UConn topples Panthers

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Clint Session blitzed through the middle. With no time to look for… EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Clint Session blitzed through the middle. With no time to look for a receiver, Connecticut quarterback D.J. Hernandez tucked the ball down and resorted to a familiar play — he scrambled.

After escaping Session’s diving attempt at a tackle, Hernandez looked at five yards of open field separating him and the end zone. And as he crossed the goal line, the celebration started.

The sophomore quarterback’s play completed a 2-point conversion that capped UConn’s second greatest comeback in its football history, erasing a 14-point, fourth quarter deficit to defeat Pitt, 45-44, in double overtime Saturday at Rentschler Field.

“We blitzed him. We had guys coming up wide on each end of the field and he circled them,” Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt said after the game. “I wish I could sit here and tell you more from an X and O standpoint or something like that.

“But it really came down to him tucking the ball, scrambling and making plays.”

Entering the game, Hernandez had only rushed for 69 yards in his five games played this season. He nearly doubled that production on the Panthers’ defense, rushing for 130 yards on 17 carries.

He also turned around his passing game. Hernandez had thrown three touchdowns and six interceptions in the five games, but threw for four touchdowns and no interceptions in his comeback victory over the Panthers.

“His decision-making and knowing where to go with the ball at the right time were why we scored 46 points,” Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall said of his quarterback. “Other than probably two plays this game, I thought he did a very good job.”

Pitt’s tandem of quarterback Tyler Palko and running back LaRod Stephens-Howling led the Panthers into halftime with a 21-17 lead.

Palko orchestrated two touchdown drives in the first quarter that both ended with passes to tight end Steve Buches, tying his career-best mark of two touchdown receptions in one game.

On the first, Palko found Buches from 14 yards out to complete a four-play, 47-yard drive. On the next possession, Palko marched his offense 70 yards in 10 plays which ended in a one-yard pass to Buches for a 14-3 lead.

After the Huskies posted two scores of their own to take the lead, Stephens-Howling rushed through the left side of the defensive line and escaped two tackles for a 26-yard touchdown run — his first of two scores in the game.

Stephens-Howling finished the game with 159 yards rushing on 32 carries for the two touchdowns. Palko completed 20 of 25 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

Pitt put up 10 more points in the third quarter, jumping out to a 31-14 lead, but that’s where its offensive output ended. The Huskies scored twice in the final eight minutes of the game to tie it at 31 with three seconds left.

“We’ve closed games like that before, and we didn’t do it today,” Palko said of the inability to score in the fourth quarter. “It’s not like we ran the ball up the middle because we wanted to give the ball back to them.

“We thought the plays would work, and they didn’t.”

In the first overtime, the Huskies and Panthers exchanged touchdown passes — UConn’s 11-yarder to Brandon Young and Pitt’s one-yard score to Conredge Collins.

Stephens-Howling took it in from one yard out for Pitt in the second overtime, placing all the pressure on the Huskies’ offense.

On UConn’s chance, running back Donald Brown — who rushed for 210 yards and two touchdowns on 43 carries — scored a 10-yard touchdown. It was then that Edsall decided to go for two and try to win the game.

“I asked the team if they wanted to go for it, and they all said yes,” Edsall said. “D.J. Hernandez called for the play, and we ran the play that he asked for because he was so confident about it.”

When the play broke down because of Pitt’s blitzing of its linebackers, Hernandez took the ball himself and won the game with the run.

“He made the play,” Edsall said. “It was a pass play. He improvised and made something happen regardless.”

Pitt now faces a short week to regroup itself and prepare for its next game. The Panthers host the West Virginia Mountaineers Thursday at Heinz Field for the Backyard Brawl.

“We’re on a three-game skid. It’s easy to pack it in, it’s easy to do those things, but we won’t do that. I won’t let it happen. I won’t,” Palko said. “I’m going to stand up for my team with my chin held high and prepare.

“The leaders on this team are going to show them how to win. But no one said it was going to be easy.”