by BERKELEY, Calif. – After digging itself into a seemingly insurmountable 20-point, first-quarter deficit, North Texas fell just short in a second-half comeback effort and saw senior quarterback Mason Fine (Cherokee Nation) add to his decorated list of accomplishments in a 23-17 loss to California on Saturday afternoon at California Memorial Stadium.
With a 68-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Jaelon Darden, Fine moved into the all-time program lead for career touchdown passes with 14:05 left in the third quarter. The touchdown pass gave Fine 70 in his career, passing Steve Ramsey (1967-69) for the all-time lead. He added his 71st touchdown strike later in the game. He also had an 8-yard completion to fellow senior Michael Lawrence in the second quarter to give him 10,000 career yards and extend his lead on the field as the active leading passer in FBS.
With just 2:31 remaining in the first quarter, California went up 20-0 as the Golden Bears (3-0) amassed 129 total yards in the opening stanza, but from that point, the Mean Green defense played with a purpose and held California to three points and 149 yards over the final three quarters.
“We just executed better (in the second half),” UNT head coach Seth Littrell said. “We got in a rhythm on offense and defensively, we just settled in. We have to understand to just take it one play at time and do your job and don’t let emotions of the early game get you down. As we got more comfortable, we attacked better.”
The defensive effort was led by sophomore linebacker KD Davis, who had a career-high 13 tackles with two tackles for-loss and a sack. Junior defensive lineman Dion Novil had a career-high eight tackles and three tackles for-loss with a sack.
The offense also showed life in the second half, as the unit racked up 229 second-half yards after totaling just 100 in the first half. Fine finished with 210 yards through the air and two touchdowns, while redshirt freshman receiver Jyaire Shorter had career highs in both catches (five) and yards (68), as well as his first career touchdown reception to pull the Mean Green within six with under three minutes to play.
Shorter and redshirt junior Deion Hair-Griffin stepped up in the absence of leading receiver Rico Bussey, Jr., who left the game early on with an injury.
“He did a nice job and stepped up,” Littrell said of Shorter. “Deion made a couple of huge catches to help us move the chains. When one guy goes down, the next guy has to step up and so does the team. It’s not about one guy. It’s about the totality of everyone. We’ll get guys to step up and hopefully we’ll get Rico back healthy.”
The Mean Green (1-2) return home to Apogee Stadium next Saturday to face UT San Antonio in their Conference USA opener.
