Given one last chance after 3rd-quarter disaster, Charlotte 49ers fall short

The Charlotte 49ers did enough damage to themselves in the third quarter of their 21-17 college football loss Saturday against Florida Atlantic that anything that happened during the fourth quarter might have been academic.

But after losing a 10-point halftime lead by giving up 21 points in the third quarter, there the 49ers were, with a chance to pull out an unlikely Conference USA victory against the Owls.

Down four points and getting the ball back after a clutch defensive stop on fourth down, the 49ers (0-2, 0-1 C-USA) had 83 yards to go with 1 minute, 54 seconds remaining.

“There wasn’t a player in that huddle that didn’t believe we could win that game,” said Charlotte receiver Cam Dollar. “That’s a situation that we all want to be in. It sucks that we had to be in that situation, but we were all built for that situation. We practice that. Coach (Will) Healy puts us in that situation in practice to capitalize on (it). We had a hell of a drive. We just came up short.”

49ers quarterback Chris Reynolds drove his team close, but not quite there. The clock ran out after Reynolds threw a 12-yard pass to receiver Victor Tucker, who was brought down at the Owls 9.

It was a sour way for the game to end for Reynolds, who didn’t appear to be limited by an upper body injury he sustained three weeks ago in a game at Appalachian State. Reynolds, who wouldn’t have played the following week against North Carolina (a game that was canceled due to coronavirus concerns), would end up completing 24 of 32 passes for 314 yards and a touchdown. He was also sacked six times.

“Everybody on our entire sidelines believed we were going to find a way to make a play,” Healy said. “We’ve done it before. Chris Reynolds to Vic Tucker. Chris Reynolds running it in, whatever it is. We’ve seen that act before. And you can’t lose faith in it.

“But you also have to make sure you’re executing at a really high level. So you continue to build confidence. So, same situation, 100 times I believe that Chris Reynolds is going to find a way to make a play. There’s no loss in confidence in that and I’m glad he’s our quarterback.”

The 49ers had run out to a 10-0 lead after scoring on their first two possessions, first on a 43-yard field goal by Jonathan Cruz then a 39-yard touchdown pass from Reynolds to Dollar. But that was all Charlotte could muster for the half (Cruz would also miss a 48-yarder in the second quarter).

In the meantime, Charlotte’s defense was completely shutting down the Owls, holding them to 72 total yards for the half.

“You know, sometimes when you score early, you think it’s easy,” Healy said. “But credit to them. They made a ton of adjustments both offensively and defensively.”

The Owls (1-0, 1-0) outscored Charlotte 21-0 in the third quarter. Quarterback Nick Tronti (who originally committed to Charlotte out of high school) started FAU’s rally with a 49-yard touchdown run after the 49ers had ended their first possession of the third quarter with a 44-yard miss by Cruz.

FAU kept coming. Aided by a penalty that nullified a 75-yard touchdown pass from Reynolds to Aaron McAllister, the Owls took a 21-10 lead into the final quarter. The 49ers cut it to 21-17 after Healy passed up a short field-goal attempt for Cruz by going for it on a fourth and 4 at the FAU 6. That play, a 5-yard pass from Reynolds to Tucker, set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Tre Harbison with 13:00 remaining.

“I didn’t come here to tie anybody; I came here to beat him,” Healy said of the decision to go for it on fourth down. “I want to be aggressive. I want to be anything but passive. I don’t want to kick field goals. I want to score touchdowns. I’ve got an opportunity to if I can put the ball in (Reynolds’) hands then good things happen. I’m always going to be aggressive in those moments.”

Ultimately, Reynolds wasn’t able to pull the game out for the 49ers. It was actually an accomplishment just to get it played.

It was FAU’s first game of the season after having its first two against Georgia Southern and South Florida canceled or postponed because of coronavirus concerns. In addition to the North Carolina game, Charlotte also had its game last week against Georgia State postponed because of the virus (although it could have been played after Georgia State said positive test results for the virus had been misread).

It wasn’t until less than three hours before Saturday’s 4 p.m. kickoff that Healy felt confident enough to tell his team the game was on. Prior to a 1:15 p.m. team meeting, he asked athletic trainer A.J. Lukjanczuk to call his FAU counterpart to make sure there were no late positive tests from the Owls.

Lukjanczuk got an all-clear response from FAU.

“What an unusual pregame meeting,” Healy said. “Usually you’re trying to give them this hype-up speech and they went nuts when I told him we were actually going to be able to play. I was sitting there on pins and needles with them. I know they did a great job of blocking it out. But I know they were wondering the same thing: coach hasn’t said anything about if this thing’s still on.

“So we were fortunate to be able to play the game tonight. I mean, I don’t take these things for granted.”