Bearcats grind out win against UCF, 20-11

The Cincinnati Bearcats welcomed an old rival in the UCF Knights to Nippert Stadium for a Big 12 battle.

The Bearcats came into the game 4-1 and 2-0 in the Big 12 and the Knights came into the game 3-2 and 0-2 in the Big 12.

UCF started redshirt senior Cam Fancher at quarterback.

Would the Bearcats get their five win in a row?

UCF went for it on 4th and 2 and Fancher was stopped by safety Tre Gola-Callard. On the next drive Brendan Sorsby hit Jeff Caldwell for a 40 yard touchdown to give the Bearcats a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. The next UCF drive Brian Simms forced a fumble on DJ Black that Jiquan Sanks recovered, the UC offense didn’t do anything with the ball on the next drive. Early in the second quarter Sorsby hit Caldwell for a 9 yard touchdown to push the lead to 14-0.

A big holding by Gavin Gerhardt negated an Evan Pryor touchdown and the Bearcats had to settle for a 32 yard Stephen Rusnak field goal to push the lead to 17-0. Next drive, a Logan Wilson pass interference call on 3rd and 4 extended the drive and on 4th and 7, Fancher ran for 9 yards to keep the drive going resulting in a 45 yard field goal by Noe Ruelas to make the score 17-3.

In the first half the Bearcats out-gained UCF 197 to 155.

UCF got the ball first and went for it on 4th and 6, but Dylan Wade was stopped by Montay Weedon and Jake Golday two yards short to get the Bearcats the ball at the 35 yard line. The rest of the third quarter was filled with a lot of defensive struggle, UCF held the ball the majority of the time, but didn’t get any points out of it. Joe Royer had a big 67 yard catch and run to put the Bearcats at the 11 yard line. It looked as if the Bearcats would score a touchdown, but Sorsby foot was stepped on, on 3rd down and 1 which caused a five yard loss and had to settle on a 24 yard Rusnak field goal to push the lead to 20-3 with 13:39 in the fourth quarter. After a questionable pass interference call on 4th down UCF was able to rush for a touchdown and get a two point conversion to get the score to 20-11.

The Bearcats finish with a 20-11 win against UCF, now 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12 they will face Oklahoma State on the road next week.

Sorsby finished with 191 yards, two touchdowns and 36 yards on the ground. Caldwell finished with three catches 58 yards and two touchdowns. Royer finished with 83 yards on two catches.

Tre Gola Callard led the way with nine tackles on defense.