The Cincinnati Bearcats won a nail biter last week against SMU and this week they welcomed in the Navy Midshipmen. The Midshipmen hold a 3-0 all-time series lead and won their meeting last year. The Bearcats are looking to push their win total to eight, would they be able to do it on this lovely Saturday afternoon?
The Bearcats dominated early and often striking first with an 8 yard Michael Warren touchdown run. Early in the second quarter Desmond Ridder scored on a 7 yard touchdown run. It was followed by another Warren touchdown run, but the play was supposed to be a jump pass out of the wildcat and it was covered well so the sophomore faked the pass and trucked a few Midshipmen to score. Ridder got hurt, but seems to be ok, he was replaced by Hayden Moore who on his first attempt threw an 11 yard strike to Josiah DeGuara to push the led to 28-0. The defense held Navy to 57 yards on 26 plays. They went with a 4-4 defense to deal with the triple option and it has been effective. In the first half the defense had three sacks (1.5 by Kimoni Fitz, .5 by Cortez Broughton and 1 by Michael Pitts). Jarell White has played a lot because of the 4-4 and had six tackles in the first half. The only bad thing about the half is Perry Young was carted off during the second quarter, Ridder limped off and Warren went back to the locker room a little early.
Ridder and Warren played in the second half, but they only played a few series because Ridder found Rashad Medaris for a 55 yard touchdown to take a 35-0 lead. Charles McClelland scored on a 40 yard touchdown run to give the Bearcats a 42-0 lead. They shutout Navy and held them to 171 total yards. The Bearcats had 451 total yards and rushed for 262 yards to Navy’s 124 yards. Broughton had 10 tackles, .5 sacks and 1.5 tackles for loss. Joel Dublanko did a great job in place of Young, he finished with eight tackles.
The Bearcats are now 8-1 overall and 4-1 in the AAC East. This is the first time they have ever beat Navy which makes the overall record 3-1. Next weekend they will welcome USF into Nippert Stadium make sure you follow TFON we plan on being at the game.
