After a series of injuries, transfers and an opt-out by co-captain and leading pass catcher Konata Mumpfield, Pitt turned to workhorse running back Desmond Reid and freshman quarterback Julian Dugger in an attempt to salvage some respect in the GameAbove Sports Bowl.
Reid touched the football 39 times — 32 rushes for 165 yards, five receptions for 15, an 11-yard punt return and a dropped pass — in Pitt’s 48-46 six-overtime loss to Toledo (8-5). The loss stretched Pitt’s losing streak to a season-ending six in a row.
The game needed extra sessions because Pitt (7-6) lost a 30-20 lead in the fourth quarter that included the second of two pick-6s by Toledo.
In the first overtime, Reid dropped a pass in the end zone, but Dugger scored from the 2 to give Pitt a 37-30 lead. Toledo quarterback Tucker Gleason dived into the end zone from the 1 to send the game to a second overtime.
Toledo’s Dylan Cunanan and Pitt’s Ben Sauls traded field goals in the second overtime, Cunanan from 33 and Sauls from 19. Both teams scored on 2-yard conversion passes in the third OT and runs in the fourth.
In the fifth extra session, Dugger hit tight end Gavin Bartholomew in the corner of the end zone, but Gleason found Jerjuan Newton to force another tie.
Finally, Gleason hit Junior Vandeross in the sixth OT before Dugger’s pass to Kenny Johnson fell incomplete in the end zone to end the game. Pitt had no answer for Vandeross, who ended the game with 12 receptions for 194 yards and a touchdown.
Long before the dramatic finish, the game turned into Dugger’s introduction to college football — complete with just enough adversity to make the game interesting. Dugger, a Penn Hills graduate, never got off the bench during the regular season.
Down 20-12 at halftime, Narduzzi called for a two-quarterback offense — walk-on David Lynch and Dugger sharing snaps until Dugger eventually took over — to move into a 20-20 tie with 6 minutes, 55 seconds left in the third quarter.
On the game-tying drive, Dugger carried four times for 23 yards, converting a third-and-1 from Pitt’s 38, and completed two passes for 27 yards, including a 19-yard touchdown toss to tight end Jake Overman.
Then, on the 2-point conversion, Lynch came back in the game and hit Bartholomew to create the tie.
Pitt went ahead 23-20 only 3:32 later when safety P.J. O’Brien recovered a fumble on the Panthers’ 44. With Dugger still in the game, Pitt couldn’t capitalize on the turnover beyond Sauls’ 37-yard field goal.
The defense stepped up before the end of the quarter, however, when safety Cruce Brookins, a redshirt freshman from Steel Valley, intercepted a pass and returned it 26 yards to the Toledo 34. This time, Pitt got across the goal line. Dugger hit Poppi Williams with a 16-yard touchdown pass for a 30-20 lead.
Dugger not only led Pitt to 18 unanswered points, but he finished the game with 88 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown and seven completions in 13 attempts for 72 yards, two scores and an interception in the fourth quarter. That turnover changed the game’s momentum. Defensive tackle Darius Alexander returned the interception 58 yards to cut Pitt’s lead to 30-27 with 7:49 left. Cunanan’s 51-yard field goal with 1:45 left tied the score at 30-30 to force overtime.
Pitt initially inserted Dugger in the first quarter, and he ran twice up the middle for 11 yards to set up Reid’s 3-yard scoring run. Pitt led 12-6 with 11:12 left until halftime when Sauls hit a 57-yard field goal, the 50th of his career and 1 yard short of the school record he shares with Alex Kessman.
The lead didn’t last long, however, after Toledo scored 14 points in 14 seconds to take a 20-12 lead.
First, Gleason and Vandeross hooked up on a 67-yard, catch-and-run touchdown with 7:38 left in the first half. On Pitt’s next snap, Lynch was intercepted by safety Braden Awls, who sprinted 40 yards into the end zone.
The game started with a series of splash plays — two by Toledo and one by Pitt — that gave the Rockets a 6-2 lead.
Toledo running back Jacquez Stuart ran 31 yards with the first snap of the game. After Pitt gave Toledo life when cornerback Tamon Lynum was called for pass interference on third down, Gleason hit Vandeross for another 31 yards to the Pitt 2.
The Panthers defense held until fourth down, when Gleason flipped 2 yards to tight end Anthony Torres for the touchdown.
Pitt linebacker Kyle Louis blocked the extra-point kick, picked up the ball and ran 85 yards for the 2-point conversion. The play was Pitt’s first defensive 2-point conversion in 34 years since Doug Hetzler returned a blocked PAT against Syracuse in 1990.
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