There was a good old fashion shootout in South Philadelphia Saturday afternoon.
Fortunately no one was hurt.
Adam DiMichele led Temple's aerial assault, throwing a school record -- six touchdowns -- and dancing into the end zone for another as the Owls soared passed Eastern Michigan 55-52.
Looks like Clint Eastwood's not the only one with a loaded gun.
DiMichele unloaded, completing 21 of 37 passes for 370 yards. It was his fourth career 300-plus yard game -- a new school record. Wide receiver Bruce Francis was DiMichele's partner in crime, hauling in four of his six touchdown-passes for a new Temple single game record.
Francis didn't stop there. The senior hauled in nine catches for 125 yards; his four TD's gives him 13 on the season that, yep, ties another school record.
The Owls snap a two-game losing streak and improve to 4-0 all-time against the Eagles (2-9.)
Temple's airmail was three weeks coming, as the Eagles played their first game since dropping a 31-10 decision to Western Michigan back on Nov.1st.
While on the losing end, Eastern Michigan quarterback Andy Schmitt didn't go down without a fight. He actually out-threw DiMichele with his best Favreian impression, completing a mind-boggling 50 of 76 passes for 484 yards. The passing attempts, completions and yards are all Eastern Michigan school records for a single game.
He ran for two scores as well, his last one a two-yard scamper with 37 seconds to play to set up an Eagles onside kick, which they nearly recovered before Temple's Marquise Liverpool pounced on the pigskin.
The two teams combined for 15 red zone scoring opportunities, converting on all of them.Eastern Michigan's wide outs Jacory Stone and Tyler Jones also wanted in on the recorded breaking action.
Stone pulled 18 passes for 152 yards and one touchdown and Jones snagged 17 of his own for 185 yards and two scores. Yet both fell short of Kenny Christian's school single game recorded of 20 receptions set against none other than Temple on Sept. 23, 2000.
Temple fell behind the Eagles 14-3 before DiMichele fired two scores to Francis less than three minutes apart, to give the Owls the 17-14 shortly before the half.
The lead was short lived as Schmitt launched an 11-yard touchdown pass to put the Eagles back on top 21-17.
DiMichele then showed off his Madden 'two minute drill' skills marching the Owls 64-yards down field before unloading an 8-yard score to tailback Joe Jones to put the Owls up for good 24-21 heading into the half.Both teams would exchange scores from then on out.
The Owls will have a chance to notch their fifth win of the season, the most under head coach Al Golden, next week against Akron.
After last week's 41-38 loss to Kent State and this week's blitzkrieg, Temple, who had one of the nations top ranked defenses coming into the season, want to leave the shootouts for Hollywood.
