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PHOENIX -- They closed the roof at the Insight Bowl on Tuesday night
and an Arena Football League game broke out. At least that's the way it
seemed as the teams mowed up and down the field for 1,211 yards, a
record for any bowl game, before Arizona State escaped with a 45-40
victory over Rutgers.
Rudy Carpenter threw for 467 yards and four touchdowns and Arizona State
amassed an Insight Bowl-record 679 yards. The total yards broke the NCAA
mark of 1,158 set by Hawaii and Houston in the 2003 Hawaii Bowl.
The Scarlet Knights (7-5), in their second bowl game in school history
and first since 1978, led 33-31 after Jeremy Ito's 48-yard field goal
with 12:56 to play. But the favored Sun Devils (7-5) took the lead for
good when, on second-and-25, Carpenter threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to
Matt Miller (video). The two-point
conversion pass to Brent Miller was good and Arizona State led 39-33
with 10 minutes left.
Consecutive false start penalties ruined Rutgers' next possession, and
the Sun Devils scored again on an eight-play, 69-yard drive with Rudy
Burgess getting his second TD of the night on a four-yard run to put
Arizona State up 45-33 with 4:26 remaining (video).
Ryan Hart's 29-yard touchdown pass to Tres Moses kept it close at 45-40
with two minutes to go, but Zach Miller recovered the onside kick and
the Sun Devils ran out the clock to win consecutive bowl games for the
first time since 1987.
Burgess had 103 yards in 16 carries. Ray Rice, the Knights' 18-year-old
freshman, gained 108 yard in 20 attempts. Ito kicked four field goals,
including a career-best and bowl-record 52-yarder. Carpenter, a redshirt
freshman who took over for injured Sam Keller eight games into the
season, completed 23-of-35 passes and was not intercepted. He had
touchdown passes of 43 and 42 yards to Matt Miller, a 1-yarder to Zach
Miller and a 22-yard TD toss to Terry Richardson.
The Scarlet Knights went 80 yards in eight plays on the game's first
possession. Hart was 4-for-4 on the drive. His 21-yarder to Moses put
the ball on the 14, and his 12-yard pass to Brian Leonard made it
first-and-goal at the 1-yard line. Hart threw a yard to Clark Harris for
the touchdown. Arizona State matched it with an 80-yard drive after the
kickoff. Carpenter connected with Matt Miller for the 43-yard score (video).
Rutgers mowed through the ASU defense again on its next possession.
Brian Leonard took a short pass from Hart and gained 38 yards, then
caught another and ran 31 yards down the sidelines for a touchdown to
put the Scarlet Knights ahead 14-7 with 8:51 still to go in the first
quarter (video).
Preston Jones fumbled the next time Arizona State had the ball, and
Ramel Meekins recovered at the ASU 46. The subsequent Rutgers drive
stalled at the Sun Devils 8, and Ito's 25-yard field goal made it 17-7
with 5:22 remaining in the first quarter.
Leonard's two-yard TD run put the Scarlet Knights up 24-10 2:29
before halftime. That was plenty of time for ASU, averaging more than
500 yards per game, to go 80 yards. Carpenter tossed a 1-yard TD pass to
Zach Miller to cut the lead to 24-17 with 39 seconds to go in the half.
The Sun Devils tied it on their first possession of the second half.
Carpenter's 40-yard pass to Jamaal Lewis set up a 1-yard TD run by
Burgess that made it 24-24. Arizona State took its first lead, 31-27,
with 6:37 left in the third quarter on Carpenter's 22-yard touchdown
pass to Terry Richardson, who redeemed himself after a personal foul
penalty threatened to stall the drive. |
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Attendance: 43,536
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
RU- Harris 1 yd pass from Hart (Ito kick)
ASU- Miller 43 yd pass from Carpenter (Ainsworth kick)
RU- Leonard 31 yd pass from Hart (Ito kick)
RU- FG Ito 25
Second Quarter
ASU- FG Ainsworth 20
RU- Leonard 3 yd run (Ito kick)
ASU- Miller 1 yd pass from Carpenter (Ainsworth kick)
Third Quarter
ASU- Burgess 1 yd run (Ainsworth kick)
RU- FG Ito 23
ASU- Richardson 22 yd pass from Carpenter (Ainsworth kick)
RU- FG Ito 52
Fourth Quarter
RU- FG Ito 48
ASU- Miller 42 yd pass from Carpenter (Miller pass from Carpenter)
ASU- Burgess 4 yd run (Carpenter rush failed)
RU- Moses 29 yd pass from Hart (Ito kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing
ASU- Burgess 17-102, Herring, Carpenter 6-31
RU- Rice 20-108, Leonard 10-46
Passing
ASU- Carpenter 23-35-467
RU- Hart 24-38-374
Receiving
ASU- Miller 5-135, Hagan 5-97, Burgess 4-68, Miller 4-43, Lewis 2-62,
Richardson 2-46
RU- Moses 7-113, Leonard 6-98, Harris 6-85
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