by urbanslegend05 Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:10 pm
Florida extends winning streak over Noles
TALLAHASSEE, FL. — Third-ranked Florida moved one step closer to a national championship with a win over bitter rival Florida State in the sunshine showdown. Behind a strong showing from Heisman favorite, Tanner Bolen, and a pesky secondary, the Gators derailed the Noles, 49-35.
From the early going it was clear that both offenses were going to be hard to stop. The difference came from Florida's secondary. The Gators defense combined for 9 interceptions in an otherwise outstanding day from Seminoles' quarterback Clint Trickett. Cody Riggs and Luichiez Purifoy each had two interceptions.
Florida used a 4:29 drive behind the strong running of Tanner Bolden to take the early 7-0 lead. Backfield teammate, Marcus Weddle, was injured on the game's first play limiting the Gators' offensive play-calling.
The Seminoles fought back valiantly, as they did all game, with a 40-yard touchdown reception by Greg Dent. Florida didn't take long to answer.
On their second drive, Trey Burton took one play to find the endzone. Burton kept an option and went 70 yards for the score to leave the Gators on top 14-7 after the first quarter.
Florida State would again tie the game after a methodical drive that was capped off by a quarterback sneak from Trickett. That's when Florida began to build their lead.
Bolen matched Burton's effort on the previous drive by taking a dive 71 yards up the middle for a 21-14 lead. On the next drive, he paced the Gators down the field and went in from 23 yards.
With only two seconds remaining before the half, Trickett found Kevin Nunoz for a 35 yard score and cut the Gators' halftime lead to seven.
Florida State received the second half kickoff, but one of Trickett's biggest mistakes came early into the half. Instead of tying the game, Ryan Shazier picked the pass off for Florida and ran it back 28 yards for a 35-21 lead, killing any momentum the Seminoles had acquired.
Bolen found the endzone through the air on Florida's next drive on a pass from Jeff Driskel and the Gators had doubled the Seminoles score. As they did all game, however, the pesky Seminoles clawed their way back into the contest.
DeJoshua Johnson exploded on a 70 yard reception and the lead was down to 14. After a punt from the Gators, Trickett found Kenny Shaw for a 54 yard score and the lead was down to seven.
Florida went in ball-control mode, limiting the Florida State snaps throughout the rest of the game, but added one more score from Bolen for good measure. His last score came from seven yards.
"It was a masterful performance from Tanner," Coach Urban Legend said. "We've obviously got to shore up some things in the secondary when we give up that many yards passing, but we also were able to rattle the quarterback pretty good in forcing nine interceptions. I know I would have been ready to yank that guy."
Florida moves on to play Alabama in what has become an annual rivalry at the SEC Championship game to be played this week.