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Rockets ran over in first road game of season

Toledo falls 58-34 to Cincinnati

Blake Bacho, Sports Editor

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Most of the best words describing Toledo’s Friday night 58-34 road loss to Cincinnati are unprintable due to their profane nature.

It started as a blowout, turned into a shootout, reverted to a blowout and, for a Rockets’ team looking for momentum, there were too many three and outs.

“We have to correct the negatives,” said Toledo head coach Matt Campbell. “It must happen and we’ve got to continue to build on the positives of this football game. Our ultimate goal, all that is out there in front of us.

“We must continue to get better, and I saw some improvement, I think we’ve continued to improve but there is still a lot of work to do obviously.”

Cincinnati (1-0) kicked off their home opener by scoring touchdowns on their first six drives of the night. The Rockets’ (1-2) first score came off of a 3-yard rush by sophomore running back Kareem Hunt, but not until the Bearcats had racked up 34 points against a porous Toledo defense.

That patchwork unit only forced one Cincinnati punt during the entire first half of the contest, a stop that didn’t occur until a mere 14 seconds remained on the clock. The Rockets’ defense allowed 584 total yards of offense in what was, for the most part, a dismal performance.

“Giving up 41 points in the first half, that’s something no defense wants to be a part of, said junior defensive end Trent Voss. “I was personally embarrassed, and I know as a defense we were pretty embarrassed.”

UT sophomore quarterback Logan Woodside started the game for Toledo and found junior wide receiver Alonzo Russell on a 38-yard pass with 1:13 left in the first half for the Rockets’ second score of the game.

This was Woodside’s first start in place of junior Phillip Ely, who is out for the season with a torn ACL. He finished with 322 yards and three touchdowns, but missed an opportunity for a receiving score of his own when he dropped a pass from senior wideout Dwight Macon during the fourth quarter.

“[Logan] played his tail off. The only you can say is that he can’t catch,” Campbell said.

The Rockets managed a field goal off of the drive in which Woodside bobbled the ball, but Toledo’s sophomore signal caller is well aware of what that score could have meant to a comeback.

“I guess that is why I’m a quarterback,” Woodside said. “Dwight Macon got pretty upset with me after that, but I should have come up with that catch.”

Alonzo, UT’s leading receiver Friday night, finished with 114 yards and two TDs for the third multi-touchdown game of his collegiate career.

“He’s a great receiver,” Woodside said of Russell. “He tells me stuff from a receiver perspective. He kept his hand up, waved me down and I got it to him for a score.”

In the second half, the two teams quite literally reversed roles from what fans saw in the first thirty minutes of play. Woodside and Russell kicked off a 17-point Toledo run with a 54-yard touchdown pass, and Cincinnati failed to score against the Rockets’ defense throughout the third quarter, allowing UT to gain some momentum.

“I think they really believe in what they can do when they’re playing really disciplined and really in tune with what they are asked to do,” Campbell said of his team’s turnaround. “It wasn’t some big ‘win one for the gipper,’ it was ‘just play, do what you’re capable of doing.’”

UC got their first touchdown of the second half when sophomore quarterback Gunner Kiel connected with junior wide receiver Alex Chisum for an 18-yard score with 11:59 left to play in the game. Kiel finished with 418 passing yards and six touchdowns, and Cincinnati regained control of the game during the fourth quarter, piling up 17 points to ram the final nail in Toledo’s coffin.

“Give credit to them. They’ve got good skill players, their quarterback came out, made all his throws, but what I appreciate is it has nothing to do with the game,” Campbell said. “It has everything to do with one possession at a time.”

Toledo’s defense seemed lost during most possessions Friday night, something Voss refused to attribute to the Rockets’ lack of Cincinnati game film.

The Bearcats had yet to play a game this season coming into their matchup with Toledo.

“They basically ran what we watched,” Voss said. “What we have to learn is to control what we can control, and that’s Toledo’s defense.”

Toledo will return home to face Ball State next Saturday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Glass Bowl.

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Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919.
Rockets ran over in first road game of season