BY ROCK HOFFMAN
College Football Editor
Two Temple turnovers led to 14 points for Coastal Carolina as the Chanticleers came to Lincoln Financial Field and got a 28-20 win. Behind quarterback Evan Simon’s two touchdown passes, the Owls made a comeback but the hole they dug themselves was too deep. On the season, the Owls (0-3, 0-1 American) have committed 11 turnovers – the second most in the country – and have yet to get one back.
“We need to continue to work on the details,” said Simon, a transfer from Rutgers, who was making his first start as an Owl, “and not shoot ourselves in the foot,”
The Owls went one-for-two on 54-yard field goal tries in the first quarter, Maddux Trujillo missed the first and made the second but in between Christian Washington ran for a 15-yard touchdown for the Chanticleers and Zamarion Gordon took an interception 29 yards for a score.
Early in the second quarter, Coastal pinned the Owls at the one-yard line with a punt. E.J. Wilson fumbled and the Chanticleers took over at the 11. Cameron Wright caught a seven-yard touchdown from Ethan Vasko and it was 21-3.
The Owls answered with a scoring drive, during which Simon completed three straight passes of more than 10 yards. The first went for 14 yards to Antwain Littleton II and converted a third-and-two. The next two passes went to Dante Wright for 18- and 17-yards respectively. Simon completed the drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to John Adams.
The Temple defense forced a three-and-out on Coastal’s first possession of the second half. A short punt put the Owls in business at their own 47-yard line. Wright caught a 24-yard pass and Littleton one that covered 20 yards to put the ball inside the 10-yard line. Wright finally reached paydirt on a fourth-down catch from the two, making the score 21-17.
On their ensuing possession, the Chanticleers (3-0, 0-0 Sun Belt) matriculated the ball down the field on a 13-play, 75-yard drive with Washington running in from the five-yard line. One play before the score, Vasko had an 18-yard run to put Coastal in position to extend their lead.
After the Owls cut it to 28-20 on a 37-yard field goal by Trujillo early in the fourth quarter, the teams traded possessions. Coastal ran three plays before punting it back to Temple, the Owls moved the ball, but a penalty wiped out a first down on a fourth-down play, forcing a punt.
The Chanticleers held the ball for almost four minutes, when Temple got the ball back there were less than three minutes left. The Owls got as deep as the Coastal 36 but a fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
“It’s tough,” said Owls’ head coach Stan Drayton when asked about the lack of takeaways. “We gotta have it. In this offense, the way we’re built, our defense needs to find a way to get a takeaway here and there. It’s being emphasized,”
Next Saturday, the Owls host Utah State (1-2, 0-0 Mountain West).
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