The Temple Owls celebrate a second American Athletic Conference title in a row.

The Temple Owls played just about perfect as they beat East Carolina 37-10 at Lincoln Financial Field to win their second American Athletic Conference East Division championship in a row. The Owls (9-3, 7-1 AAC) ran for 256 yards and five touchdowns as a team, quarterback Phillip Walker was an efficient 12-of-20 passing for 158 and wide receiver Adonis Jennings caught six passes for 100 yards. The defense held the Pirates (3-9, 1-7 AAC) to 225 yards total offense including just 42 yards on the ground.

“I think our kids were locked in and ready to play,” said Owls head coach Matt Rhule whose team didn’t commit a penalty or turn the ball over. “One thing that was really nice this week was they weren’t talking about championships or titles, they were talking about playing really good football. When you concentrate on doing your job and playing as hard as you can, you usually do it. When you start worrying about all this other stuff then you usually look down and you’ve made a bunch of mistakes.”

Each team used a big kickoff return to set up their first touchdown. The Pirates got the opening kick and started at their own 42-yard line after a 37-yard return by Shawn Furlow. They mixed the pass and run and converted three third downs into first downs. Quarterback Gardner Minshew hit Jimmy Williams with a 13-yard pass for the score.

Jennings took the ensuing kickoff back 43 yards to put the Owls in business at the Temple 47. Jennings then had the biggest play of the drive when he caught a 44-yard pass to give the Owls a first-and-goal at the East Carolina 2-yard line. Two plays later, Ryquell Armstead scored the game tying-touchdown.

The teams traded a series of punts before a 34-yard punt by the Pirates, gave a the Owls good field position and they took advantage putting together a 14-play, 68-yard drive that took over six minutes. Ventell Bryant went across the middle for a juggling 22-yard catch on a third-and-three play to keep the drive alive. From there, Jennings had a short catch for a first down (the six yards put Walker over the 10,000 yards passing for his career; he becomes the first Owls signal caller to reach the mark) and the Owls ran it with Armstead, Jahad Thomas and fullback Nick Sharga. The score went to Arnstead, who hit paydirt from a yard.

Furlow returned the kickoff 45 yards to midfield but on the first play from scrimmage, Praise Martin-Oguike came from his right defensive end position to sack Minshew then force and recover a fumble. The Owls converted quickly, Thomas ran the ball on both plays of the drive. The second time was a three-yard touchdown run and Temple led 21-7.

The third quarter was dominated by two long drives, one by the Pirates ended with a missed 41-yard field goal try. The other was by the Owls and was capped on a 3-yard run by Thomas.

In the fourth quarter the teams traded field goals, Davis Plowman made his 41-yard try this time while Aaron Boumahri was good from 35 yards out. Jager Gardner got the final score on a 14-yard run but by then the Owls knew they would be playing for the conference championship.

“We accomplished something,” said Walker when asked about winning the division title, “now go accomplish something else.”

The Owls will meet Navy (9-2, 7-1 AAC) on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis for the American championship.

Email Rock Hoffman at Rock@footballstories.com