By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
ORLANDO, Fla. – As crazy as it sounds, Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen never stopped believing.
 
Not when UCF scored 21 first-quarter points. Not even when the Knights went up 35-7 midway through the third quarter. And not when sophomore kicker Isaiah Hankins went out for a game-winning field goal.
 
After missing the previous three games with a knee injury, Shapen threw for 293 yards and a touchdown and led the Bears (2-3, 1-1) to 29 unanswered points in the last 19 minutes and a stunning 36-35 win over UCF (3-2, 0-2) Saturday at FBC Mortgage Stadium in the largest comeback in program history.
 
"I never stopped believing," Shapen said. "I get that we were 1-3, and that's not a way to start the season. But I never stopped believing. I believed we were going to win this game . . . when we were down 28 points. I'm so proud of everybody, this whole organization. Everybody was doubting us. We used that as fuel for this game and came out with a (win)."
 
Playing in his first game since the season opener, Shapen sparked a Baylor offense that scored just two field goals on six trips inside the red zone in last week's 38-6 loss to No. 3 Texas. Hankins nailed a chip-shot 25-yard field goal with 1:21 left to complete the miraculous comeback.
 
"He knew coming into it that all of it would be on his shoulders," said Baylor head coach Dave Aranda, whose team won its first road game of the season after a 1-3 homestand. "Certainly, none of us would tell him but that, but he knew that that's what the perception would be. With that being said, he welcomed and embraced it. It's just so cool, man. . . . Way proud of him, and I think Baylor fans should be proud of him."
 
After Hankins' field goal gave Baylor its first and only lead of the game, UCF twice converted on fourth down and drove from its own 26 to the Bears' 42. But Colton Boomer came up well short on a 59-yard field goal attempt on the last play of the game.
 
"From the very beginning of the week, we talked about believing and trusting in the team," said Aranda, who turned 47 on Friday. "Believing in the guy to your and left, believing in the coach that's with you, and believing in the team. That allows you to just do your 1/11^th, your job, to be the best of your ability. And I think that showed up. That showed up in the fourth quarter. Happy to see that. I think this is something we can start with and run with."
 
Building on a 21-point halftime lead, the Knights took the opening kickoff of the third quarter and drove 84 yards in 14 plays – aided by a bizarre unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Baylor for a coach running into a referee on the sidelines. Quarterback Timmy McClain hooked up with Xavier Townsend for a six-yard TD pass that pushed the lead to 35-7.
 
What remained of the crowd of 44,005 headed for the exits with the Knights completely in charge and just over 23 minutes left to play.
 
"We're not really focusing on the stands and stuff like that, especially since we were losing," said receiver Monaray Baldwin, who had a monster game with seven catches for 150 yards. "We've got to make something happen. All we care about is winning, and all we care about is each other. We're staying with each other and trying to win the game."
 
The Bears answered with an 11-play, 50-yard drive that included a third-down conversion when Shapen flipped an underhanded pass to Dominic Richardson. Richard Reese picked up another first down with an 18-yard run, but Baylor had to settle for a 30-yard field goal by Hankins that made it a 35-10 game.
 
Baylor's defense came up with the first of two big plays when freshman Caden Jenkins picked off a McClain underthrown pass to Randy Pittman Jr. and returned it to the 19.
 
Baldwin hauled in a 43-yard pass, then freshman running back Dawson Pendergrass scored from six yards out, followed by a two-point conversion pass to Ketron Jackson Jr. that pulled the Bears back within 35-18 early in the fourth quarter.
 
"As long as we stick together, we can do anything," Baldwin said. "Blake just happened to find me around the defense. And that's just how the game went. I thank God for that. I thank my teammates for that, thank my coaches for that. We just have to stick together, and we can come a long way."
 
After the defense forced to punt for just the second time, the Bears took over near midfield after UCF's Mitch McCarthy shanked a 19-yard punt out of bounds. On a short five-play, 55-yard drive, Baldwin caught three passes for 51 yards, scoring his fourth-career touchdown on a five-yard pass from Shapen.
 
"I think (the energy) came from us making plays, obviously," said Shapen, who was 8-of-10 for 152 yards in the fourth quarter. "Whenever you don't make too many plays, you're not going to have too much energy. Props to this guy (Baldwin), because these last two weeks, he came out and has been our guy. He's been vocal. And when everyone is down, he's picking them up."
 
Much like the first half, when UCF scored on an 86-yard fumble return by safety Demari Henderson, Baylor's defense came up with another game-changing play when Jenkins scooped up an RJ Harvey fumble and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown. Suddenly, it was a two-point game, 35-33.
 
McClain, who completed 13-of-25 for 234 yards and two touchdowns, was flagged for a critical illegal forward pass when he threw the ball well beyond the line of scrimmage for a loss of down. Game on.
 
Getting the ball backed to their own 20, the Bears kept the ball on the ground other than the short sideline pass that Baldwin turned into a 36-yard gain to UCF's 15. Four plays later, Hankins booted the 25-yard field goal off a snap by freshman Dylan Schaub and hold by Palmer Williams. Schaub was forced into duty when regular snapper Garrison Grimes suffered an apparent knee injury in the first quarter.
 
Unfathomable, to say the least, Baylor's comeback topped the previous program-best of a 21-point deficit in a 61-58 win over TCU.
 
"We play to win," Aranda said. "To get a win but to do it how you're saying in a fight and everything is good. This has been the team all along.  We've had to get through a lot of our own stuff and out of our own way, to bring what happens on a Tuesday practice to a Saturday game."
 
Burned by big plays, Baylor gave up first-half touchdowns of 79, 65 and 86 yards and was down 28-7 at the break.
 
In its first Big 12 home game, UCF jumped out to a 7-0 lead just 1:47 into the game when Johnny Richardson sprinted 79 yards for a touchdown on the Knights' first play from scrimmage.
 
With the Bears unable to pick up a first down until their third series of the game, UCF extended the lead to 21-0 on a two-yard run by McClain and his 65-yard touchdown strike to Javon Baker.
 
On its best drive of the first half, Baylor marched 72 yards on 10 plays and scored on a two-yard keeper by Shapen on third-and-goal. He was 4-of-7 for 61 yards on the drive but was sacked three times in the first half alone.
 
UCF's defense came up with the biggest play of the game – at least to that point – early in the second quarter, when safety Demari Henderson recovered a Dominic Richardson fumble inside the red zone and took it 86 yards for a touchdown that made it 28-7 in a 14-point swing.
           
The Knights had a chance to tack on more points when Baylor went for it and failed on a fourth-and-one from its own 40. But UCF was called for offensive pass interference from the 3, nullifying a touchdown pass, and then Cooper Lanz blocked a 32-yard field goal attempt by Boomer.
 
Baylor had another nice drive, aided by a roughing the passer penalty, but Hankins was wide right on a 47-yard field goal attempt after Shapen was flagged for intentional grounding from the 29.
The Bears return home to host Texas Tech (2-3, 1-1) at 7 p.m. next Saturday, Oct. 7, at McLane Stadium in a game that will be televised by ESPN2. Tech defeated Houston, 49-28, Saturday in Lubbock to pick up its first conference win.