Central Florida 38, Louisville 35
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Blake Bortle's 2-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Godfrey with 23 seconds left gave Central Florida a 38-35 victory over No. 8 Louisville Friday night at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
Bortle moved the Knights 75 yards on 11 plays in 2:37 after Louisville had taken a 35-31 lead on Doinique Brown's 15-yard touchdown run with three minutes left.
But Bortle then completed 6-of-9 passes for 66 yards on the winning drive as UCF (5-1,2-0 AAC) handed Louisville (6-1, 2-1) its first loss.
Teddy Bridgewater threw two touchdown passes as led visiting Central Florida 14-7 at halftime.
Bridgewater, who completed 16 of 19 passes for 206 yards, threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Eli Rogers to cap an 80-yard drive on Louisville's first possession, then threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to DeVante Parker just before halftime.
In the meantime, UCF's William Stanback had a 4-yard touchdown run with 4:13 left before halftime to tie it at 7.
After Stanback's touchdown, which capped a 71-yard drive, Bridgewater drove Louisville 75 yards in 3:15 to the go-ahead score with 58 seconds left in the half.
Louisville ended up with a 235-177 advantage in offensive yards in the half. The Cards were unable to muster a running game, however, getting just 29 yards on 10 carries.
UCF rallied from a 28-7 deficit with three touchdowns within 4:20 late in the third quarter. The Knights took a 31-28 lead on a 34-yard field goal by Shawn Moffitt with 7:36 left, then Bridgewater drove the Cardinals 88 yards in nine plays before Brown's go-ahead touchdown before Bortle's late heroics.
Bortle finished 21 of 31 for 250 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. He was not sacked once by a Louisville defense that had eight sacks last week against Rutgers.
Bridgewater finished 29 of 38 for 346 yards and two TDs.
NOTES: Louisville's star receiver, 6-foot-2 junior DeVante Parker, returned after missing the Rutgers game last week with a shoulder injury. Parker, who was injured in the second quarter of the Temple game Oct. 5, had caught at least one touchdown pass in 10 straight games prior to Temple. Going into the UCF game Parker had 21 catches (second to Damian Copeland's 23) for 375 yards (17.9 per catch) and a team-leading six TDS. He was named first-team All-Big East last season and is on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List this season. ... Junior wide receiver Kai De La Cruz returned to the Louisville lineup after missing the last quarter and a half of the Rutgers game with a hamstring injury. De La Cruz has 15 catches for 271 yards (18.1 per catch) and three touchdowns. He had three catches for 56 yards and a touchdown against Rutgers. ... Louisville will play at South Florida next Saturday at noon. ... Central Florida will play host to Connecticut next Saturday at noon.
