University of Louisville
USF
OT Work Doesn't Pay Off
October 04, 2003 | Football
Oct 4, 2003
By FRED GOODALL
AP Sports Writer
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - South Florida worked overtime to keep the nation's second-longest home winning streak alive.
Santiago Gramatica's 26-yard field goal gave the Bulls a 31-28 double-overtime victory over Louisville and extended South Florida's home winning streak to 21 games - four behind Miami's string of 25 straight at the Orange Bowl.
South Florida (3-1, 2-0 Conference USA) drove 67 yards in the last five minutes of regulation to force the extra period on Clenton Crossley's TD run on fourth-and-1 with 10 seconds remaining.
Brian Fisher scored on a 2-yard run to give the Bulls a 28-21 in the first overtime, but Louisville (4-1, 0-1) answered with quarterback Stefan LeFors running 1 yard around left end for a tying touchdown.
LeFors completed 19 of 39 passes for 267 yards and one touchdown for Louisville. He also caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Michael Bush, a reserve quarterback who lined up as a wide receiver on a gadget play.
South Florida gave itself a chance for victory when LeFors was intercepted by Devon Davis in the second overtime.
Saturday night began a stretch in which South Florida will play the top four teams in C-USA within a span of five weeks. No. 20 TCU visits Tampa next Friday, and the Bulls finish October with games against Southern Mississippi and Cincinnati.
Louisville is a two-time league champion and entered Saturday night's game on the verge of cracking the Top 25 after beating Kentucky and Syracuse on the road and UTEP and Temple at home for a perfect August and September under first-year coach Bobby Petrino.
Louisville, which trailed a total of 38 seconds in their first four games, fell behind 14-7 on Huey Whittaker's 13-yard TD reception with 4:22 remaining in the opening quarter. The Cardinals didn't seriously threaten to score again until LeFors threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Richard Owens to make it 14-14 with 10:15 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Louisville quarterback gave his team a 21-14 lead on a perfectly executed trick play that began when LeFors handed off to Broderick Clark and slipped unnoticed around right end toward the end zone.
Clark, sweeping left, handed off to Bush who pulled up and lobbed his touchdown pass to a wide-open LeFors.
Lionel Gates scored on a 67-yard run on the third play of the game for Louisville and finished with 88 yards rushing on 11 attempts.
DeJuan Green rushed for 78 yards on 20 carries and scored on a 5-yard run for South Florida.
