Toledo Holds Off Flashes' Second-Half Comeback

Tuesday, November 4

Kent, Ohio

8:00 p.m.

Kent State University

1-8 , 0-5

University of Toledo

6-3 , 5-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Toledo

Kent State

Toledo Holds Off Flashes' Second-Half Comeback

11/5/2014 12:11:00 AM | Football

Box Score

PHOTO GALLERY

KENT, Ohio – A Nathan Strock and Nick Holley-led comeback in the second half came up short as Toledo held on for a 30-20 victory over Kent State on Tuesday night.

The win was the first for the Rockets at Dix Stadium since 1993 in a rare visit to Portage County. It also kept the Golden Flashes in search of their first Mid-American Conference victory of 2014.

"It was another disappointing loss, but I love (this team's) resilience," said Kent State head coach Paul Haynes, whose team fell to 1-8 overall and 0-5 in MAC play. "I love the work ethic … If we do a couple of things better in the first half and a couple of things different in the second half. But for a 1-7 team, you saw no give up."

Strock entered the game at quarterback in relief of starter Colin Reardon in the third quarter with Toledo holding a commanding 23-0 lead. The redshirt freshman promptly led the Golden Flashes on three straight scoring drives.

Holley gave the Flashes their first score on a 50-yard touchdown, breaking into the open field and racing for the end zone after slipping a tackle on a 4th-and-1 running play. After Toledo answered the score with Logan Woodside tossing his third touchdown pass of the day on a 2-yard throw to Kishon Wilcher, Strock set the stage for another score with his own 65-yard run all the way to the Rockets' 11.

Four plays later, Strock found a wide-open Ernest Calhoun for a 4-yard touchdown with 1:58 to play in the third quarter. Strock added a 3-yard touchdown toss to Casey Pierce early in the fourth, and after a two-point conversion attempt failed, the Flashes found themselves down by just 10 points with 13:15 still on the clock.

"Colin was struggling a little bit, and (Strock) gave us a fresh guy with fresh legs, a fresh arm and a fresh mind," said Haynes. "He did some good things for us."

Strock finished with 67 yards on 9-of-18 passing, including the two touchdowns and one interception. He also rushed for 71 yards on five attempts, losing one fumble on a fourth-quarter drive deep in Toledo territory when the wet football squirted out of his hands as he scrambled across the line of scrimmage.

Holley nearly gave Kent State its first 100-yard rushing performance of the season, finishing with 95 yards on 12 attempts. Pierce added a career high eight catches totaling 57 yards.

Toledo (6-3, 5-0) built its 23-0 lead behind field goals of 26, 28 and 45 yards by Jeremiah Detmer and a 16-yard Woodside to Justin Olack touchdown pass in the first half and a 9-yard Woodside-to-Alonzo Russell scoring connection early in the third quarter.

The Rockets offense struggled for much of the second half after losing Woodside and starting center Greg Mancz to injury. After outgaining Kent State 293-to-104 in the first half, Toledo managed just 129 yards after halftime. The total-offense numbers finished with Toledo holding a 422-334 advantage.

Woodside threw for 202 yards and three scores on 16-of-25 attempts before leaving the game. Redshirt freshman backup Michael Julian was just 2-of-7 for negative-1 yards. Kareem Hunt led Toledo with 141 rushing yards on 18 attempts, but most of that damage (14 carries for 121 yards) was inflicted in the opening half.

"I thought we did a better job of tackling," said Haynes. "It was nothing we changed scheme wise. In the second half, guys just played a little better."

Kent State goes on the road for its next two games, traveling to Bowling Green on Nov. 12 and Buffalo on Nov. 19.

Postgame Notes
Redshirt freshman Nathan Strock's 65-yard run in the third quarter was Kent State's longest play from scrimmage this season. Strock then threw his first and second career touchdown passes.

Sophomore Nick Holley's career-long, 50-yard touchdown, was Kent State's longest run of the season prior to Strock's run. It was Holley's second TD of the season and first rushing touchdown. His 95 rushing yards were also a career-high and the most by a Kent State player this season.

Sophomore defensive end Terence Waugh, redshirt freshman linebacker Dustyn Moore and sophomore tight end Brice Fackler became the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th different Kent State players (10 offense, 10 defense) to get their first career starts this season.

Senior tight end Casey Pierce made his team-leading fourth touchdown catch of the season and third in his last three games. His eight catches were a career-high. Pierce has made three or more catches in 10 straight games and has made two or more catches in 16 straight games. In his last four games, Pierce has made 25 catches for 231 yards and three touchdowns.

Sophomore Ernest Calhoun scored his first career touchdown on a pass from Strock.

Sophomore quarterback Colin Reardon moved into sixth place in career passing yards at Kent State now with 3,841 yards.

Kent State's offense improved to 8-of-12 on fourth down attempts this season.

Junior linebacker Matt Dellinger had a career-high 13 tackles.

Sophomore Tad France made his first career appearance at left guard

Junior Anthony Melchiori placed four of his six punts inside the 20.

The Flashes' 171 yards rushing yards were a season-high.

Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Paul Haynes

Another disappointing loss but I told these guys in the locker room I love their work ethic, it's a testament to guys like Casey (Pierce) and these seniors that are setting the standard and how they prepare and continue to fight. A 1-7 team down 30-7 you saw no give up from these guys. I give all these guys the credit, talking to each other and keeping guys up. I apologize to the seniors because it's not going to happen this year, but we owe it to finish it for them, they are setting the culture of the future for this place.

On changing QBs

I think a change of pace, we felt that Colin was struggling just a little bit, just to give us a fresh guy with fresh legs and mind did some good things for us.

We'll see how the week goes, those guys have been in competition, Colin is still a good quarterback, he (Colin) got rattled a bit there. We'll go through the week and see who practices better and we'll see, I have the upmost confidence in Colin.

Kind of a play here and a play there, Toledo is a very good football team, they have very talented guys, I agree with Casey, we are right there, it s just a play here and a play there, it's not lack of effort or lack of preparation. The disappoint thing for me was the penalties that cost us, it put us in a bad position.

Guys just sat there and we dig a better job of tackling, nothing that we changed scheme wise, that we did anything different, guy just played a little bit better.

I give credit to these seniors, because you come out to practice you watch during the week, always gauging on how guys are watching film. We have guys in there all the time, we have guys that come in there till 9 watching film. Its amazing when you start feeling bad as a coach you get around these guys, they still have the effort, they want to get better, It drives you to want to do it also. I feel for the seniors, because it's not the season that we want. In the future it will be about the culture that they built.

Tight End Casey Pierce

"We hate losing more than we like winning, and it's tough. It's been a tough season. We're in every single game against the best teams in the MAC. Just a turnover here, a mistake there, a couple plays holding us back. We can be a great offense, and that's what we're going to do coming forward. The defense has been lifting us up for the past 7-8 weeks, but the offense played well today. It was just a couple mistakes, a couple fumbles, a couple of picks. I'm not mad at any of them though, they're just trying to get the first down, trying to make a play for us. So I don't discredit any quarterback. But we're trying real hard, I just told them the next three games we're going to try to upset some people, we're going to have offensive explosive plays, and go after people. That's our mentality, we're going to go out with a bang."

"These guys are so talented. When they realize how great they really are, it's going to be unbelievable. You got Wayne Scott, Reno Reda, James Brooks, Kris White, Ernie Calhoun, Colin Reardon, Nate Strock. They have all the talent, all the tools, when they realize how good they are, it's going to be unbelievable change of events, and I hope this senior class can put their name to that, but in the future these guys are going to be really good. "

Toledo Running back Kareem Hunt:

"I just felt the offensive line was blocking real well and everyone was playing hard."

"I feel we can trust the 2^nd teamers because they work hard and go through the same practice we do, I just told them to have confidence in themselves and play football."

Toledo coach Matt Campbell:

"I thought it was a game of ups and downs. I was proud of our kids, we had some unfortunate things happen to us with injuries during the game. I thought our kids were able to weather the storm. We had some mistakes tonight we haven't had, but I thought we were able to overcome them and put the game away. At the end of it, it's a great victory on the road for us and it moves us to where we want to be in the conference. We have a lot of work to do, but this group has proved that they're willing to come to work and improve each week."

"Defensively, we contested passes, especially our young guys in the secondary. We have three starters out for the year on that side of the football and we've replaced them with young players who are starting to play well. Some of our young guys are really starting to come together. Offensively, I thought our health was pretty good and I think we will still be in very good shape as we continue forward."

"We did execute on some big drives in the second and third quarter where we put touchdowns on the board instead of field goals. I thought our execution in the red zone and the decision making was really solid. I thought we ran the ball well inside the red zone when we needed to. We had some bad 2^nd down plays on those first three drives where we got ourselves into third and long instead of moving the chains and putting ourselves in good situations."

"Their backup quarterback made some good plays with his feet and that change-up had an effect on the game. Once we settled into what he was doing we were able to adapt and I thought that showed big time on the last three drives of the game."