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ATHENS, Ohio – Senior Night for Ohio saw the Bobcats (3-8, 3-4) welcome Toledo (6-5, 4-3) into Peden Stadium on Tuesday night (Nov. 16). The Rockets raced out to a large lead and held off a late charge by the Bobcats, defeating Ohio 35-23. The Bobcats were led offensively by Kurtis Rourke at quarterback, who threw for 233 yards and one touchdown. Sieh Bangura scored the other touchdown of the evening, his second of his Bobcat career. 

"I have to take my hat off to Toledo, they played well tonight. There were a lot of big plays by them. We had opportunities in the first half, but we had two holding penalties, a penalty on the kickoff return for touchdown, a personal foul facemask on defense in the first half. Our defense played well enough to get us to 14-to-6, it was a one-score game and we challenged them at halftime," said head coach Tim Albin after the game. "Hats off to Toledo, they've got a complete football team and going into the game I told the team that we would have to basically play our best four quarters of football to have a shot; we didn't and we were in it. We just couldn't make the plays that we made the last couple of weeks"

Ohio won the coin flip and deferred their choice to the second half, giving Toledo the ball to start the contest. After giving up a first down on the first play of the drive, the Ohio defense forced a Toledo punt. The first offensive possession for the Bobcats met the same fate, as Ohio ony gained 17 yards on their first drive before punting back to the Rockets.

The Bobcats defense forced a three-and-out and gave Ohio's offense the ball back with 10:01 remaining in the first quarter. The Bobcats were able to advance the ball to Toledo's 29-yard line, but a failed fourth down conversion handed Toledo the football back with 4:53 remaining in the opening frame. It was much of the same for the Rockets on the next drive, as they punted the ball back to Ohio after eight plays and just 28 yards gained. 

The Bobcats took possession on their own 12-yard line after Toledo's punt, and started the drive with a 49-yard pass to Isiah Cox, jumpstarting the first scoring drive of the game. Ohio's drive ran into the second quarter, and ended with a 34-yard field goal by Stephen Johnson to give the Bobcats a 3-0 lead with 10:42 left in the first half. Toledo answered quickly, scoring a touchdown after a 6 play, 59 yard drive that took 1:27 off the game clock. 

Tuggle returned the ensuring kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, but a holding penalty nullified the long return. The Bobcats found little success moving the ball on the following drive, and punted back to Toledo with 6:18 remaining in the first half. The Rockets drove 64 yards in six plays, scoring their second touchdown of the game in 2:03, pushing their lead to 14-3 with 4:15 left on the first half clock. A three-and-out by Ohio's offense quickly gave the ball back to the Rockets with just over two minutes remaining in the first half. The Bobcats defense returned to their earlier form, forcing a three-and-out of their own, and giving Ohio a final chance to score before halftime. The Bobcats took advantage and ended up converting on a 41-yard field by Johnson as time expired. With the second field goal of the half, Ohio heading into the locker room trailing Toledo, 14-6.  
 
Ohio finished the first half with 197 total yards compared to Toledo's 182. The Bobcats ran 37 plays and the Rockets ran 30, with Ohio gaining a majority of their yards through the air (113), which Toledo found success on the ground in the first half with 130 rushing yards. 
 
The Bobcats started the second half with possession, and tacked on their third field goal of the game at the end of their drive. Ohio's 15-play drive included a successful fake punt, covered 61 yards, and took up almost eight and a half minutes. With the 32-yard field goal, Ohio cut Toledo's lead to 14-9 with 6:33 remaining in the third quarter. Toledo only needed 1:58 to respond with a touchdown, capping off their scoring drive with a 55-yard rush to push their lead back up to 21-9 with 4:27 left in the third quarter. 
 
The Bobcat offense was unable to get anything going on their drive, being held to a three-and-out and punting the ball back to Toledo with 3:39 left in the quarter. The Rockets scored on the first play of their drive, an 85-yard passing touchdown to make the score 28-9 with 3:28 left in the third frame. 
 
Ohio put together an 11-play, 61-yard drive with their next drive, but were unable to put any points in the board after a field goal attempt from 25 yards away ricocheted off the left upright and kept the score at 28-9 with 13:56 remaining in the game. The Ohio defense forced a Toledo punt on the next drive, but a dropped punt by the Bobcats gave the Rockets possession on Ohio's 16-yard line with 11:42 remaining. Toledo made quick work of the good field possession, punching it in for a touchdown with 10:43 to play, making the score 35-9. 
 
The Bobcat offense put together a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive with their next possession, capped off by a 4-yard rushing touchdown by Bangura, his second rushing touchdown of the season. Ohio's special teams earned them another possession on the ensuing kickoff, as the Bobcats recovered an onside kick, giving them the ball back with 4:29 remaining and the score at 35-16.
 
Rourke engineered another touchdown drive with the extra possession, capped off by an acrobatic touchdown catch by Chase Cokley in the back of the endzone with 2:07 remaining, drawing the Bobcats closer to Toledo, 35-23. The special teams magic was not to be found for a second time however, as the Rockets recovered the next onside kick and ran out the remainder of the game clock. 

Ohio out-gained Toledo on Tuesday night, 445 yards to the Rockets 401. Ohio held the ball for much longer in the contest (41:27 compared to 18:33), demonstrating Toledo's ability to score quickly.

Up Next:

Ohio will finish their 2021 season on the road against Bowling Green. The Bobcats will get 10 days off before traveling to take on the Falcons on Friday, Nov. 26. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 noon and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.                                                                                                

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