Central Florida Misses the Point in Nevada Win

Jeff Rowe scored on a four-yard bootleg in overtime to lead Nevada to a 49-48 victory over Central Florida in the Hawaii Bowl on Saturday night.

Central Florida kicker Matt Prater, who had three field goals during the game, missed the tying extra point wide right, giving the Wolf Pack the win.

B.J. Mitchell ran for 178 yards and two touchdowns, and Robert Hubbard had 126 yards rushing and three touchdowns for the Wolf Pack (9-3), which finished with its best season since 1996 and spoiled Central Florida’s bowl debut.

Central Florida’s Brandon Mitchell caught a 16-yard pass for a touchdown that tied the score at 42-42 with 55 seconds left. The score capped a four-play, 48-yard drive that took 37 seconds.

Prater made a 46-yard field goal with 1:32 left to make it 42-35. The Golden Knights recovered the onside kick with no timeouts left and set up Mitchell’s catch that sent the game into overtime.

Trailing, 32-28, the Wolf Pack took the lead on Hubbard’s five-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. Nevada scored again on Rowe’s seven-yard scoring pass to Travis Branzell for a 42-32 lead with 3:18 remaining.

However, Central Florida wasn’t finished.

Earlier this season, the Golden Knights (8-5) ended what was the nation’s longest Division I-A losing streak at 17 games. After going 0-11 last year, they were trying to tie the 1940 Stanford team for the second-biggest one-season turnaround in NCAA football history.

Kevin Smith had 202 yards rushing and three touchdowns for the Golden Knights, who went 700 days without a win before defeating Marshall, 23-13, in the third game of the season.

Nevada, making its first postseason appearance since the 1996 Las Vegas Bowl, had a 28-20 lead at halftime.