Rockets Spoil Eagles’ Homecoming

The crowd cheers, spirits are high and inhibitions are freed. But on Oct. 20, those cheers didn’t go for the home team. Instead, Rocket fans rejoiced as the University of Toledo football team beat Eastern Michigan University 35-20 during EMU’s homecoming game. The win improves the Rockets to (4-1, 1-0 MAC) on the season.

Junior quarterback Logan Woodside threw for 247 yards and four touchdowns in the contest.

“Logan was very poised and very composed,” head coach Jason Candle said. “He did a great job in managing of our offense. You know, completing 25 of 31, that’s playing football.”

Woodside, who leads the NCAA in passing efficiency, completed 25 of 31 passes. Cody Thompson led the way with a career-high seven receptions for 126 yards and one TD. Senior Corey Jones also had seven catches and a score. Senior Kareem Hunt lead the running game with 141 yards and one TD.

Toledo’s defense held EMU to 317 yards and forced two turnovers. The Eagles were just 2-of-10 on third-down conversions, while Toledo was 11-of-17.

“I think we did pretty good defensively,” said senior safety DeJuan Rogers. “We got to keep pushing, staying on our assignments and just keep grinding it out in the MAC.”

The first half was a defensive battle, with Toledo taking a 7-3 lead into the locker room. Toledo’s defense held EMU to just 102 yards of total offense and four first downs in the first half, but the Rockets’ offense only managed to put up one score on the board in the first half.

The game started out slow, as neither team could put points on the board in the first quarter. Toledo had a good chance on its first drive, moving 60 yards in 14 plays, but was stopped on downs at the EMU 15-yard line when Woodside’s pass to Jones came up one yard short of the sticks.

The Rockets finally broke through with 8:24 left in the second quarter when Woodside hit Jon’Vea Johnson for a 17-yard scoring strike to cap off a 46-yard drive. Eastern countered with a 34-yard field goal from Paul Fricano with eight seconds left in the first half.

EMU cut the lead to one point, 7-6, on a 44-yard field goal by Fricano on the Eagles’ opening drive of the second half. Toledo came right back with a big play, a 63-yard touchdown pass from Woodside to Thompson. On the ensuing kickoff, EMU fumbled and UT’s Marcus Whitfield recovered on the Eagle 16-yard line. Three plays later, Hunt charged in from two yards to make the score 21-6 with 8:24 left in the third quarter.

“That stretch was huge,” Woodside said. “Coach Candle talks about turnover margin all the time, and we took care of the football today and got some turnovers.”

The Eagles were resilient, putting together a 72-yard drive to cut the lead to 21-13. Breck Turner scored on a three-yard run to cap the scoring drive.

The teams exchanged punts over the next four possessions until UT scored again. Woodside found tight end Michael Roberts in the corner of the end zone from 15 yards out to make the score 28-13 with 10:52 to play. Two minutes later, EMU quarterback Brogan Roback hit Antoine Porter on a five-yard pass to cut the lead back to eight, 28-20.

Toledo put the game away with an 83-yard drive that chewed up over six minutes off the clock before Woodside hit Jones for the final score of the game.

The Rockets return home to face archrival Bowling Green in a homecoming matchup at the Glass Bowl. Kickoff time is set for 3:30 p.m and will be broadcast on ESP