Temple University Athletics
Minnesota Runs Past Temple, 62-0
9.16.06 | Football
Sept. 16, 2006
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Senior quarterback Bryan Cupito tossed three first quarter touchdown passes to Logan Payne, and then added a fourth to his senior wide receiver late in the second quarter to propel Minnesota to a 45-0 halftime lead en route to a 62-0 win over visiting Temple Saturday afternoon in front of 45,612 fans at the Metrodome in the Golden Gophers home opener. Minnesota improves to 2-1 on the season while Temple falls to 0-3.
The Golden Gophers scored on all four of their possessions in the opening quarter, the last coming on a 20-yard Amir Pinnix rush as time expired in the period, to take a commanding 28-0 lead. Minnesota took advantage of Temple turnovers on its first two possessions. The Owls also gave the Gophers the ball on their own 12-yard line after a bad snap led to Temple punter Jake Brownell being tackled for a 13-yard loss.
The Owls marched down to the Golden Gopher 20 on an 11-play, 60-yard drive - their best of the half - to start the second quarter. Sophomore quarterback Adam DiMichele rushed for 31 yards on the drive, which ended on a 36-yard field goal attempt by junior Danny Murphy that went wide left.
A roughing the kicker penalty kept alive Minnesota's next possession with the Gophers Alex Daniels completing the nine-play, 80-yard drive with a nine-yard touchdown run. Following a 34-yard Brownell on Temple's ensuing possession, Cupito (8-12, 148 yds) found his favorite target, Payne (6 catches, 136 yards), for a 67-yard TD to make it 42-0 with 3:27 remaining in the half. A Pinnix 33-yard rush setup a 33-yard Jason Giannini field goal with 35 second to play to cap the first half scoring.
Freshman Vaughn Charlton took over at quarterback for DiMichele, who passed for 26 yards (4-7-1) and rushed for 19, in the second half. Charlton completed 13 of 23 passes for 70 yards. Like DiMichele, he was intercepted once.
Sophomore quarterback Tony Mortensen capped a seven-play, 20-yard drive with a four-yard TD run around left end to make it 52-0 with 4:27 left in the third quarter. The drive was set up by a 35-yard punt return by Domenic Jones. Brownell tackled him at the 20-yard line to prevent a touchdown.
True freshman running back Terrence Sherrer, who led Minnesota in rushing with 89 yards on 16 carries, made the score 59-0 with a 20-yard TD run with 9:28 remaining to play. Giannini completed the Gopher scoring with his second field goal of the day, this one a 41-yarder with 3:50 on the clock.
Freshman Jason Harper rushed for 50 yards on 12 carries in his first start of the season for a 4.2 average. Harper also caught a team-high four passes for 17 yards and made three kickoff returns for 57 yards.
Defensively, sophomore Georg Coleman made his first career interception, picking off a Mortensen pass on the Gophers' second drive of the third quarter. Keith Holt, Junior Galette and Evan Cooper led the Owls with seven tackles each. Brownell also had another solid game on special teams, averaging 38.8 yards on his eight punts.
Minnesota racked up 448 yards of total offense to 157 for Temple.
The Owls travel to Kalamazoo, Mich. next Saturday to battle the Western Michigan Broncos. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
