For the second week in a row, 60 minutes was not enough time to decide a winner in a game involving the UTSA Roadrunners. Unlike last week’s triple overtime game against the University of Houston, Saturday’s game between the University of Texas at San Antonio and Army only lasted one overtime.
The Roadrunners went on defense first in the overtime and held Army to a field goal. UTSA then won the game, 41-38, on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Frank Harris to De’Corian “JT” Clark.
“We knew we had a good play call,” UTSA Head Coach Jeff Traylor said after the game. “We had run it earlier in the game, but it had fallen incomplete. We came back to it, and Frank and JT made it happen.”
It was the final act of a game that Army led for most of the afternoon. UTSA then went on a burst of 21 unanswered points to take a 35-28 lead late in the fourth quarter and even had a chance to win in regulation after Army tied the score at 35. Jared Sackett missed a game-winning field-goal attempt as time expired and the game went to overtime.
Halfway through the third quarter, few would have guessed that UTSA and Army would be playing overtime on Saturday afternoon at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.
Army had just gone on a drive that took more than half of the time off the clock. The Black Knights had increased their lead to 28-14 when Tyhier Tyler scored on a 16-yard run with 6:49 left in the third quarter.
That was the point that momentum started to shift in UTSA’s favor. Frank Harris led the offense down the field and cut the Army lead to 28-21 with 2:02 left in the third quarter when he threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Zakhari Franklin. It was the second time Harris and Franklin had connected on a touchdown in the game. The first Harris-to-Franklin touchdown had tied the score at 14-14 in the second quarter.
“This was great for us. You learn a lot about a team in games like this,” Harris said. “We’re definitely going to build from this. When we get down we know how to overcome adversity.”
UTSA then forced Army to punt the ball for the first time in the game early in the fourth quarter. Harris and the offense started at their own 26 yard line. The Roadrunners then drove 74 yards in 11 plays with Brenden Brady capping off the drive with his first rushing touchdown of the afternoon. Sackett added the extra point and UTSA tied the game at 28-28 with 9:49 left in the fourth quarter.
A little over two and a half minutes later UTSA had their first lead of the afternoon — and in the series against Army — when Brady scored on another 1-yard touchdown run. With 7:11 left in the fourth quarter, UTSA led 35-28.
Army, known for its triple-option attack, did most of its scoring through the air. The Black Knights finished with 304 yards passing, their first game with 300 yards passing since the 2007 season. The Black Knights got 42 of those passing yards on a touchdown pass from Cade Ballard to Tyrell Robinson that tied the game at 35-35 with 1:03 left in the game.
UTSA had a chance to win before overtime as they drove down into range for Sackett to try a field goal. Sackett missed the kick wide right, his second missed field goal of the afternoon, and the two teams went to overtime.
That was when Harris and Clark made sure that there would only be one overtime period this week.
UTSA (1-1) will be on the road again next week when they travel to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns in a Sept. 17 night game. Army (0-2) will host Villanova at Michie Stadium.
