The Florida State Seminoles went into Saturday’s Atlantic Coast Conference game against the Syracuse Orange without their starting quarterback Everett Golson and starting running back Dalvin Cook. It left the responsibility to backups Sean Maguire and Jacques Patrick. On this Halloween afternoon, Maguire showed he wasn’t a trick at all but a treat for Florida State fans as he threw three touchdown passes and Patrick added three rushing scores as 17th-ranked Florida State romped past Syracuse 45-21 in Tallahassee. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)
Syracuse, who fell to 3-5 for the season, did lead in this game on an early touchdown by quarterback Eric Dungey but that’s before Maguire began his assault on the Orange defense. He would find Travis Rudolph all three times for touchdowns including 75 and 45-yard passes in the first quarter. Maguire would finish the game 23-for-35 passing for 348 yards while Rudolph had five catches for 191 yards to go with the three touchdown receptions.
Patrick made his presence known on a two-yard touchdown run in the second quarter before adding a 28-yard run in the fourth quarter to seal the game. Patrick finished with 162 yards rushing on 24 carries to go with the three touchdown runs. Dungey finished just 11-for-24 for 120 yards passing for the Orange.
The Seminoles moved to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the conference with the win and faces their biggest game of the year next Saturday afternoon as they hit the road to face No. 3 Clemson at 3:30 p.m. Syracuse will travel to Louisville for their next ACC game.
