Jasen Lopez had a career-high 72 receiving yards and Florida State did just enough to come away with a 16-10 win over Pitt Friday night in Pittsburgh to improve to 2-0 under interim coach Rick Stockstill.
Ashton Daniels completed 16 of 24 passes for 163 yards for the Seminoles (5-5, 3-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), who have won road games in back-to-back weeks after going nearly three years without one. Gabe Panikowski made all three of his field-goal attempts for Florida State to improve to 11-for-11 on the season.
An injury to Holden Geriner led to Pitt starting freshman Corey Dailey at quarterback. He was 16 of 34 passing for 157 yards, one touchdown and one interception, while also rushing for a team-high 58 yards.
Ja’Kyrian Turner rushed for 42 yards and caught seven passes for 41 yards and a touchdown for the Panthers (6-4, 3-4), who have lost four of their last five games.
Held without a touchdown and trailing 7-6 at halftime, Florida State finally reached the end zone for what proved to be the decisive touchdown 4:11 into the second half.
A pass tipped near the line of scrimmage was intercepted by Rylan Kennedy. Five plays later, Amari Thomas scored from 1 yard out to give the Seminoles a 13-7 lead.
Pitt used a field goal from Antonio Chadha to trim that deficit to 13-10 with 4:23 left in the third. Florida State appeared poised to add to its lead when Daniels fumbled in a red-zone scrum after picking up a third-down conversion.
But the Panthers turned it over on downs and the Seminoles added a third Panikowski field goal from 47 yards to make it 16-10 with 6:27 left.
Pitt had one last-gasp drive which moved 50 yards and crossed midfield before ending on a turnover on downs.
Florida State opened the scoring with a pair of long drives which both resulted in field goals when they stalled out in the red zone.
Panikowski’s 37-yard field goal gave the Seminoles a 3-0 lead with 3:41 left in the first quarter and he made it 6-0 with 8:24 left in the first half on a 27-yarder to cap an 83-yard drive.
The Panthers didn’t settle for a field goal on their first extended drive, taking a 7-6 lead into halftime after Dailey found Turner for an 11-yard touchdown pass with 3:07 left.
–Field Level Media
