Rockets blast Eagles

The University of Toledo’s football team rolled past Eastern Michigan on Saturday in a 63-20 blowout to remain unbeaten this season.

It was the most points scored in a regular-season game for Toledo since a 66-63 shoot-out over Western Michigan in 2011.

With the win, UT also jumped up three spots to No. 19 in the Associated Press Top 25 in the country — the highest rank in school history since 1997, when the Rockets peaked at No. 18 in the AP Poll on Nov. 3.

Toledo’s all-time highest ranking came in 1970 when UT was No. 12 in the final AP poll, a mark that this 2015 football is flirting with.

The Rockets (6-0, 3-0 MAC) were held scoreless and trailed 6-0 after a pair of first-quarter field goals by EMU. The biggest blow however came with 11:01 left in the first quarter when junior linebacker Jaylen Coleman was carted off with a broken right leg.

“When you lose a guy like that there’s some adversity early in the game,” said Head Coach Matt Campbell. “Our kids buckled in and we started to play great football and got into a rhythm.”

In the second quarter the UT offense started connecting on all cylinders scoring 28 unanswered going into the locker room for halftime.

“I challenged our kids to go out and execute during halftime and they answered the call,” Campbell said.

After the break, Toledo kept rolling, scoring four more touchdowns and jumping out to a 56-6 lead entering the fourth quarter.

EMU (1-6, 0-3 MAC) would score two fourth-quarter touchdowns after the game was long decided. The Rockets allowed a defensive touchdown for the second time in the last four games, when Darius Jackson ran it in from 21-yards out with 13:07 remaining in the game.

Toledo’s defense created havoc all afternoon accumulating 12 tackles from behind the line of scrimmage and four sacks. Junior safety Delando Johnson paced UT’s defense with 11 tackles.

The offense grooved to a season-high of 611-yards of total offense led behind the right arm of senior quarterback Phillip Ely.

Ely had the offense moving with all eight scoring drives taking less than four minutes to develop. He threw for 327-yards and four touchdowns including a season-long 88-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Cody Thompson.

The Rockets spread the wealth around as nine different Rockets scored a touchdown in Saturday’s contest including senior linebacker Chase Murdock who returned a blocked field goal 45-yards for the score.

Sophomore tailback Terry Swanson led the ground attack with four carriers for 99 yards and a touchdown. Juniors Kareem Hunt and Damion Jones-Moore assisted to combine for 127-yards and a touchdown apiece.

The win extends UT’s current winning streak to nine games dating back to last season. The Rockets have been unbeaten since losing 27-24 to Northern Illinois on Nov. 11; a team they currently hold a five-game losing streak to, dating back to 2009.

Toledo will travel to Foxboro, Mass. on Saturday to challenge their unbeaten record against UMass (1-5, 0-2 MAC) at 3 p.m.