Ryan Fitzgerald made a 34-yard field goal with one second left as Florida State beat visiting Syracuse 33-30 Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee, Fla. to end a season-opening four-game losing streak.
The Seminoles (1-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) avoided their first 0-5 start since going 1-10 in 1974 on a day when they blew a pair of 10-point leads.
Fitzgerald gave Florida State its first win when his attempt hooked just inside the right goal post and it capped a productive day by quarterback Jordan Travis, who was unavailable for last week's loss to Louisville due to a knee injury.
Travis completed 22 of 32 passes for 131 yards and threw for two touchdowns. He also gained a career-high 113 yards on the ground and set up Fitzgerald's game-winner with runs of 33 and 25 yards.
Travis threw 14-yard TDs to Camren McDonald and Keyshawn Helton in the second quarter as Florida State took a 16-13 lead. He also directed scoring drives that resulted in three-yard TD runs by Andrew Parchment and Jashaun Corbin as Florida State pulled off the win after holding leads of 23-13 and 30-20.
Syracuse (3-2, 0-1) dropped to 0-7 all-time at Florida State and also was unable to get its third straight win.
Quarterback Garrett Shrader was 13 of 23 for 150 yards and a TD. He also rushed for 137 yards and scored three rushing TDs, including a 55-yard score in the second quarter.
Sean Tucker, who entered second in the nation in rushing yards, posted his third straight 100-yard performance by finishing with 102 yards on 24 attempts.
The Orange rallied from its second 10-point deficit when Anthony Queeley barely stayed in bounds with 10:41 left for a 26-yard TD and Andre Szmyt made a 24-yard field goal with 5:17 left.
Syracuse was forced to punt with about a minute remaining and Travis got a pair of first downs to set up the dramatic finish.
Florida State never trailed after Helton's TD with 36 seconds before halftime but Syracuse was within 23-20 on Shrader's 1-yard TD run with nine seconds left in the third.
--Field Level Media
Syracuse | Florida State | |
Garrett Shrader | Player | Jordan Travis |
16 | Attempts | 19 |
137 | Yards | 113 |
8.6 | Avg Yards | 6.0 |
3 | Touchdowns | 0 |
0 | Long | 0 |
Syracuse | Florida State | |
Courtney Jackson | Player | Camren McDonald |
6 | Receptions | 5 |
57 | Yards | 41 |
9.5 | Avg Yards | 8.2 |
0 | Touchdowns | 1 |
0 | Long | 0 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Syracuse | 389 | 239 | 150 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2.0 | 0 |
Florida State | 378 | 247 | 131 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 |