The defensive ends came off the edge, rushing hard. Central Florida quarterback Justin Holman stepped up in the pocket, but he was quickly wrapped up. He tried to throw it away, but the ball ricocheted off of a teammate’s helmet.

Everyone’s eyes lit up, and Josh Augusta looked up.

The entire Missouri sideline hollered ‘ball!’ Augusta put his hands in the air and jumped just a little bit — as much as he can, weighing 300-plus pounds — before coming down with the ball.

All of a sudden, Augusta and the Tigers had stolen the ball, the momentum and the game from Holman and the Knights.

“I saw the ball go up and I just went up there to go get it before anybody else could,” the sophomore defensive lineman said.

When Augusta made that play, Missouri led Central Florida 14-10 late in the third quarter.

Immediately afterward, sophomore quarterback Maty Mauk led the Tiger offense down the field and connected with senior wide receiver Bud Sasser for a touchdown, the first score of the second half. The Tigers’ offense would go on to score on three consecutive drives after the Augusta interception, blowing past the Knights and securing a 38-10 Mizzou victory.

“What a great play (Augusta) made,” Mizzou head coach Gary Pinkel said. “The tallest guy on the field had to jump up there and get that and did. I don’t even know how he caught it, but it changed the whole momentum of the game.”

Augusta was merely the spark of what was an explosive second half for the Mizzou defense. The unit racked up four second-half turnovers, including senior defensive back Duron Singleton’s scoop and score — the Tigers’ final touchdown of the contest.

In total, the defense tallied two fumble recoveries, two interceptions, a defensive touchdown and allowed zero points in the second half.

“We realized we needed to pick up the intensity and get back to playing that Missouri type of football,” said junior defensive end Shane Ray, who had four tackles for a loss, including two sacks. “A lot of times we will come out in the second half and big plays will happen.

“We have been working really hard on taking away those big plays, and we were able to do that today.”

But the Tigers’ defense was not performing a solo act, as the offense got a massive momentum boost in the second half as well. After struggling through the first half with penalties, mental mistakes and a Mauk interception, the Missouri offense came out and put up 17 points in the second half to blow the game open.

“There is nothing easy about winning,” Pinkel said. “Things are not going to go well all the time and it is how you respond to it with your mental toughness and competitiveness as a team. As a team, the guys on both sides of the football competed at a very high level.”

The offense doubled its production after the halftime, posting 208 total yards of offense dispersed almost equally between the air and ground.

Aside from the quartet of turnovers, the defense had some other notable numbers from the second half, including five total sacks compared to the first half’s one. Ray, senior defensive end Markus Golden, senior defensive tackle Lucas Vincent and sophomore defensive tackle Rickey Hatley all registered sacks.

Sophomore linebacker Michael Scherer led the defense with 10 total and eight solo tackles.

Offensively, Mauk had a deceptively productive game, completing 14 of 24 passes for 144 yards, but somehow found a way to sneak in four touchdown bombs. Senior receivers Jimmie Hunt and Bud Sasser were the beneficiaries of Maty’s handiwork, hauling in two touchdowns apiece.

“Maty makes plays and we know that, he does it all the time,” Pinkel said. “He will become a much, much better quarterback just through experience. He needs to learn to stick with his reads and manage the game. … With a combination of all of those things, he can become a much better player and that is all good.”

With the win, the Tigers improve to 3-0 on the season. Missouri hosts the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday, Sept. 20.