TEMPLE – Three costly Temple errors led to a big opening night win for the Pflugerville Connaly Cougars at Wildcat Stadium on Friday night.

A 97-yard field goal return a fourth down touchdown completion and a touchdown after a late turnover led to a 27-24 Pflugerville Connally win over Temple.

But the final dagger for the Cougars came when the Wildcats were trying to milk a 24-20 lead into the win. With 2:16 Temple’s Keith Buhl couldn’t hold a short pitch and Connally’s Cedric Haley pounced on it to give the Cougars a first down at the Temple 44. Six plays later quarterback Devon Lewis found an open Breion Evans for the go ahead score with just 20 seconds left to play.

The score came after what looked to be a crucial stop by the Wildcat defense with 2:53 left in the ball game. The Cats where ahead 24-20 with Connally facing a fourth and 1 on the Wildcats’ 39. The Cougars handed the ball off to Kenneth Defee, who finished with 146 yards, to try to dive for the first down. He was met instead by a sea of Wildcat blue, and it looked like the Wildcats would be able to run out the clock especially after gaining 11 yards on their first play from scrimmage, until the ill-fated pitch.

Mistakes cost temple all night, as Connally’s Michael Reynolds returned a blocked field goal 97 yards before the half after most of the Wildcats assumed the play had been blown dead and were heading off the field for a 14-3 Connally halftime lead.

The Cougars’ first score came on a fourth down pass from Evans to Lewis after Lewis fumbled, recovered and found Lewis wide open after the secondary came in to try to assist on the fumble.