News / Sports
AP Top 25 Scores Saturday: #4 Florida 21, FSU 14
The Florida Gators survived a scare from in-state rival FSU and kept their BCS Championship hopes alive with a 21-14 victory in Tallahassee.
For the Gators it was the big play that made the difference. All three of their touchdowns came on plays of 25 yards or more. Chris Leak got the scoring started for Florida with just over three minutes remaining in the first quarter. His 66-yard strike to Andre Caldwell gave the Gators a 7-0 lead.
Percy Harvin gave the Gators a 14-0 halftime lead after bursting through the FSU defense en route to a 44 yard touchdown run.
Itt didn’t appear as if the halftime had fixed anything for the Seminoles as Drew Weatherford threw two interceptions on the first two FSU possessions in the second half. It was their third possession that proved to be the jump start they needed. Facin a third and one Lorenzo Booker took the handoff and ran 36 yards down to the Florida 2 yard line. Joe Surratt followed that with a 2 yard plunge to put the Seminoles on the board.
The Seminoles then forced the Gators to punt but Weatherford was picked off for the third time in the quarter.
After taking over possession after a Florida punt FSU began their second scoring drive of the game. Weatherford connected with Greg Carr for a 26 yard touchdown strike to start the fourth quarter and the Seminoles were tied up.
But senior quarterback Chris Leak lead the Gators back and found Dallas Baker for a 25 yard touchdown pass to give Florida the lead for good.
Leak finished the game with 283 yards passing and 2 touchdowns and Andre Caldwell had 8 receptions for 124 yards and a touchdown to lead the Gators. Florida racked up 388 yards of total offense and held the FSU rushing game to just 54 yards.
Florida, the SEC East Champions will face the SEC West Champion Arkansas Razorbacks next week for the Conference Championship. If Florida has any shot at reaching Glendale, Arizona on January 8 they will have to knock off the Hogs and hope for a Notre Dame or UCLA victory over the USC Trojans.
