EL PASO— Kweishi Brown hauled in a one-handed interception of Anthony Boone with under a minute remaining in regulation and the Arizona State University football team held on to defeat Duke, 36-31, at the 81st Annual Hyundai Sun Bowl on Saturday afternoon in El Paso, Texas.
The win locked up double-digit victories in consecutive seasons for the Sun Devils for the just the second time in program history after a four-year stretch from 1970-73.
The Sun Devils rode the hot hand of true freshman Demario Richard, who matched Woody Green’s ASU bowl record with four touchdowns (two rushing, two receiving) as ASU improved to 14-13-1 all-time in bowl games.
Brown’s interception could not have come at a better time with Duke driving inside the ASU 20 with under a minute remaining for the potential go-ahead score. Brown shadowed his receiver perfectly on a fade route to the back corner of the end zone, cradling the ball in the crook of his arm for the game-sealing play.
Taylor Kelly finished his career on a high note, completing 24-of-34 passes for 240 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions while Jaelen Strong finished with seven receptions for 103 yards as both wrapped up their careers at ASU in grand style.
It was the premise of what the future holds that might have many ASU fans excited as Demario Richard had his coming out party, finishing with seven rushes for 41 yards and two touchdowns and five receptions for 22 yards and two touchdowns to earn Sun Bowl MVP honors.
Duke took its first lead of the game with 5:03 left in regulation, utilizing a fake punt and a running back pass over the course of an 11-play, 60-yard drive. After picking up a pivotal first down on a fake punt past, Jamison Crowder took a fake handoff and found a wide open Issac Blakeny for a 12-yard touchdown and the Blue Devils would go ahead 31-30 on the extra point.
That would set up the ASU kickoff team, which had been largely non-existent this season. Kalen Ballage, who took over the primary kickoff duties for this game only, took the Duke kickoff several yards deep and took advantage of a huge block of two Blue Devils by Kyle Middlebrooks and a quick cut to return the ball 96 yards to the Duke four-yard-line.
Kelly found Richard for his fourth touchdown of the game on the following play, a four-yard reception to retake the lead at 36-31 with just 4:45 remaining in the game.
The Sun Devils opened the second half with an efficient eight-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by Richard’s third touchdown of the day – an 11-yard reception – to make it a two-possession game at 27-17.
With Duke driving deep into ASU territory on the following drive, the Sun Devils picked up a pivotal turnover as Kweishi Brown stripped Blakeney and Jordan Simone had a 29-yard return to help set up Gonazelez’s third field of the game from 47 yards out to go up 30-17.
Duke wouldn’t go quietly into the night, however, eating up nearly eight minutes of clock time on a 15-play, 69-yard drive to climb back within six at 30-24 on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Boone to Johnell Barnes with 10:10 left in regulation.
Duke’s trickeration on its following drive would help set up the theatrical ending to the contest.
ASU scored on its first four possessions of the game, forcing a poor Duke punt on the opening drive of the game and taking advantage of good field position to drive 49 yards on 5 plays and drawing first blood on a nine-yard Demario Richard touchdown rush to go up 7-0 early.
ASU would get field goals on back-to-back drives from Zane Gonzalez to go up 13-3 early in the second quarter and spread that lead to 20-3 on Richard’s second touchdown rush of the half with 7:31 remaining.
The Duke offense would respond on the following drive, going 78 yards on eight plays in 3:41 to cut the lead to 20-10 with 3:44 remaining in the frame.
The Blue Devils would make it a three-point game after forcing a three-and-out on ASU’s ensuing possession and capitalized by way of a 68-yard Jamison Crowder punt return with under two minutes remaining to send the game into halftime with ASU leading 20-17.
The victory gave head coach Todd Graham his 28th victory at the helm of the Sun Devils, setting a new ASU record for a head coach in his first three seasons with the program. Graham has now won two bowl games with the Sun Devils and taken the team to three straight appearances. He has achieved 10 wins as a head coach five times in his career now, despite being a head coach just nine seasons.