Miami coasts to easy victory
T he Miami RedHawks geared up for the most gru- eling stretch of their 2018 football season with perhaps their best game Saturday.
Facing back-to-back road trips to far-flung Army and Buffalo, a home game against preseason East Division-favorite Ohio and another long trip to face West Divi- sion-leading Northern Illinois, Miami scored touchdowns on three consecutive second-quarter possessions on the way to a 31-6, Mid-American Conference East Division win over Kent State on the RedHawks home field at Yager Stadium.
Before a crowd of 5,003, senior running back Kenny Young gained 90 yards and scored a touchdown on 10 carries and caught three passes for 47 yards, tying sophomore Jack Sorenson for the team lead in receiving yards, as the RedHawks posted their biggest win since a 32-point victory over Akron on Nov. 3, 2011.
A Kent State touchdown with 36 seconds left cost Miami its first shutout since a 7-0 win on Nov. 14, 2007.
Senior quarterback Gus Ragland was 16 of 24 for 209 yards and a touchdown and scored on a run before being relieved by junior Alex Malzone with 10 minutes left in the game, and sophomore Jaylon Bester logged his first career touchdown as Miami set season highs with 504 yards of total offense and 295 rushing yards.
Miami’s defense piled up five sacks by five different players while keeping electrifying Kent State quarterback Woody Barrett hemmed in.
Miami (3-4, 3-1), which has posted back-to-back wins for the first time since its epic six-game winning streak to end the 2016 regular season, remains a half-game behind first-place Buffalo in the MAC East. The Bulls beat defending division-champion Akron 24-6 on Saturday. Miami is scheduled to wrap up its nonconference schedule with a noon game next Saturday at Army.
Ohio was second in the MAC East with a 1-0 confer- ence record going into the Bobcats’ game at NIU.
The RedHawks snapped the scoreless tie with a methodical 11-play drive, covering a season-high 98 yards and capped by Rag- land’s three-yard run three seconds into the second quarter. Miami converted two third downs on the drive with senior running back Alonzo Smith gaining 10 yards on third-and-one from the RedHawks 23 and Young going for 26 on thirdand-two from the Golden Flashes 32-yard line
After Kent State freshman Matthew Trickett, the reigning MAC East Special Teams Player of the Week, missed a 43-yard field goal, Miami embarked on another lengthy drive, going 74 yards in 10 plays. A fourth-down pass interference on Kent State kept the drive alive, and Young capitalized with a three-yard run up the middle on a direct snap.
Miami built a time-of-possession advantage of 18:5911:01 while outgaining Kent State, 317-144, on the way to a 21-0 halftime lead.
Freshman defensive back Sterling Weatherford stopped Kent State’s deepest penetration of the game, to Miami’s 18-yard line, with his first career interception. Weatherford picked off a tipped pass with 11:25 left in the third quarter.