100 points, 14 touchdowns: Florida Atlantic outlasts Rice 51-49 in all-Owls shootout

One hundred points. Fourteen touchdowns. Every single extra point good. Florida Atlantic and Rice — two programs named Owls sharing one scoreboard — traded touchdowns for four quarters, and when it was done only two points separated them: Florida Atlantic 51, Rice 49.

Rice hit first, twice. Gael Ochoa scored two touchdowns in the opening quarter and the visitors led 14-0 before Brandon Hoch got Florida Atlantic on the board. The second quarter flipped everything: Derrick Rogers delivered a safety, Easton Messer reached the end zone twice, and the home side outscored Rice 16-7 to lead 23-21 at halftime. Ochoa's third touchdown of the half was all Rice could manage in that second quarter.

The third quarter alone produced 42 points, 21 for each side. Messer scored twice more and Caden Veltkamp added another, while Rice answered through Max Mosey, De'Andre Hardeman and Ochoa. 44-42 after three quarters, nothing settled.

The fourth traded one touchdown apiece: Messer's fifth of the night, then Braylen Walker's reply for Rice. That was the last score of the game, and 51-49 stood.

Messer owned the middle of the night: touchdowns in the second, third and fourth quarters, five in all. Ochoa answered with four for Rice, two of them inside the first quarter. Between them the pair accounted for nine of the game's 14 touchdowns, with Veltkamp's score and Hoch's early trip to the end zone completing Florida Atlantic's seven touchdowns.

The final margin was two points. Derrick Rogers' second-quarter safety was worth exactly two. Fourteen touchdowns, and the smallest score on the sheet decided it.