ORLANDO - The UCF football team scored three touchdowns in the first nine minutes and 10 seconds of the game and took care of visiting UConn 49-17 Saturday at the Bounce House.
The Knights remained perfect at home this season with the victory, improving to 6-0, and have one home game remaining on the schedule, a Black Friday War On I-4 battle with South Florida.
The aforementioned trio of touchdowns in the first quarter were all rushing scores by different Knights. Johnny Richardson was first, running in from nine yards out. Then it was Mikey Keene, who scored on a 30-yard scamper. And finally, it was Mark-Antony Richards on a 8-yard run to make give UCF (7-4) a 21-0 lead heading into the second quarter.
The Knights defense got one interception in the first quarter and then two more in the second to keep the Huskies (1-10) at bay. Justin Hodges and Cam Goode each got their first-career picks, while Divaad Wilson snagged his second of the season.
Each team scored twice in the second quarter to make it 35-14 at the break.
Keene found Richardson for a 17-yard touchdown pass to cap off a 98-yard drive, UCF's longest of the season, and Ryan O'Keefe hit Brandon Johnson for a 49-yard touchdown score. It was O'Keefe's second touchdown pass of the season on just his second attempt, while Johnson became the first American Athletic Conference player to haul in 10 touchdown passes this season.
After a scoreless third quarter, UCF found the end zone twice more in the fourth to extend the lead to 49-14, before UConn tacked on a final field goal.
Backup quarterback Parker Navarro scored on a 5-yard rush, his second score in the last two games, and Amari Johnson caught a 3-yard pass from Keene to round out the UCF scoring.
RICHARDSON AND JOHNSON CAREER DAYS
• Johnny Richardson finished with 14 rushes for a career-high 147 yards on the ground. His previous high was 104 rushing yards against ECU earlier this season.
• He also caught one pass for 17 yards and a score, marking his first-career multi-score game.
• Brandon Johnson matched his career-best with seven catches for a career-high 125 yards receiving. His previous high was 123 yards against UMass as a member of the Tennessee football team on Sept. 23, 2017.
• Johnson came into the weekend ranked eighth in the nation with nine touchdown receptions.
SIX WITH SACKS
• A total of six Knights had at least a half a sack in the win Saturday.
• The five total sacks matched the second most in a game this season for UCF.
• Jon Powell, Justin Hodges, Tre'mon Morris-Brash, and Cam Goode all had solo sacks, while Tatum Bethune and Big Kat Bryant each shared a sack.
• It was the first-career sack for Powell, who also had a career-high two tackles for loss in his second-career start.
COACH MALZAHN
"I'm extremely proud of our team. We won the game handedly. Really what stood out to me is how we got off to a fast start, I think 21-0, before they made a first down. (I was) real happy to get some breathing room. Defensively, we were down some linebackers. Jon Powell and Quade Mosier stepped in. I thought they did a solid job in that first half before we got Jeremiah (Jean-Baptiste) back in the second half. Overall, we were balanced on offense. I thought Travis did a super job mixing things up with the pressures that he brought, especially when we were kind of thin at linebacker. I think it was a good, quality win."
TATUM BETHUNE
"The whole game we just played our standard of football. We can't let down. Regardless of what the score is, we just got to keep going. It can be difficult sometimes with different guys coming in that don't really have any experience, but the standard doesn't go down, we got to keep it up there and reach it every time… every time."
SOUNDS OF THE GAME
UCF Knights · 2021 UCF Football vs UConn - Highlights
