Bobcats lose a heartbreaker
By Zack Lloyd, Staff Writer
October 23, 2007 | 9:40 p.m.
The game was over. The Bobcats were trailing 40-32 with less than five minutes to play, and Toledo was driving. With the Rockets facing second and goal from the 6-yard line, Toledo running back Jalen Parmele took the handoff, ran left and looked to be going in for the game-sealing score. That is when the Bobcats gained new life.
Just before Parmele was about to cross the goal line, Ohio cornerback Julian Posey forced a fumble and Bobcat safety Micah Mitchell scooped up the ball, setting up an improbable comeback.
On the ensuing drive, Ohio gained 93 yards on seven plays, ending with a Theo Scott touchdown pass to Andrew Mooney. The Bobcats converted on the two point conversion, and suddenly the game was tied 40-40.
That is when the heartbreaking began. With less than two minutes to play, the Ohio defense forced Toledo to punt. The game appeared headed to overtime until the usually sure-handed Chris Garrett fumbled the punt, giving the ball back to Toledo inside the Ohio 25-yard line.
“It was obviously a very good return ball,” Solich said. “It arrived to Chris quickly to where he would have had on a return, but it just did not get fielded.”
Two plays later the Bobcats could do nothing but watch as Toledo kicker Alex Steigerwald put a game winning 40-yard field goal through the uprights as time expired, ending the Bobcats’ hope of a miracle comeback.
“That was probably the toughest loss I’ve had to deal with since I’ve been at Ohio U,” senior linebacker Taj Henley said. “The guys went out there and played, gave a great effort, but we just made too many mistakes.”
Turnovers plagued the Bobcats throughout the game, as Ohio quarterback Brad Bower threw four interceptions to go with the three lost fumbles by the Bobcat skills players. Despite racking up 560 yards of total offense, the turnovers opened the door for Toledo to come back in a game that the Bobcats once led 21-6.
“You can’t beat Athens High School with seven turnovers,” Henley said. “When you turn over the ball like that, mistakes on special teams like that, you can’t really beat anybody.”
One of the few bright spots in an otherwise disappointing game for Ohio was running back Kalvin McRae's performance. He had his second consecutive impressive game, rushing for 182 yards on 25 carries and 3 touchdowns.
“On offense when we were able to run the ball. We’re able to do good things,” McRae said. “It didn’t really work out for us today. We ran the ball well, but we didn’t get the victory.”
While the Bobcat's rushing attack was in full gear, Ohio was very streaky in the passing game. Bower looked great at times, even connecting with wide receiver Taylor Price on a perfectly thrown 54-yard touchdown pass. However, his errant throws cost the Bobcats and ultimately led to Bower being benched in favor of sophomore Theo Scott.
Scott entered the game after a horrible series in which Bower nearly threw an interception on both first and second down, and then actually did get picked off on third down by Toledo safety Drey’Lon Pree.
Scott played fairly well in relief of Bower, finishing 7-13 for 126 yards and 1 touchdown. He also added 44 yards rushing and was able to orchestrate two touchdown drives, the final one tying the game at 40-40 after the Toledo fumble deep in Ohio territory. Most importantly, Scott took care of the ball and did not throw an interception.
Thanks to Scott’s impressive performance, it seems questions over the starting quarterback have once again surfaced. “Theo did some good things,” Solich said. “His ability to scramble at times and keep plays alive shows. He threw the ball fairly accurately, and so he did a lot of good things in the game to where we were able to establish some offense.”
Bower played so well last week in the win over Western Michigan that Solich did not have to answer any questions about who his starting quarterback would be moving forward. He was not so fortunate after the Toledo game, but he said he would have to look at film to evaluate the situation during practice this week.
On the defensive side of the ball, it was really a tale of two halves for the Bobcats. In the first half Ohio held the Rockets to less than 100 yards of total offense. However in the second half, all of the offensive mistakes caught up with the Bobcats, and the Toledo offense capitalized, accounting for more than 350 total yards in the second half.
One of the biggest problems was getting the Ohio defense some rest. A tired, worn-out defense allowed 241 rushing yards from Toledo running back Parmele.
“They were able to start running the ball more effectively on us in the second half,” Solich said. “[They] controlled the ball some and got themselves out of long yardage situations at times, that also hurt.”
The loss marks Ohio’s third in the Mid-American Conference and likely eliminates them from contention for the MAC East Title. The team will have to reevaluate its goals moving forward.
“We just have to get home and prepare,” McRae said. “This is all about pride. We’ll go out and play every football game to win, no matter what our record is or how the season’s going. That’s the type of team we are, and we look forward to coming out ready to play the next game.”
Ohio travels to Bowling Green next weekend for another night game with kickoff at 6:00 p.m.
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