Kent State football suffered its sixth consecutive loss Saturday, after falling to Temple 24-14 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Quarterback Jon Brown threw four interceptions, all in the second half of the game, as the offense managed only 124 yards against the best defense in Mid-American Conference. The sophomore quarterback finished with 76 yards passing and 11 completions on 27 attempts.

Temple frequently lined nine players in the box in attempts to stop sophomore Eugene Jarvis, the leading rusher in the MAC. Jarvis finished with 66 yards – a season low – on 13 carries.

“Compliment Temple, they played a great game today,” Kent State coach Doug Martin said. “(Temple) did a good job taking advantage of our lack of experience at the quarterback position and then loading the line of scrimmage up to stop the run.”

Saturday’s game was the worst offensive game the Flashes have played all year. The offense scored just one touchdown, a Eugene Jarvis 21-yard touch down run in the first quarter.

The Flashes entered half-time with a 7-3 lead and holding the Owls to 136 yards of offense in the first half.

The defense kept Kent State in the game, sacking sophomore quarterback Vaughn Charlton five times, a season high for the Flashes’ defense. Leading the way for the Flashes was senior Colin Ferrell. The defensive lineman had one sack and three tackles for a total of -16 yards.

“That’s just the hunger for a win coming out,” Ferrell said.

Junior Derek Burrell led the team in tackles for the second week in a row with 11 and now has 96 tackles this season.

The second Kent State touchdown came in the third quarter, when sophomore defensive end Kevin Hogan blocked a punt, which was recovered by sophomore Coleman Lynn in the end zone. It was the first blocked punt since the 2004.

“We thought we could block a punt in this game,” Martin said. “That produced for us. It was big.”

On the next drive, Temple ran the ball four times for 76 yards, capped by sophomore running back Jason Harper’s 9-yard touchdown run. After Temple failed to convert on a two-point conversion, the score was 14-12 entering the fourth quarter. Martin said the four-play drive was the only bad thing the defense did in the game.

With the momentum on Temple’s side, the Flashes threw three interceptions in the fourth quarter. The turnovers helped Temple score 12 fourth quarter points. Temple scored on 20 -yard touchdown pass to Dy’Onne Crudup to take the lead 18-14 after the Owls once again failed to convert on a two-point conversion.

Despite the losing streak and watching his young team suffer another close loss, Martin remains up beat about his team.

“Our kids played hard. There’s no lack of fight in them,” Martin said. “Right now we just don’t have enough bullets in the gun to beat a team like (Temple), but we will rebound.”

Contact football reporter Joe Harrington at [email protected]