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ATHENS, Ohio -- Behind a career-high 139 rushing yards and two touchdowns by senior running back De'Montre Tuggle (Channelview, Texas) and three takeaways by the defense, the Ohio football team (1-1, 1-1 MAC) toppled Mid-American Conference East Division rival Akron (0-2, 0-2 MAC), 24-10, this evening in the 2020 home opener at Peden Stadium.

"We celebrate every win," said 16th-year head coach Frank Solich. "The other team wants to win, too. We celebrate every win. We also understand that we're making it hard on ourselves, and we've got to get some things changed, realistically, if we want to battle for a conference championship. We've got to get some things brushed up on and move forward with really a better football team in terms of execution. We've got a ton of things to work on, as I've mentioned a hundred times to you guys. The good thing about this team is they love work. They'll go right back to work. If you have a team that's that way, you have a chance to get better."

Tuggle scored a nine-yard touchdown in the first quarter for the game's first points, then added a one-yard touchdown with just over two minutes to play. The contest marked the first 100-yard rushing performance of his Ohio career and the fifth in which he has scored a pair of rushing touchdowns. Tuggle has now tallied 14 rushing touchdowns in 14 career games as a Bobcat.

"He's got excellent vision," said Solich of Tuggle. "I think that kind of separates backs a little bit. A lot of backs have really good quickness, and a lot of backs have speed, but they don't really quite have the vision to where all of a sudden they see the little crease and they are able to hit it and hit it with quickness. Some backs take a little bit of time, and they kind of bounce to that crease, where you've got a slashing runner here in De'Montre, and he hits those creases and he finds them and he's through the linebacker area and then they've got problems with him. I think he showed really well today. You could see him coming on last year, and we knew what kind of back that we had. It's not surprising to us that he's showing the way he's showing."

The Ohio defense broke out its "Turnover Belt" on three occasions, with redshirt senior strong safety Jarren Hampton (Fostoria, Ohio) recovering the second fumble of his career in the second quarter and redshirt freshman safety Jett Elad (Cleveland, Ohio) and redshirt sophomore weakside linebacker Keye Thompson (Barberton, Ohio) coming away with their first career interceptions to put an end to Akron's first two drives of the fourth quarter, helping the Bobcats seal the victory.

"It felt really good," said Thompson of the defense coming up with three takeaways. "Last week we didn't get any, so this week going into practice, we prepared to get takeaways. We did circuits and ball drills and strip drills and tips and overthrows to just try and get the ball back for our offense. If we get the ball back for our offense, it puts us in a spot to win the game very easily."

The Bobcats received the opening kickoff and moved 62 yards in six plays, with Tuggle's nine-yard score giving Ohio its second opening-drive touchdown in as many games. The touchdown was set up by a 40-yard completion from redshirt freshman quarterback Kurtis Rourke (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Shane Hooks (Orlando, Fla.).

Ohio's first takeaway of the night came two plays into the second quarter, with Hampton recovering a fumble by Akron redshirt junior wide receiver Jeremiah Knight at the Zips' 41-yard line. The Bobcats then inserted redshirt senior quarterback Armani Rogers (Los Angeles, Calif.) into the lineup. After keeping it himself for a gain of 16, Rogers completed a 24-yard pass to redshirt junior wide receiver Isiah Cox (Jasper, Ala.) who made a difficult catch along the sideline while keeping his feet in bounds to set Ohio up with a 1st-and-goal from the one. Rogers, a transfer from UNLV, finished the drive off with his 19th career rushing touchdown and first as a Bobcat.

The Zips got on the scoreboard with 4:25 remaining in the half as redshirt freshman quarterback Zach Gibson found redshirt senior wide receiver Nate Stewart for a 14-yard touchdown pass, capping off a nine-play, 97-yard drive that was highlighted by a 35-yard reception by redshirt junior wide receiver George Qualls, Jr. and a 21-yard reception by freshman wide receiver Tony Grimes, Jr.

Akron got the ball to start the second half and produced a 10-play, 58-yard drive that resulted in a 34-yard field goal by redshirt sophomore placekicker Cory Smigel, making it a four-point contest with 9:47 left in the third quarter. Smigel's make came after he had missed from 50 yards out as time expired in the second quarter.

Ohio answered with a field goal of its own on the ensuing possession, with redshirt freshman placekicker Tristian Vandenberg (Buffalo, N.Y.) converting from 44 yards out for the first made field goal of his career.

After the two teams traded punts to end the third quarter, Elad put an end to Akron's first drive of the final quarter by picking off Gibson and returning the interception to Akron's 19. The Bobcats could not move the chains, however, and Vandenberg's 28-yard field goal attempt missed wide right.

The Zips' next possession was over after four plays as Thompson intercepted Gibson and brought the pick back 28 yards to the Akron 18. Ohio once again failed to get a first down, though, and Vandenberg missed wide right again, this time from 29 yards away, to keep it a 14-10 ballgame with 8:05 to play.

Akron went three-and-out on the next drive, and this time the Bobcats put the game out of reach by giving the ball to Tuggle on all nine plays of their final drive of the contest, with his last carry being his one-yard touchdown to make it a 70-yard scoring march. He set up his second rushing touchdown by gaining six yards on the prior play to convert a 3rd-and-2.

"I spoke to the offense before that drive, and I was just telling everybody 'Focus in and everybody do your job and everything else will take care of itself.' As Coach (Solich) was saying earlier, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot earlier in the game so, we were really just trying to focus in and make sure we finished the game and finished with the win."

The Zips moved the ball to the Ohio 18 on the game's final possession but came away with no points as time expired on a 14-yard keeper by Gibson.

The Bobcats earned their third-straight win over the Zips and improved to 8-0 at home against Akron in the Solich area despite the visitors holding the statistical advantages in total yards (435-307), rushing yards (217-185), passing yards (218-122), first downs (20-15) and time of possession (34:53-25:07).

Rourke finished the contest 8-of-14 for 92 passing yards with Rogers went 2-of-3 for 30 yards and added 17 rushing yards. Hooks led all receivers with 73 receiving yards on a team-high four receptions. Redshirt sophomore safety Jamison Collier (Snellville, Ga.) led Ohio with seven total tackles. Redshirt senior right defensive end Austin Conrad (LaGrange, Ohio) finished with six solo stops to match Collier for the team lead and recorded a sack. Thompson and redshirt freshman defensive tackle Jeremiah Burton (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) accounted for Ohio's other two sacks.

Gibson completed 18 of his 30 passing attempts for a game-high 218 yards but was hampered by the two costly fourth-quarter interceptions. He completed five passes each to Grimes and Stewart, with Grimes finishing with 60 yards and Stewart adding 59. Qualls led the Zips with 64 receiving yards on three catches. Junior running back Teon Dollard finished the contest with a game-high 165 rushing yards on 22 touches. Redshirt junior linebacker Bubba Arslanian led Akron's defense with a game-high eight total tackles, including a game-high two sacks.

Ohio heads to Oxford, Ohio, for the latest edition of the 'Battle of the Bricks' against archrival Miami (1-1, 1-1 MAC) in a crucial MAC East Division showdown. The latest chapter in the rivalry is set for Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. ET at Yager Stadium and will be nationally televised on ESPN. The game can also be heard on the Ohio Sports Network from Learfield IMG College. The Bobcats will be looking to put an end to a two-game losing skid in the series against the RedHawks.

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