UCF Football: Knights down Temple to stay perfect, keep Playoff hopes alive
By Dana Becker
It wasn’t easy, and it definitely wasn’t pretty, but UCF football remained unbeaten and stretched their win streak to 21 with a 52-40 victory over Temple Thursday night.
The Knights needed every bit of a returning McKenzie Milton and a strong defensive effort in the second half to keep hope alive for a possible move up in the College Football Playoff standings. Milton missed last week, but the junior quarterback made sure to return for this one on ESPN in prime-time.
Milton completed 17 of 33 for 312 yards and three touchdowns, but despite all of that, UCF trailed by a point at the break to the Owls. While not known for being an offensive juggernaut like the Knights, Temple came into the game riding high after upsetting Cincinnati last week.
Anthony Russo matched Milton, as the sophomore signal-caller for the Owls threw for 444 yards with five total touchdowns. In the end, though, a late drive to cut the deficit was stopped on fourth-down and UCF pulled away with another Greg McCrae touchdown.
The Knights will try to keep the streak going when they host Navy next Saturday, while Temple looks to rebound with a second straight road game at Houston.