Wildcats, Knights face setbacks

Winter Park

The Wildcats have dropped two straight after falling 24-10 to Timber Creek in their second district game of the season on Friday night.

Winter Park’s defense held Wolves quarterback Preston Samoden to just 88 yards in the air, but gave up 330 yards on the ground to allow Timber Creek to amass 15 points in the second half, sealing the win.

For the Wildcats, who are 1-1 in district play, a bye week will give them some rest before they host University for their third district game. That kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16.

Edgewater

The Eagles (3-2) trounced West Port 41-0 to give themselves three straight wins and a 2-0 district record on Friday night.

Edgewater travels to Lake Howell for a third district game, kicking off at 7 p.m. Oct. 9. The Silver Hawks are 1-4 overall and winless in the district.

UCF

After four games of disappointing running yardage, the Knights managed to attain one of their most ignominious milestones in team history: rushing for negative net yardage in a game. In their 45-31 loss to Tulane on Saturday, despite having the best offensive game they’ve turned out all season, the Knights managed to lose 35 net yards on the ground.

Most of those losses came from UCF quarterbacks Bo Schneider and Tyler Harris being sacked a cumulative seven times for 52 lost yards in the game — compared to just one sack dished out by the UCF defense.

Finally exceeding the passing yardage achieved by injured starting quarterback Justin Holman back in game one, the Knights platooned Schneider and Harris and gained 392 yards in the air.

Meanwhile, the Knights defense, which typically has kept UCF close in games this season, fell apart, allowing the Green Wave to go six-for-six in red zone scoring, while giving up a cumulative 395 yards — nearly as many as they surrendered in a 31-14 loss to South Carolina on Sept. 26.

“Overall we were very sloppy in tackling and very sloppy in missed assignments, and you can’t go out and win games like that,” UCF head coach George O’Leary told UCFKnights.com after the game.

That massive yardage allowed Tulane to blow the game open to 38-10 midway through the third quarter before the Knights began reeling the Green Wave back in. The Knights’ D’erren Wilson, who had never caught a touchdown pass in college, caught his first with 10:49 left in the fourth quarter, and then caught two more as the Knights attempted a rapid late comeback led by Harris at quarterback.

Schneider, who played the majority of the game at quarterback, completed 20 of 37 passes for 236 yards, with a touchdown, a lost fumble and three interceptions. Turnovers would cripple the Knights in an otherwise even fight for yardage. Five of their drives would end in a turnover, with four of those turnovers leading to Tulane touchdowns on the ensuing drives.

Having lost their first conference game, the Knights, who had amassed a 15-1 conference record in their first two seasons in the American Athletic Conference, fell to 15-2. The loss was also the Knights’ fifth in a row to start the season, building on the troubles of their worst season start since 2004.

The winless season so far has plummeted the Knights to No. 126 on SB Nation’s ranking of 128 FBS teams. The Knights are one of only two teams in the FBS to have lost five games to start the year. On that comprehensive ranking of the FBS, UCF’s next opponent, UConn, is ranked No. 99 after emerging from their first five games with a 2-3 record. Odds-makers are predicting UConn as having a 74 percent likelihood of beating the Knights, despite UCF’s home field advantage.

The Huskies opened the season with two narrow wins over Villanova and Army before dropping three straight. The Huskies, who held together a tie 10-10 game against BYU until the fourth quarter last Saturday, let the Cougars walk away with a 30-13 blowout.

The Knights, whose passing game has finally come around but whose running game has fallen apart since a high-water-mark of 171 yards against Furman on Sept. 19, may be getting their starting quarterback back. Holman, who has been medically cleared to play after breaking his finger in the second game of the season, could play against UConn, though O’Leary has yet to indicate whether that will happen. The Knights’ second-year starting quarterback threw for 249 yards with two touchdowns in his only complete game this season, a 15-14 loss to FIU in week one. He took snaps in practice on Monday.

The Huskies had vowed to create a rivalry with UCF this season. The game kicks off at 3:45 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Bright House, televised on ESPNU.