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The 2022 Cure Bowl took place at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The bowl raises money to help find a cure to the big C, cancer. We have all had cancer affect us in one way or another. Exploria Stadium is home to the Orlando Pride and Orlando City Lions and they converted the field into a football field. The teams that took part in the bowl game were the UTSA Roadrunners and the Troy Trojans. Both teams finished the season with an 11-2 record. UTSA, from Conference USA, beat the North Texas Mean Green in the Conference USA championship. Troy, from the Sun Belt Conference, beat Coastal Carolina in the Sun Belt Conference championship. Also, both teams were ranked in the top 25 in the nation coming into the Cure Bowl. The fans that showed up cheered loudly for their respective teams.
The game began under a beautiful blue and slightly cloudy sky. It was cool weather for central Florida. The Roadrunners won the coin toss and elected to defer. The Trojans got the ball but looked awful and punted. UTSA came out running the ball put as the drive continued, they featured the pass. But like the Trojans, they had to punt. It was a back-and-forth game until the Trojans had a bad snap over the quarterback’s head near the endzone, resulting in a safety. The first quarter ended with a 2-0 lead for the Roadrunners.
Early in the second quarter, UTSA got the first touchdown of the game and took a 9-0 lead with the game’s first touchdown They had momentum and a strong hold on the game. The Trojans’ offense still was sputtering, and UTSA took advantage and got a field goal to take a 12-0 lead.
Right before the half of the Cure Bowl Troy put together a drive that resulted in their first point which was a touchdown. They trailed 12-7 at the half. This is where the Trojans took the momentum back and never let it go.
The second half was dominated by Troy. The biggest issue that I saw for UTSA was the turnovers. They had five in the game. The Trojans scored 15 points off those turnovers. In the second half UTSA only had one chance to take back the lead but failed on a drop pass in the back of the endzone. Troy made the plays in the second half that they needed to. The Trojans scored 11 points including a two-point conversation that resulted in an 18-12 victory. Many will say they were outplayed, and they were but still got a win in the Cure Bowl.
Looking back on the 2022 Cure Bowl both teams played well and showed why they were at the game, to begin with. On an added note, both bands were great as well representing their teams. The fans were very sparse with the teams coming from San Antonio, Texas for UTSA, and Troy coming from Troy, Alabama. The fans that did show up made their voices heard when there were big plays for their team. Troy made the plays to keep the momentum on their sideline and near let go. Another weird event happens, and it was in the second game I covered where both teams had unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on both teams. The bad thing is that UTSA had two players thrown out near the end of the game. As the Trojans took victory formation it got chippy. In the end, they came out as the 2022 Cure Bowl champs.
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