Sports editor Jaralynn Tammi Morellano says Tulsa finally broke its three-game losing streak.
The University of Tulsa football team broke its three-game losing streak at Saturday’s homecoming game against the University of Texas at San Antonio. The H.A. Chapman stadium was in an uproar, not just because the Golden Hurricane has not seen a win in awhile, but because of the 26-point deficit it overcame to snatch a 46-45 victory. The 17,439 fans, mixed of UTSA and TU students, families and alumni, witnessed Tulsa take its first season win in the American Athletic Conference. This game propelled it to a 3-5 overall season record.
In the first quarter, Tulsa took the opening kickoff and was able to go three-and-out at the start. In its first possession, the Roadrunners were able to push forward 46 yards in nine plays. UTSA quarterback Owen McCown threw ro Oscar Cardenas in the last play for a 9-yard touchdown. The Golden Hurricane would make no progress in its possession, and the ball would end up back in the hands of the Roadrunners.
McCown would make an amazing 69-yard pass play to Chris Carpenter to extend UTSA’s lead 0-14. There were two minutes left in the quarter and no teams would make any big waves, leaving the score as is when starting the second quarter. Tulsa would hit the locker rooms with some serious strategizing to do.
The Golden Hurricane was looking to make a comeback when pushing towards UTSA’s endzone. However, the Roadrunners would recover a fumble off of a sack at Tulsa’s eight-yard line. It only took two plays for McCown to connect with Dan Dishman to put Tulsa down 0-20.
This quarter saw Cooper Legas enter the game as Tulsa’s quarterback. He would finally get Tulsa on the board when he hit Bill Jackson down the middle of the field for a 31-yard pass. The Roadrunners would continue to keep Tulsa at a 20-point deficit, a 9-yard run from Robert Henry putting the score at 7-27.
Despite the success on UTSA’s offense, the Golden Hurricane would slowly find its groove on the defense, being able to hold the Roadrunners twice at 4th-and-2 from the two-yard line and 4th-and-1 from Tulsa’s 25-yard line. The same could not be said for the Golden Hurricane offense, it committed another fumble to allow the Roadrunners to scoop up a touchdown and end the first half with a 7-35 lead.
The third quarter would continue to see the rise of Tulsa’s defensive line, completely shutting down the Roadrunners on its first possession of the second-half. Tulsa forced a turnover on UTSA’s next drive, which ultimately earned the Golden Hurricane some points for its side of the scoreboard. Golden Hurricane Vontroy Malone sacked UTSA quarterback to force a fumble that lineman Amieh Williams picked up to race 35 yards for a roaring Tulsa touchdown.
The defense would continue to hold down UTSA, and on its next push into the opponent’s side, Tulsa would earn points off a 37-yard field goal from Seth Morgan. With this the Golden Hurricane began to creep up on UTSA 35-17.
Unfortunately, Tulsa’s 10-0 start would not continue and UTSA would break out of its hold. McCown would throw his fourth touchdown of the game at the end of a seven-play drive to extend its lead once more. Whatever words of motivation were said in the locker room seemed to drive the Golden Hurricane players, as they would not give up on the plays or the game. In fact, they would refuse to exit the quarter off of a UTSA score, and with just 40 seconds left in the quarter, Kamdyn Benjamin would go 74 yards on a pass from Legas to bring the final quarter score to 24-42.
Fans would continue to sit in the stands in hopes for a miracle and Tulsa would not disappoint. Within the first 39 seconds of the fourth quarter, the Golden Hurricane would make it a 10-point game and UTSA would start to feel the pressure. Both teams would run down the clock, unable to make it onto the board again until UTSA widened its lead with a 37-yard field goal.
Legas would continue to lead the Golden Hurricane offense to a 24-point comeback victory. The winning drive came after Legas completed 4-of-6 passes for 87 yards to place Benjamin just four yards in front of the endzone. He would complete the play to close the game out 46-45.
With a sweet homecoming victory, Golden Hurricane fans hope this win is setting the tone for the rest of the season. For now, the players celebrate its win and prepare to travel to Alabama to face UAB. The game will take place on Saturday, Nov. 2. Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m., and fans can watch the action on ESPN+.
