the Hilltoppers on their own two, with that distance setting a new all-time FAU record
A 10-yard sack for Akileis Leroy pushed WKU back on their first drive of the second quarter
The FAU defense, led by Leroy again, would put the team's first points of the day on the board. He blindsided the WKU quarterback for a sack and forced the fumble, which was scooped up by Chris Tooley for a 25-yard score the other way to cut the deficit to 14-7
An FAU trick play worked to perfection, with Nick Tronti taking the snap and handing it off to Deangelo Antoine. He pitched it back to Brandon Robinson, who found Tronti wide open down the right sideline for a 41-yard pass completion into the red zone
Two plays later, Larry McCammon III went in from 11 yards out to knot things up at 14-14
After a three-and-out, the Owls drove 78 yards to take their first lead. Along the way, Robison found Tavaris Harrison for 31 yards; to end the drive, the two connected again, for a nine-yard score
FAU received the second half kickoff and needed just three plays and 58 seconds to take it out to a 28-14 lead, with Robison finding an impossibly open Willie Wright for a 51-yard score
And just 11 seconds after that, on the very next play, James Pierre notched his second interception of the year to give the offense the ball in WKU territory at the 38
WKU cut it to seven about 10 minutes later, with 3:46 left in the third, and added a field goal early in the fourth. Still, FAU continued to lead, 28-24
The Owl offense responded by pounding it on the ground, as six of the first seven plays on the ensuing possession were of the rushing variety, including a 25-yard gain by James Charles, and a 16-yard rush for Chauncey Mason to take it inside the 10
A dropped pass in the end zone, followed by a blocked field goal and runback to the FAU 44, swung momentum to WKU for a moment. But Pierre picked off the ensuing long pass attempt and had a long runback of his own, 30 yards, to near midfield
The Owls essentially bled out the clock from then on. They took over at 6:07 and had seven runs plus a jet sweep took nearly four minutes of gametime, plus burned two WKU timeouts in the process
Tronti extended the advantage immediately after that second timeout with a 22-yard rushing score, and Zyon Gilbert iced it with the Owls' third pickoff of the day with just 15 seconds left

Game Highlights

Stats and Records

Hayball's record-long punt was one yard further than the previous best mark, held previously by Dalton Schomp against UTEP on Oct. 24, 2015
The redshirt freshman punter averaged exactly 50.0 yards per on his five punts, with three of them downed inside the 20
Tooley also had the last defensive touchdown for the Owls, two seasons ago against Bethune-Cookman (Sept. 16, 2017), another scoop and score
Leroy recorded a new career high of 12 tackles, including two sacks, and had a pass breakup and the forced fumble
Rashad Smith joined his fellow linebacker in double digits with 10 stops, including one for a loss. Quran Hafiz was next on the ledger with eight tackles, while Gilbert had seven
Robison finished the game 18-for-29 for 208 yards; along with Robinson and Tronti, the team as a whole threw for 259 yards
The 1-2 punch of Charles and Mason combined for 124 yards on just 20 carries. Both set career highs in the process: Charles had nine totes for 64 yards, averaging 7.1 per rush, Mason carried it 11 times for 60 yards, a healthy per-carry himself of 5.5
Tronti on the ground had four rushes for 35 yards, and added the 41-yard reception
McCammon's rushing score was the seventh of the season for the true freshman
Harrison Bryant led the Owl passcatching unit with six receptions for 74 yards

What's Next

The Owls return home for next Saturday's matchup, hosting FIU in the annual Shula Bowl pitting the two South Florida programs against one another. Kickoff from FAU Stadium is scheduled for 6 p.m., and it will be broadcasted on Stadium network. For tickets, call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or click HERE.