Tulsa Falls at Temple on Thursday Night, 31-17

Thursday, September 20

Philadelphia, Pa.

6:30 PM

Tulsa

1-3 , 0-1

Temple

2-2 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Tulsa

Temple

Photo by: Jon Lambert

Tulsa Falls at Temple on Thursday Night, 31-17

9/20/2018 10:26:00 PM | Football

Box Score

Final Stats (.pdf) | Game Notes (.pdf) | Photo Gallery

PHILADELPHIA — Tulsa out-gained Temple (403-300), but the Owls turned five Hurricane turnovers into 17 points — including a pair of defensive touchdowns — en route to a 31-17 win on Thursday night at Lincoln Financial Field in the American Athletic Conference opener for both squads.

Corey Taylor II ran for 96 yards and two touchdowns, while Justin Hobbs notched season highs of nine catches for 78 yards for the Golden Hurricane (1-3, 0-1). For Taylor II, it was the third multiple score game of his career.

In addition, sophomore running back Shamari Brooks finished with 65 yards on 22 carries to go over 1,000 yards for his career. Brooks, out of Tulsa Union High School, now has 1,062 yards through the first 13 games of his career (81.7 ypg).

Defensively, the Hurricane yielded just 17 points and 300 yards of offense. Cooper Edmiston led the defense with seven tackles to go along with two interceptions.

Meanwhile, Ryquell Armstead led the Owls (2-2, 1-0) with 128 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. Karamo Diobate and Ty Mason had the defensive scores for Temple on a fumble return and interception return, respectively.

It was the Temple defense that got the scoring started as Mason picked off a Luke Skipper pass and ran it back 36 yards for a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

However, Skipper and the Tulsa offense bounced back after the pick and put together a 16-play, 75-yard drive that lasted nearly six minutes. The Hurricane converted two third downs and a fourth down during the drive, which was capped by a 3-yard scoring run from Taylor II to knot the score at 7-all.

But the Owls went on two quick scoring drives in the second quarter for a 21-7 advantage. The home squad held a 21-10 edge at intermission as Nate Walker kicked an 18-yard field goal to inch the Hurricane closer as time expired in the second quarter.

The second half began similarly to the first half, as Diobate scooped up a Tulsa fumble and ran it back 50 yards to extend the Owls advantage to 28-10.

Taylor II scored again, this time from five yards out, to make it 28-17 with 10:07 to play. But the visitors would not get any closer and the Owls put the game away with a field goal, which was the only points allowed by the Tulsa defense in the second half.

Tulsa will enter its bye week and then head to Houston (2-1, 0-0) for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Cougars on Thursday, Oct. 4 at TDECU Stadium.

WHAT WAS NOTEWORTHY:
• Tulsa's 235 first-half yards was the most in the first half this year for Tulsa, and the first game since the opener (UCA, 205 yards) that Tulsa went over 200 yards in the first 30 minutes.

• Chandler Miller started his 42nd consecutive career game at center, since starting his first game as a red-shirt freshman.

• Fellow senior offensive linemen Willie Wright started his 39th career game and 22nd straight, and Tyler Bowling started his 29th career game, all consecutively.

• Shamari Brooks went over 1,000 career yards on his third carry of the game, giving him 1,001 career yards after that carry.

• Cooper Edmiston had 2 interceptions, making him the first player since Darnell Walker Jr. on Nov. 23, 2013, to have two interceptions in a game, and that coming against Louisiana Tech.

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