Temple prevails for seventh win in a row

THERE'S A SCENE late in the movie "Sabrina," the mid-1990s remake of the 1950s classic, where Harrison Ford's character is at the airport to catch a flight across the pond in the hopes of winning back the heart of the chauffeur's daughter, played by Julia Ormond. The attendant asks if it's his first time on the Concorde. He says yes. But then, she wants to know, this can't be his first trip to Paris.

"It's my first everything," a discombobulated Ford sheepishly admits.

Welcome to Temple football, where every week is about covering more new ground.

Last night at Lincoln Financial Field, the Owls (7-2, 5-0 Mid-American Conference) continued their inexorable march toward the MAC title game.

But not before they got pushed to the limit by a team they had pretty much buried.

They beat Miami (Ohio), which now has lost 15 of its last 16, 34-32, on an 18-yard field goal by true freshman Brandon McManus with 3 seconds left. It's their seventh consecutive win, which is something they hadn't done since 1973-74, when they won their last eight in Wayne Hardin's fourth season and added the first six in his fifth.

But they led 21-3 in the second quarter, and 31-13 heading into the fourth. It should have been over. But it wasn't. Miami, which had more than 200 yards of offense in the final 15 minutes, scored touchdowns on three straight possessions while holding Temple to back-to-back three-and-outs. Good thing the RedHawks missed a pair of two-point conversions, or this could have been Fraud Five material.

Miami went up by one with just over 2 minutes left, on a 2-yard run by Thomas Merriweather.

Temple took over on its 36. Bernard Pierce, another true freshman, ran for 18 yards. Chester Stewart threw a 31-yard pass to Joe Jones. Two plays later, Pierce gained 11 yards to the 2. When Pierce was stopped at the 1, McManus had to be the hero from straightaway.

Was there ever a doubt?

"I have complete faith in Brandon McManus," said coach Al Golden. "He never gets fazed."

In the old days, it probably wouldn't have had a happy ending.

The last time the Owls played at the Linc under the lights, they squandered a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead and lost to Villanova on a field goal at the buzzer.

Now, it's nothing but high hopes.

"To me this was a great win," Golden insisted. "Everybody said last week [at Navy] was the biggest, but this was it. I kept telling the guys if you're going to have a streak like this, if you want to be a good team, there's going to be games like this. You just don't know where they're going to be.

"It looked like we were moving away with it, but they're on scholarship just like we are. We didn't put them away. In college football, that's what happens. Kids fight back. That's not what got us to this point. We could have thrown up our hands, but we came back [too]."

Pierce, the nation's leading freshman rusher, finished with 178 yards on 40 carries, the second time he's had that many attempts in three games. It was the first time in three games that he hadn't gone over 200 yards. He also scored three times. That gives him 14, one off the school record.

"He's a special guy," Golden correctly noted.

Stewart only completed 6 of 11, but they accounted for 143 yards, many at critical times. He got the start over Vaughn Charlton, who has played most of the way this year but struggled against Navy. But Charlton, who's the holder for McManus, did score the second TD on a 1-yard run off a fake field goal.

When you've got Pierce in the backfield, it might not matter all that much who's behind center.

"It's no secret that Vaughn didn't have a good day last week," Golden explained. "And [Stewart's] been really improving. That doesn't mean we wouldn't use Vaughn next week."

Miami's Zac Dysert, a redshirt freshman, was 31-for-51 for 426 yards and three scores. That's the fourth-highest total in program history. The top three belong to some bloke named Roethisberger.

Already bowl eligible for the first time since 1990, the Owls undoubtedly will be going to one for the first time in three decades. Only the destination and opponent remains undetermined.

This much is certain: They will play Akron, which like Miami also has one win this season, next Friday on the road.

They lead the East Division by one over Kent State and Ohio. There's a chance they actually could clinch a spot in the MAC final before their last game.

At this point, what doesn't seem possible? It's their sixth straight MAC win at home.

The announced crowd was 13,827. Apparently, some things take longer to change.

Good thing the Phillies already had called it a season.

The first two Temple scores came on six-play drives. One covered 33 yards, the other 51. The first was set up by a 30-yard punt return by Delano Green, the second by a Kevin Kroboth interception.

With 5:21 left in the second, the Owls went up 18 on a 7-yard run by Pierce, which culminated another six-play march, this one covering 86 yards. A 45-yard pass from Stewart to James Nixon directly preceded Pierce's second TD.

Miami (1-9, 1-5), which had beaten Toledo at home a week earlier, got back into it on an 11-yard TD pass from Dysert to Armand Robinson with 3:41 to go until halftime, and Trevor Cook's second field goal, this time from 26, at 11 seconds. It came after Stewart fumbled at the 22.

The Owls won the third quarter, 10-0. Mostly because they kept handing off to Pierce, who carried 15 times, or as many as he had in the first 30 minutes. He got it on their first six plays, and seven of the first eight, which led to a 42-yard McManus FG. The next time the Owls touched it, Pierce again lugged it on seven of eight snaps, this time to finish things off. His 14-yard run put Temple up by 18 with 17 1/2 minutes remaining.

Yet it would somehow turn into a game again. One they nearly lost.

When you're charting new territory, there's always another lesson lurking just ahead.