Another Knight, Another Win
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Central Florida offense torched Steve Gregory and the rest of the Syracuse football secondary for four quarters Saturday night. Still, it was Gregory who found a way to win Syracuse the game.
Gregory blocked Matt Prater’s 47-yard field-goal attempt with 2:55 left Saturday night to give the Orangemen a 38-35 win over the Golden Knights before 24,043 at the Florida Citrus Bowl. Syracuse withstood 539 yards of UCF offense, including a school-record 440 passing yards from quarterback Ryan Schneider.
‘I thought special teams was outstanding,’ SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni said. ‘Special teams wins the close games. That happened here tonight.’
The win was SU’s (3-6) first on the road this season and its first over a non-conference, Division I-A opponent. The Orangemen can still salvage a .500 season if they win their next three games — against No. 8 Virginia Tech, Boston College and No. 2 Miami.
‘We’re never dead,’ SU receiver David Tyree said. ‘I know a lot of people like to think that. This one was a big win that gives us a lot of confidence.’
That confidence started with Syracuse down, 14-0, in the first quarter, when cornerback Latroy Oliver stuffed Prater’s 36-yard field-goal attempt. SU defensive end James Wyche recovered to give the Orangemen the ball on their own 31. Quarterback Troy Nunes drove SU down the field and Collin Barber nailed a 25-yard field goal to cut the UCF lead to 14-3.
Syracuse was down, 21-3, after UCF (3-5) receiver Doug Gabriel rushed for a 1-yard touchdown with seven minutes left in the first half. The Orangemen cut that to 21-10 when Nunes found receiver David Tyree for a 40-yard touchdown. Then, at halftime, SU changed its strategy.
‘The coaches said at halftime that we had to run the ball effectively in the second half because we knew they were getting tired,’ SU running back Walter Reyes said. ‘We just had to keep running the ball well and stay on the field.’
In the second half, the SU offense clicked, led by Reyes, who racked up three rushing touchdowns — all in the second half — and 130 yards.
Reyes’ 38-yard touchdown run on SU’s first drive of the second half cut the deficit to 21-16, because Barber’s extra point was blocked. After Nunes found Jared Jones for a 12-yard touchdown, Reyes rushed for the two-point conversion that knotted the game, 24-24.
The SU defense held UCF to a 34-yard Prater field goal and went into the fourth quarter down, 27-24. Reyes rushed for touchdowns of 4 and 5 yards to give SU a 38-27 lead. Reyes’ 5-yard score came after UCF’s Asante Samuel muffed a punt and Gregory recovered at the UCF 16-yard line.
Schneider engineered another touchdown drive and cashed in on a two-point conversion to reduce the margin to 38-35.
The Golden Knights got another shot at the end zone after Gregory’s block, but their drive started at their own 1-yard line with 1:15 left after a Mike Shafer punt pinned them deep.
‘I thought Mike Shafer’s punt to the 1-yard line was as big of a play as we had in the game,’ Pasqualoni said.
‘We just knew that every time we got on the field, we had to score,’ SU offensive guard Erik Kaloyanides said. ‘If we didn’t score, then we were putting the game in jeopardy. We knew that every time Central Florida was on the field, they had a chance of scoring.’
Indeed, UCF receivers Gabriel and Jimmy Fryzel totaled 206 and 150 receiving yards, respectively. But for the first time this season, SU pulled out a close one in the fourth quarter. The Orangemen had dropped tight games to North Carolina, Auburn and Temple.
‘We’ve been in some close games,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘It was just great to come out of one of these with a win.’
