Temple University Athletics
Golden Earns First Win As Owls Snap Skid With 28-14 Homecoming Win Over Bowling Green
10.28.06 | Football
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Oct. 28, 2006
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PHILADELPHIA - Head Coach Al Golden earned his first win at the helm and the Owls snapped a 20-game losing streak Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field with a 28-14 Homecoming win over Bowling Green. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Adam DiMichele threw for 162 yards and two touchdowns while senior running back Tim Brown posted 104 yards on 21 carries in the victory.
"The defense did a fabulous job of not giving them anything easy. They had to bleed it, they bled the clock and it really kind of helped us," said Temple offensive coordinator George DeLeone. "I'm just glad we have a win to prove all the work that's gone on with these players. The kids hung in and really just refused to lose in the second half."
Golden left the stadium immediately after addressing the team post-game due to a personal matter and did not speak with the media. He and wife, Kelly, are expecting their second child and she is presently hospitalized with mild complications.
Travis Shelton continued his record-setting ways for the Cherry & White. The redshirt sophomore caught a 43-yard scoring pass to put the Owls on the board in the opening quarter before returning a kickoff 96 yards to pay dirt to close out the scoring in the final stanza. The return matches the longest in the Owls' Division I-A history (since 1971) recorded by Paul Loughran in 1971. The last time Temple returned a kick for a score was in 2002 for 94 yards by Makonnen Fenton against Connecticut.
Bowling Green redshirt freshman running back Chris Bullock, who rushed for 182 yards on 29 carries, scored on the first play from scrimmage on a 30-yard run. The Falcons had good field position after a dropped pass by Shelton ended up in the hands of BGSU's Kenny Lewis. One play later, Bowling Green had a 7-0 advantage.
After a three-and-out by Temple, Bowling Green advanced nearly to midfield, mostly on the back of Bullock, who rushed for 18 yards on the drive and a costly personal foul penalty on Evan Cooper, Jr. But the Temple defense forced a BGSU punt, setting up one of the more acrobatic plays in college football this year.
Freshman linebacker Junior Galette broke through the line and climbed the back of a Falcon lineman, rising high in the air to block the punt of freshman Alonso Rojas. The Owls recovered and struck quickly on offense, as a flea flicker on first down from DiMichele to Shelton fooled the Falcon secondary and tied the game at 7-7. It marked Shelton's second career score against the Falcons at Lincoln Financial Field. As a true freshman in 2004, Shelton caught a 56-yard scoring aerial from Mike McGann for his first career touchdown.
In response, Bowling Green (4-5, 3-2) drove 54 yards on its next drive to the Temple 18 yard line but came up empty as a 36-yard field goal attempt by freshman Sean Ellis was wide right.
The Owls were unable to convert on the missed field goal, but made the most of another Falcon mistake in the second quarter. The Falcons drove nearly the entire length of the field, but a fumble by Bullock on the one-yard line caromed out of the back of the end zone giving Temple the ball on its own 20-yard line.
The Owls then drove 80 yards, capped by a nine-yard touchdown run by freshman Jason Harper, to give the hosts a 14-7 lead with 4:52 to play before halftime. Neither team put any points on the board during the remainder of the half as Temple went into the locker room with its first halftime lead of the season and first since November 19, 2005 against Navy (17-14).
Following a stalled drive by the Falcons to open the second half with freshman reserve quarterback Tyler Sheehan at the helm, the Cherry and White needed just two minutes and 33 seconds to go 80 yards after DiMichele found sophomore Bruce Francis for a 45-yard strike and a two-touchdown advantage. Francis' score, one of two catches for 52 yards, was preceded by a 21-yard scamper by Brown.
Both teams traded two punts before Bullock capped a nine-play drive for the Falcons that spanned four minutes and two seconds with a two-yard plunge. Ellis' extra-point cut the Temple advantage to seven points.
Bowling Green's ensuing kickoff was rolled to the Owls' four-yard line before Shelton returned it for the game's final score. On the afternoon, Shelton returned three kicks for 157 yards and totaled 212 all-purpose yards.
Defensively, the Temple win was ignited by three forced turnovers including two second half interceptions posted by freshman Alex Joseph and senior Chris Page. Senior linebacker Walter Mebane led the Owls' defense with a caree-high 15 total tackles (6 solo, 9 assisted) while redshirt senior Terrel White added 9 total (6 solo, 3 assisted) for the Falcons.
For the Cherry and White, linebacker Dave Chiavacci saw action on special teams to increase the number of true freshman having played thus far this season for the Owls to 21, the most in Division I-A.
The Owls' last homecoming victory was a 17-16 win over Syracuse at Veteran's Stadium on October 12, 2002.
Temple (1-8) hosts Central Michigan at 1 p.m. next Saturday in its final home game of the season.
