Bearcats Shanghai Pirates In Nip At Night Spectacle

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The Cincinnati Bearcats fought the upset minded East Carolina Pirates at Nippert Stadiium on Friday.

The Bearcats extended their home winning streaok to 32 games by hanging tight to a 27-35 verdict.

Cincinnati forced a punt with seven minutes left but couldn't convert on a third an five, forcing the defense to hold the lead.  The Pirates picked up a first down on a fourth and 12 but took over on downs on their own 41 with 1:44 to melt on the clock.

The teams started the night one game apart in the American Athletic Conference.

The Pirates' Jeremy Lewis and Elijah Morris caught Cincinnati quarterback, Ben Bryant, in the end zone for a saftey on a nine-yard sack.  The Pirates scored on a 47-yard field goal by Andrew Conrad after the free kick.

Bryant admitted he wasn't sharp in this game, missing some throws and had problems with timing. He was subjected to boos from the crowd.

"I just told my team after game that I wasn't sharp," Bryant confessed. "I told them that I appreciated them.  They had my back.

The next kick resulted in a 100-yard return by Cincinnati's Jadon Thompson, his first career TD return.  Ryan Coe converted from placement to give the Bearcats a quick edge.

Thompson cut in front of Tre Tucker to take the kick.  He broke through some tacklers and only had the kicker to race to the end zone.

"You never want to be tackled by the kicker," Thompson said. "We knew they were going to kick it to my side.  I stole it from Tre but it w by accident. It was close to the boundry between us.  I looked at him and he looked like he had it but it was in my hands and I just ran."

The Pirates drove to the Bearcat 28 but Conrad missed a 34-yard field goal attempt. 

East Carolina canceled the play with a 72-yard strike from Ahlers to C.J. Johnson at the 6:03 mark.

Coe kicked a 37-yard field goal for Cincinnati with 1:48 left in the first half.

East Carolina took the second half kickoff and marched 79 yards on nine plays.  It took the Pirates 4:48 before Keaton Mitchell scored from four yards out around left end. It cut the Bearcat lead to 24-19.

After two failed offensive series by Cincinnati, Ahlers found Johnson in the end zone to put the Pirates ahead, 25-24.  ECU went for two=poi9nts but the try failed on an incomplete pass.

The Bearcats were left with 17 minutes to get the lead back.

The Bearcats settled for a 31-yard field goal after getting a first and goal on the 10-yard line.  Coe's kick put the Bearcats ahead 27-25 with 9:42 remaining.  

"This is what us looks like," said head coixach Luke Fickell, who had just six days to prepare for the Pirates, who were coming off a bye.  "We made Monday our Tuesday.  It is good that we have the maturity. They did some things we didn't expect but it is November. November is made for champions.

Cincinnati is now 8-2 and 5-1 in the conference.  The Pirates are 6-4 and 3-3.

"There are a lot of good teams in the conference.  There is a lot of talent" Fickell said.

Cincinnati Sails To Win Over Nayy

 

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The Cincinnati Bearcats had to right the ship after a tough loss on the road to Central Florida last week. Who better for 'ship righting than the US Naval Academy Midshipmen, who was defeated 20-10.

The Bearcats showed problems finishing drives by settling for two field goals in the first quarter after driving inside the 20-yard line.

"We settked for two field goals early," quaterback Ben Bryant said.  "We should have scored touchdowns. Thet's something we have to keep working on."

Defensively the Bearcats shut down Navy, although they ran for 176 yards and chewed up 33 minutes.

Jawon Briggs blocked the Navy's first field goal attempt before the Acadamy kicked one through.  The Bearcats scored on 27 and 38 yard connections between Ben Bryant and Tyler Scott.  One in each half.

Navy put together a 75-yard drive that took 16 plays and 8:37 ro xomplwrw. Masaai Maynor scored from the one yard line on a fourth down play late in the third quarter. 

Navy runs the tripllp e option.  It is a running offense that uses a lot of the clock.  The Navy offense kept the at times expolsive Cincinnati offense on the sidelines.

To help prepare for Navy, coach Luke Ficckel, assembled a group last Sunday to similate the offense in practice.,

"I have to give credit to the group that came in on Sunday and gave us a great look.  Will Adams was our quarterback after we lost Kyle Bolden who ran it for us<" Fickel said. 

Bolden played at Colerain High School which ran that offense for years.  The Bearcat defense features five players from that school some of them ran the offense.

Dante Corleone, one of the Colerain quintuplets on defense made 11 tackles.  His high school experience gave him an advantage.

"It is such a unique thing to time up.  The most important thing was to give a shout out to them," Fickel said.

"When we prepared. We tryed to stay disciplined," Corleone said.  "It was awesome.  I went against that offense my whole life, my whole high school career.  It was a big whole high school career."

The Bearcats won their 31 straight home game. It is the second longest home streak after Clemson, who won 38 home games in a row.

The Bearcats had a winning streak within the conference broken at Central Florida last week. Fickel was slightly concerned how his team would recover from that "gut punch."

"Their backs were against the wall a little bit after what they went through last week," Fickel said. "Everybody goes through it but we haven't had to go through it as much.  You see what your team is like and what your leaders are like when you go through something like that."

The Bearcats have another one of them coming up on a short week.  They play East Carolina on Friday night with a 7-2 record, 4-1 in the All American Conference.