In an amazing comeback the Tulsa Golden Hurricane defeated the University of Central Florida, 34-31, Friday night in front of 16,331 fans at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

UCF (7-3, 4-2 AAC) led 28-17 at halftime, but Tulsa backup quarterback Seth Boomer led the Golden Hurricane to 17 second-half points. Boomer completed 6-of-10 passes for 87 yards and one touchdown. Before leaving the game late in the first half starting quarterback Zach Smith completed 10-of-14 passes for 127 yards and one touchdown.

“What a game,” said Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery after the game. “First of all, hats off to UCF. Everyone in here knows how talented they are. They played a heck of a ball game. I’m just so proud of our team and young men with the adversity that we’ve faced throughout the year. We knew that we’re a good football team. We’ve been close many times. It was good to see us finish it tonight.”

Tulsa (3-7, 1-5 AAC) overcame an 11-point deficit twice for the 12th comeback victory in the past five seasons. Montgomery said that was a credit to how physical the team played and how tight the TU defense was in this game.

“I thought our physical style of play was a big factor,” Montgomery said. “I think as the game went on that kept showing its presence. I thought our defense there late had some really huge stops. The special teams came up big. Overall, it was a great team win. All three phases contributed to it.”

Tulsa’s placekicker, Jacob Rainey, has drawn a lot of criticism for missing short field goal attempts, and especially a couple late in games that could have won it for TU, but last week he was perfect in the loss at Tulane. This week, Rainey made two-of-three field goal attempts (31 and 23 yards), and missed one from 35 yards. He was 4-for-4 on point after kicks. Rainey scored what ended up being the game-winning points on the 23-yard field goal to make the score 34-31 with 5:09 left in the fourth quarter. The score was set-up by a Reggie Robinson interception and 24-yard return.

“He [Rainey] stepped up last week and hit four and then tonight did another great job and then had an opportunity right there to go win it,” Montgomery said. “Very proud of his resilience, you know, through all the tough times, because our team did a great job of rallying around him. He got a lot of unnecessary, undue stuff from the outside part, but our team stayed solid with him. He stepped up, made some big kicks tonight and couldn’t be happier for him.”

Record aside, Montgomery believes he has a good football team that has faced some tough opponents this season.

“I’ve been saying it all year, we’re a good football team,” he said. “Now we’re playing a tough schedule and we’re playing really good people and we’ve had opportunities. Our record could flip completely the other way very quickly I think, you know what I’m saying? I mean, you know, I couldn’t be prouder of a group of young men than I am of the ones that we got downstairs, and the way they have been locked in and stayed in with it, through everything and they come out to work every day. We’re a tight family down there, and that’s the thing that I think has pulled us through all of it.”

Tulsa has this weekend off before hosting the Houston Cougars on Saturday, November 23, for the final home of the season.