MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Sam Houston jumped out to an early lead, but Middle Tennessee rallied to score 31 unanswered points and picked up a 31-17 win on Saturday at Floyd Stadium.
The Bearkats (2-9, 1-6 CUSA) held a 10-0 lead after their first two drives of the night but had few answers for the Blue Raider (2-9, 1-6 CUSA) offense the rest of the way as the home team finished with 462 yards of total offense behind quarterback Roman Gagliano.
The MTSU redshirt freshman quarterback threw for 268 yards and and a score along with rushing for a pair of touchdowns, both coming in the fourth quarter in the Blue Raiders' final home game of the season.
That effort negated an otherwise good start from Bearkat quarterback Landyn Locke who completed 25 of 40 passes for 281 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Grady O'Neill was his favorite target with career highs of eight grabs and 89 yards while Coco Brown had 95 all-purpose yards of his own.
Antavious Fish led the defense with eight tackles, but one week since an eight-sack performance vs Delaware the Kats were only able to get to the quarterback once and was without a takeaway for only the second time this year.
The Kats looked good in the early going, scoring points on each of their first two drives to go up 10-0 in the opening quarter. It started when Christian Pavon capped a 10-play drive to start the game with a 37-yard field goal.
After a quick stop, Sam Houston quickly went the distance to the end zone, marching 93 yards on just six plays to go up 10-0 when Locke dropped a dime up the right sideline to Chris Reed for a 54-yard touchdown.
Reed finished with four catches for 67 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
But the offense stalled for the remainder of the half while the Blue Raiders got moving behind Gagliano, cutting the lead to 10-7 on a 10-play, 77-yard touchdown drive that ended on a 1-yard dive by Rickey Hunt Jr. Into the end zone with 9:45 on the clock.
Two drives later MTSU went 76 yards on 13 plays just before the end of the half to set up a 27-yard field goal by Jacob Hathaway that tied things at 10-10 going into the locker room.
A 19-yard grab touchdown catch by running back Jekail Middlebrook gave the Blue Raiders a 17-10 lead early in the third quarter before Gagliano found the end zone twice in the fourth.
Sam Houston tried to make it interesting when Locke connected with Reed again for a 4-yard score late in the fourth quarter and kicker Nico Ottomanelli converted his second successful onside kick of the year; however, Locke was picked off on the very next play to seal it for MTSU.
