Sun Devil Football Outlasts UCF in Thrilling Back-and-Forth Affair

Tempe, Ariz. – Sun Devil Football (7-2, 4-2) went back-and-forth with UCF (4-6, 2-5) all Saturday evening at Mountain America Stadium, ultimately outlasting the Knights, 35-31, in a high-scoring affair that featured five lead changes and late heroics from the redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt.

Trailing 31-28 with just under five minutes remaining, Leavitt found Jordyn Tyson for the game-winning 13-yard score, his second touchdown reception of the night, that gave the Sun Devils the decisive 35-31 lead. The Sun Devils converted after piecing together a crucial nine-play, 75-yard drive after regaining possession from a Knights' missed 46-yard field goal attempt.

"It's an unbelievable connection right now," head coach Kenny Dillingham said postgame of the young Sun Devil connection. "Sam (Leavitt) knew they were in cover one on the one scramble. He knew Jordyn got locked up originally on the release so he bought some time and then knew there was a one-on-one in the corner, launched it, gave him a jump ball and great job by him going to get it. That's what JT does, he goes and high points the football as good as anybody I've been around. JT has two more years, Sam has three more years. That could be an exciting combo here for the future of football."

After the clutch go-ahead score from the offense, the Sun Devil defense prevented a late rally from the Dylan Rizk-led Knight offense. On 4th-and-2 from their own 33-yard line and trailing 35-31 with over three minutes remaining, the Sun Devil defense swarmed running back RJ Harvey for a massive fourth-down stop, giving the ball back into Leavitt's hands to ice the game and moving the Sun Devils to 7-2 for the first time in a decade.

The Knights opened the fourth quarter with Harvey's third touchdown run of the evening, capping a six-play, 75-yard drive with a 13-yard run for a 31-28 Knights lead.

Both teams traded a pair of touchdowns in the third, as the Leavitt-Tyson-led offense allowed the Sun Devils reclaim the lead late in the quarter, 28-24. A 29-yard strike from Leavitt and an acrobatic grab from Tyson on 3rd-and-7 pushed the Sun Devils into Knights' territory. They punctuated it with a nine yard pitch-and-catch in the back of the end zone in the final seconds of the quarter.

Harvey added his second score in the third quarter, this time from eight yards out, to give UCF a 24-21 edge.

A lethargic, sloppy first half for the Sun Devils was quickly erased when they flipped the script in the closing minute. Trailing 17-7 with under a minute remaining in the second quarter, Leavitt found Chamon Metayer for a four-yard score to cut into the Knights' lead, 17-14.

UCF botched the ensuing kickoff, as the Knights' return man didn't originally intend to take the ball out, bobbled the return and tried to salvage it by scrambling out of the end zone. He narrowly escaped a safety and fought to get it to the 1-yard line. On the ensuing play, Rizk's pass was intercepted by LT Welch, who scampered into the end zone for a pick-six.

It gave the Sun Devils' their 24th pick-six since 2012, and it's the fourth defensive touchdown of the season for Brian Ward's defense, the most in the Big 12 Conference.

"I was in man (coverage)," Welch said. "My man motioned, I was running with him and as soon as I looked up, I saw the ball. I said, 'OK, OK.'  That's my first-ever pick-six. I'm glad I could do it for the team and put our team in the spot we were in."

In a span of just :09 off the game clock, the Sun Devils scored a pair of touchdowns to grab their first lead of the game, 21-17.

The Knights jumped out to a commanding start, scoring on their opening possession with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Harvey punching it in from eight yards out. ASU knotted it at 7-7 apiece later in the first quarter with a blocked punt by freshman Martell Hughes, leading to a 46-yard scoop-and-score for Montana Warren.

It was the Sun Devils' first blocked punt for a touchdown since Eno Benjamin at UCLA on Nov. 11, 2017.

"I gave Warren the game ball because he shows up and works," Dillingham said. "He'd start for a lot of football teams, we're just good at safety and nickel, but he'd start for a lot of teams. And for him to work and work, and then for a play like that to happen, the team went crazy when I gave him the ball because those are the guys that you should get fired up about, the people that are doing all the things that nobody's really talking about. Then all of a sudden they make a play, him and Laterrence Welch, that changes the game and that's pretty cool."

The Knights went on to score 10 unanswered via Grant Reddick's 45-yard field goal and a six-yard rushing touchdown by Jacurri Brown.

The heroics of the special teams and defense gave the Sun Devil offense time to get rolling as it navigated life without Cam Skattebo. In the first half, the Sun Devils were outgained 217-103, and the team's rushing attack combined for just 52 yards on a dozen carries.

The Sun Devils' next test is one of their biggest this season: a showdown at No. 22 Kansas State (7-2) on Nov. 16 in Manhattan, Kansas.