By Annie Moore

Louisville football proved it was anything but invincible in front of a record crowd at Papa John’s Cardinal

Stadium Friday night. The Cards were defeated by the University of Central Florida Knights 38-35 in their first

loss of the season.

The Cards struck first in the first quarter when Teddy Bridgewater connected with Eli Rogers in the end zone to

put Louisville up 7-0 after an extra point from John Wallace.

The Knights responded in the second quarter when William Stanback capped off a 4:56 UCF drive with a four-
yard rush up the middle to tie the game at 7-7 after an extra point from Shawn Moffitt.

Louisville struck back on its next drive when Bridgewater threw a pass to DeVante Parker up the middle for 10

yards to put the Cards back on top 14-7 with less than a minute left in the half.

The Cards wasted little time getting back in the end zone, extending the lead to start the third quarter.

Dominique Brown carried the load for the majority of the Card’s second-half opening drive. Of the 75-yard drive,

58 belonged to Brown. Brown scored Louisville’s third touchdown of the game, rushing for 20 yards to put the

Cards up 21-7.

On the next UCF drive, Senorise Perry forced a fumble on UCF punter Caleb Houston that was recovered by

Louisville’s James Quick who ran it back 30 yards for a third-consecutive Cardinal touchdown.

At this point, Louisville had a 21-point lead and seemed to have the game soundly within its grasp, but the

Knights would never say die as they responded with 21 unanswered points.

After a touchdown from Storm Johnson, UCF was within two touchdowns. The following Louisville drive,

Perry fumbled on the 17-yard line, which was recovered by UCF defender John Maag.

The Knights took over on Louisville’s 15-yard line and wasted little time punching it in the end zone again to

bring it within one touchdown.

The Cardinals couldn’t capitalize on its next drive, and punted to the Knights who started its drive at its own 44-

yard line. Yet again, UCF’s offense capitalized on a Cardinal defense that looked like a shadow of itself. Stanback

punched it in again to put the score at 28-28 headed into the fourth quarter.

Louisville’s offense could not finish a drive and was forced to punt on its first possession in the fourth quarter.

UCF marched strongly back down the field with the momentum swinging heavily in its favor, and settled for a field

goal to put it up 31-28 with 7:36 left in the game.

Brown yet again came through for the Cards on the next drive, rushing 15 yards to put the Cards back up 35-31

with three minutes to go.

All Louisville’s defense needed to do was get a stop, but as it had all night, it failed to even put a dent in anything

the Knights wanted to do.

“Defensively that’s the first time we played bad,” Head Coach Charlie Strong said. “We just didn’t tackle well.”

UCF Quarterback Blake Bortles completed a pass to Jeff Godfrey to put the Knights back on top 38-35 where it

would stay for the rest of the game.

It would seem this loss dashed the hopes of Louisville returning to a BCS Bowl, and that was on the minds of the

team after the game.

“When you’re undefeated, you think about the big game and all that stuff,” senior middle linebacker Preston

Brown said. “But all that’s out the window now with the conference we play in. Now, we’ve just got to win the

conference and hopefully still get to a BCS game.”

But the team seemed optimistic, remembering that last season’s Sugar Bowl Champion team lost not once, but

twice.

“You can’t live in misery,” Bridgewater said. “You can’t live in a loss. One loss doesn’t determine the whole

season.”

The Cards next travel to Tampa, Fla. to take on the USF Bulls.