Bearcats, Hurricanes get victories
Published 1:10 am Tuesday, September 8, 2009
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — Tony Pike threw for a career-high 362 yards and three touchdowns, and Cincinnati used its high-speed, no-huddle offense to hurry past Rutgers 47-15 on Monday.
The defending Big East champion Bearcats got a jump on the conference race by improving to 4-0 against Rutgers since joining the league.
Looking to christen its newly expanded stadium and extend a seven-game winning streak, the Scarlet Knights couldn’t keep up with Pike and the Bearcats. Instead, it looked like the bad ol’ days at Rutgers.
New Scarlet Knights starter Domenic Natale threw three first-half interceptions and the senior left open the possibility that his first career start could be his last. Highly touted freshman Tom Savage played the second half.
Pike completed 27 of 34 passes, Gilyard caught eight passes for 89 yards and a score and Isaiah Pead scored two touchdowns.
With Pike directing traffic at the line of scrimmage, the Bearcats burned down the field on the opening drive of the game, covering 81 yards in 2:29 without an incomplete pass. Pead capped the drive with a 2-yard TD run.
Pike went 20 of 25 in the first half for 286 yards with touchdown passes of 5 yards to Gilyard and 41 yards to Pead as the Bearcats raced to a 31-7 halftime lead.
Miami 38, Florida State 34
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Ailing shoulder and all, Jacory Harris put on a show that Miami won’t soon forget Monday night.
And the Hurricanes defense came up huge when it mattered most.
The sophomore quarterback threw for 386 yards — including a 40-yard pass over double coverage to Travis Benjamin, setting up Graig Cooper’s 3-yard touchdown run with 1:53 left — and led the Hurricanes past No. 18 Florida State 38-34 in a wild, back-and-forth game on Monday night.
Florida State got to the Miami 2 with 14 seconds left. But Christian Ponder threw three straight incompletions, the last coming on a ball that Jarmon Fortson nearly caught in the end zone on the game’s final play, and Miami escaped.
Harris completed 21 of 34 passes for two touchdowns and two interceptions. He got hurt on the second of those turnovers; Harris was drilled by blitzing cornerback Greg Reid and his throw on that play resulted in nothing more than a pop fly that Markus White ran back 31 yards for a 31-24 Florida State lead with 11:45 remaining.