Louisville Hangs On, 44-40

In the highest-scoring Liberty Bowl, it was a defensive play by Louisville that ended Boise State’s 22-game winning streak.

Louisville safety Kerry Rhodes intercepted a pass in the end zone as time expired Friday to preserve No. 7-ranked Louisville’s 44-40 victory over No. 10 Boise State.

“It’s a great way to end it,” Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino said. “A national audience, two teams that were supposed to score over 84 points. I think we hit it right on the top.”

Boise State receiver Chris Carr took some positives from the game.

“This was big for us,” Carr said. “We wanted to come out here and prove to everybody that we’re not a team in the WAC that’s not very good, and we just beat up on little teams.”

It was the Cardinals’ third Liberty Bowl victory in their final appearance as a Conference USA team.

Eric Shelton scored on a go-ahead touchdown on a one-yard run with 6:48 left.

Stefan LeFors threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score as the Cardinals (11-1), who have never finished ranked higher than 13th, matched a school record for victories in a season.

The Broncos (11-1) had one last chance to win after Art Carmody’s 19-yard field goal with 1:10 left put Louisville ahead by four points.

Quarterback Jared Zabransky drove the Broncos to the Louisville 30-yard line before his final pass into the end zone as time expired was intercepted by Rhodes.

It more than atoned for Rhodes’ missed interception opportunity in a 41-38 loss on Oct. 14 to then-No. 3 Miami.

The win was a welcome end to a week in which the Cardinals dealt with the news that Petrino had interviewed with Louisiana State about its coaching opening. Yet the Louisville players didn’t seem distracted against the Broncos.

Petrino kept referring to the Cardinals as “we,” and asked if that would remain the same, he had a short answer. “We certainly hope so,” Petrino said.

LeFors said the Cardinals had no problem focusing on the task at hand despite all the rumors about Petrino’s future.

“We wanted to play the game between the lines and let all that other talk, just put it in the back of your minds and not even worry about it,” LeFors said.

In a pairing of the nation’s top two offenses, the teams swapped the lead five times.

The 84 combined points topped the 80 points by Colorado and Alabama in 1969 and was one of a handful of records set.

Louisville won only for the second time in seven bowls despite a season-high four turnovers.

The Cardinals rolled up 564 yards, topping 500 yards for the ninth time this season.