Temple Falls to Navy Late at Home

Saturday, October 11

4:00 pm

Temple University

3-3 , 1-1

Navy

6-0 , 4-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Navy

Temple

Temple Falls to Navy Late at Home

10.11.25 | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

PHILADELPHIA - The Temple Owls (3-3, 1-1 American) fell to the Navy Midshipmen (6-0, 4-0 AMER) 32-31 in front of 26,149 at Lincoln Financial Field.

HOW IT HAPPENED

For the fifth time this season, the Owls won the coin toss, and in today's game they chose to take the ball first on offense. The drive began with two straight runs featuring Jay Ducker and Keveun Mason, but the drive was highlighted by a 46-yard catch and run from Evan Simon to Kajiya Hollawayne. The drive stalled at the Navy 21-yard line, and Temple could not convert on a 39-yard field goal. The Navy offense started off strong in its first possession of the game. The Mids methodically ate up yards to get to midfield and then scored a 50-yard score to take the lead 7-0. Quarterback Blake Horvath found a wide-open Cody Howard over the middle of the field for the touchdown. The Temple offense responded in a big way on the following possession. The ground game is what drove the Owls down the field, especially Simon's legs. The redshirt senior had a 21-yard rush and ultimately the one-yard rushing score to tie the game at 7-7 with 3:19 left in the opening frame. The Temple defense settled in on the second Navy offensive possession and forced a three-and-out. The name of the game early for the Owls was to get the ball into JoJo Bermudez's hands, and they did just that. The wide-out finished the first quarter with 48 yards on four catches.
Temple opened the second quarter with a first-and-goal situation from the seven-yard line. Although the offense couldn't punch the ball into the end zone, Carl Hardin added three points on a 23-yard field goal to put the Owls up 10-7 early in the second. After another short possession by the Mids, the Temple offense got the ball back. The drive was long and productive, but the Owls suffered its first turnover of the season in the red zone. On third down, the Navy pass rush got home, and forced Simon to fumble the ball for the turnover. Curly Ordonez had himself a half throughout the first portion of the game. The ensuing Navy drive, Ordonez notched his fourth tackle of the half to help stifle another Navy drive and put the high-powered offense back on the bench. With just over two minutes left in the first half, the Temple offense had a chance to make it a two-score game, and it did just that. The 10-play 81-yard drive that featured big plays from Colin Chase, was finished with a one-yard touchdown run by Ducker. Temple went into halftime with a 17-7 lead.
The Mids came out of the break and responded right away on offense. Horvath used his arm and legs to help Navy get within one score of the Owls. The nine-play 74-yard drive ended with Horvath rushing into the end zone for a two-yard score. Temple led 17-14 with 9:59 left in the third quarter. The Cherry & White responded accordingly to the Navy score. Simon torched the Navy defense with his arm on the six-play scoring drive. The signal-caller hit Hunter Smith for a 25-yard pass play, and then followed that up with a 26-yard passing touchdown to Bermudez to the front pylon. The precision pass got the Temple lead back to ten points as the Owls led 24-14 with 6:37 left in the quarter. The third possession by either team in the half finished with yet another touchdown. Navy capped off a 4:15 drive with a touchdown run from running back Alex Tecza to get the Mids back within three points of the Temple lead.
After a Temple punt started the fourth quarter, the Midshipmen constructed a patented Navy offensive drive that featured strong running and toughness. Navy marched down the field to the Temple 27, but a sack by Curly Ordonez pushed the Midshipmen back and forced a field-goal attempt by Nathan Kirkwood. The senior kicked curved in a 48-yard kick to tie the game at 24 points with 6:34 left in regulation. On the following offensive drive by the Owls, time management and forward movement were of the upmost importance. Moving the ball on the ground was working on all cylinders thanks to Ducker especially. On second-and-eight from the Navy 22, the Owls put the ball in the air and it worked. Simon found Hollawayne for a 21-yard gain that put Temple at the one-yard line. The Owls would punch it into the end zone on the following play for Ducker's second score of the night. Temple led 31-24 with 1:16 remaining in the game. Navy was forced to move the ball through the air on the drive, which allowed the Temple defense to pin its ears back and put pressure on the quarterback. The Owls did just that on the first play of the drive and put instant pressure on Horvath. However, after a pass interference set the Mids up at midfield, a fourth-and-one rush by Horvath tied the game. The quarterback rushed for a 51-yard touchdown to make it 31-30 Temple. Navy did not settle for six and attempted a two-point conversion that was successful, again thanks to Horvath. Navy now led 32-31 with 39 seconds remaining in regulation. Temple would get the ball back and start the final drive of the night from the 25-yard line. Temple would move the ball to the Navy 40-yard line, but the hail-mary attempt by Simon would come up short as time expired.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Wide receiver Kajiya Hollawayne set a new career high tonight in receptions and yards, finishing the night with nine catches for 146 yards.
Evan Simon threw for a season-high 345 yards tonight. He previously threw for 248 yards in the season-opener against Massachusetts.
The Temple defense held Navy to 111 total yards in the first half of tonight's game, the lowest number of yards in a half for the Mids this season. They were held to 132 yards previously against Rice earlier this season.
Temple ran 50 plays in the first half of tonight's contest. This matches when the Owls ran 50 plays back in 2021 against the Memphis Tigers.

UP NEXT

Temple will head to Charlotte next Saturday, October 18 to take on the 49ers at Jerry Richardson Stadium. The American Conference bout will kickoff at 3:30 pm and will be broadcast on ESPN+. The game can be heard at OwlSports.com/Listen.