[thesportsguru11]

Slingin' in the Rain!

TDL, true frosh Wade shine as UConn survives OT shootout from Weasay, Red Raiders

Shavlion Wade's first career INT was a good one -- pinning it to Tech WR Nick Joplen.

True freshman corner Shavlion Wade was benched last week. After returning to the lineup? Shav had quite possibly the most important role in the now 4-1 Huskies’ win over a spirited Clint Weasay and Texas Tech squad. Wade recorded his first two career picks -- the first a ball that he pinned to the shoulder of Tech receiver Nick Joplen -- including the game-clincher in the back of the end zone in OT, to seal up the 42-35 win, which moves UConn to 1-0 in Big 12 play.

The rain soaked contest oddly enough was an old fashioned pass game shootout, something Tech loves to do. Unfortunately, that worked to their advantage most of the day as the senior QB Weasay had a career day, firing for 455 yards and 3 TD’s. However, if not for an equally stellar performance from UConn’s newly-anointed starting QB Tanner Dean-Lowry, the Huskies could have just as easily found themselves on the losing end. TDL passed an extremely efficient 28 of 36, with a career high 417 yards and 3 touchdown tosses to his credit.

What was even more impressive for the sophomore was his calmness under pressure, despite firing two INT’s. UConn never had a lead of more than eight, partially due to the play Weasay and slot wideout Johnny Hodges, who was the top receiver of the day with 11 grabs, 219 yards and a TD at the end of the third quarter that put Tech up 24-21. Hodges converted numerous long third downs and kept Tech on the move all game.

Erik Brown (left) and Joplen (right) had TD grabs for Texas Tech.

Additionally, UConn played from behind most of the third quarter after a 17 yard Weasay pass to Erik Brown and Hodges’ TD gave Tech the lead early into the fourth. Only a pair of successive TD’s, a 3 yard run from Carlton Parker and a 9 yard TD pass from TDL to Rodney Reid, put UConn up by a score of 35-27 with a little over two minutes to play.

Despite being down eight, Weasay led Tech right back into the game. Hitting Nick Joplen for successive gains of 20 and 36, then Courtney Hicks for 10, Trey Montoya capped the scoring drive with a 3 yard TD run. But needing a two to tie with under a minute left to go, the two-point conversion try was the obvious route. Sure enough, it was Hodges who found himself wide open to tie up the game, and 50 seconds later we were headed for overtime.

UConn got the ball first, and a Luke Williamson nine yard catch helped set the tone for the possession. A gain of four picked up the first down, but a sack by Yiliontie Willy pushed UConn back to the 21 yard line. Now in a passing situation, the hot hand of TDL found Rashad Harris open, and he walked into the end zone for the go-ahead TD grab.

Following no gain from Hicks on the first play of Tech’s possession and a Hodges drop, Weasay faced a 3rd and 10 from the 25. With a balls to the walls approach, Weasay fired to the end zone for Hodges, and the freshman Shav Wade picked it off to seal the 42-35 win.

Coach Bob Diaco said it was a good win for his crew, and that he "hopes the team doesn't get too hung up on this win." He beamed at the mention of TDL's performance, but stated "we need to stop the other team, too."

With that, our 4-1 UConn train goes rolling along. Undefeated Oklahoma State is waiting in Stillwater next week. We'll see you then.

Texas Tech Red Raiders at Connecticut Huskies
Sep 28, 2019	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	OT	SCORE
Texas Tech Red Raiders (3-2, 0-1)	7	3	14	11	0	35
#17 Connecticut Huskies (4-1, 1-0)	14	0	7	14	7	42

Team Stats Comparison
	TTU	CONN
Total Offense	503	554
Rushing Yards	48	137
Passing Yards	455	417
First Downs	23	27
Punt Return Yards	0	0
Kick Return Yards	60	184
Total Yards	563	738
Turnovers	3	2
3rd Down Converstion	7-11 (63%)	6-9 (66%)
4th Down Conversion	0-0	0-1
2-Point Conversion	1-1	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	3-2 (100%)	5-0 (83%)
Penalties	0-0	0-0
Posession Time	16:36	15:24

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		TTU	CONN
4:48	(CONN) Williamson 1 run (Miller kick)	0	7
3:05	(TTU) Weasay 52 pass Joplen (Bresnahan kick)	7	7
:24	(CONN) Dean-Lowry 27 pass Harris (Miller kick)	7	14
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		TTU	CONN
4:04	(TTU) Bresnahan 30 FG	10	14
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		TTU	CONN
5:53	(TTU) Weasay 17 pass Brown (Bresnahan kick)	17	14
4:13	(CONN) Williamson 4 run (Miller kick)	17	21
2:31	(TTU) Weasay 19 pass Hodges (Bresnahan kick)	24	21
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		TTU	CONN
7:13	(TTU) Bresnahan 19 FG	27	21
5:50	(CONN) Parker 3 run (Miller kick)	27	28
2:05	(CONN) Dean-Lowry 9 pass Reid (Miller kick)	27	35
:50	(TTU) Montoya 3 run (conversion good)	35	35
OVERTIME SCORING		TTU	CONN
	(CONN) Dean-Lowry 21 pass Harris (Miller kick)	35	42

Texas Tech Red Raiders PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Clint Weasay 26-40 455 3 3 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Courtney Hicks 13 59 4.5 0 Trey Montoya 4 25 6.2 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Johnny Hodges 11 219 19.9 1 Nick Joplen 5 127 25.4 1 Courtney Hicks 4 31 7.7 0 DEFENSE TACK (TFL) SACK INT TD Wallace Appleby 10 (1) 0 0 0 Yiliontie Willy 7 (4) 2 0 0 Alvon Holley 7 (3) 0 0 0

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Tanner Dean-Lowry 28-36 417 3 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Luke Williamson 19 71 3.7 2 Tanner Dean-Lowry 10 54 5.4 0 Carlton Parker 2 8 4.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Jeff Matthews 7 91 12.9 0 Rashad Harris 5 103 20.6 2 Rodney Reid 4 56 14.0 1 Royce Archie 3 83 27.6 0 DEFENSE TACK (TFL) SACK INT TD John Cox 7 (2) 2 0 0 Marcus Bradford 7 (1) 0 0 0 Ross Sinclair 6 0 1 0

Rashad Harris had a pair of TD grabs for UConn.