Carpenter Leads Sun Devils

Rudy Carpenter threw for 467 yards and four touchdown passes, and Arizona State amassed an Insight Bowl-record 678 yards Tuesday night, holding off Rutgers for a wild 45-40 victory.

The teams combined for 1,210 yards, a record for a bowl. The old mark of 1,158 yards was set by Hawaii and Houston in the 2003 Hawaii Bowl.

The Scarlet Knights (7-5), in their second bowl game in school history and first since 1978, led, 33-31, after Jeremy Ito’s 48-yard field goal with 12:56 to play.

But the favored Sun Devils (7-5) took the lead for good when, on second and 25, Carpenter threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Matt Miller. The two-point conversion pass to Brent Miller was good, and Arizona State led, 39-33, with 10 minutes left.

Consecutive false-start penalties ruined Rutgers’ next possession, and the Sun Devils scored again on an eight-play, 69-yard drive.

Rudy Burgess’ second touchdown of the game came on a four-yard run to put Arizona State up, 45-33, with 4:26 remaining.

Ryan Hart’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Tres Moses kept it close at 45-40 with two minutes to go, but Zach Miller recovered the ensuing onside kick and the Sun Devils ran out the clock to win consecutive bowl games for the first time since 1987.

Hart, in his final game for Rutgers, completed 24 of 38 passes for 374 yards and three touchdown passes, two to Moses.

Burgess had 103 yards in 16 carries. Ray Rice, the Knights’ 18-year-old freshman, gained 108 yards in 20 attempts.

Ito kicked four field goals, including a career-long and bowl-record 52-yarder.

Carpenter, a redshirt freshman who took over for injured Sam Keller eight games into the season, also had a 42-yard touchdown pass to Matt Miller, a one-yarder to Zach Miller and a 22-yard touchdown pass to Terry Richardson.

Rutgers led, 24-10, in the first half before Arizona State scored late to make it 24-17 at the break.

The Scarlet Knights went 80 yards in eight plays on the game’s first possession. Hart was four for four on the drive.

His 21-yard pass to Moses put the ball on the 14, and his 12-yard pass to Brian Leonard made it first and goal at the one-yard line.

Hart threw to Clark Harris for the touchdown.

Arizona State matched it with an 80-yard drive after the kickoff. Carpenter connected with Matt Miller for the 43-yard score.

Rutgers mowed through the ASU defense again on its next possession. Leonard took a short pass from Hart and gained 38 yards, then caught another and ran 31 yards down the sidelines for a touchdown to put the Scarlet Knights ahead, 14-7, with 8:51 to go in the first quarter.

Preston Jones fumbled the next time Arizona State had the ball, and Ramel Meekins recovered at the Sun Devil 46. The subsequent Rutgers drive stalled at the Sun Devils’ eight, and Ito’s 25-yard field goal made it 17-7 with 5:22 remaining in the first quarter.

Leonard’s two-yard touchdown run put the Scarlet Knights up, 24-10, 2:29 before halftime.

That was plenty of time for Arizona State, averaging more than 500 yards a game, to go 80 yards.