KENT, OHIO – Junior RB Jaylon Bester scored on a 47-yard run with 3:19 remaining to give Miami (4-4, 3-1 MAC) its second straight victory and third in the last four games. The 23-16 win allowed MU to keep pace with Ohio atop the MAC East, while KSU falls a game back. Miami and Ohio face off in Athens Nov. 6, with the winner taking the outright lead.
True freshman Brett Gabbert . . .
Shortly after KSU closed its deficit to 16-13 midway through the fourth quarter, Bester went on his 47-yard score to make it a 23-13 game. The Flashes were only able to get three more and dropped a game behind the MAC East leaders -- each of whom defeated KSU (3-5, 2-2) over the last two weeks. It was Kent State's first loss at home this season.
A Flashes offense that registered almost 400 yards last week at Ohio was held to 176 through three quarters before finally gaining traction in the fourth quarter.
Crum was harassed by the Miami defense all game, but he finished the contest completing 23-of-44 passes for 209 yards. He was sacked three times and in the second quarter threw his first interception of the season (after 193 pass attempts).
The visitors from Oxford scored on the game’s first possession as Gabbert, the younger brother of Blaine Gabbert (currently with the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers), moved MU from its own one to the Kent State 18.
The big play of the drive was Miami's first offensive snap, when redshirt freshman RB Tyre Shelton broke open for 53 yards. Shelton would lead all rushers in the contest with 148 yards on 14 carries.
The KSU defense finally stiffened, forcing PK Sam Sloman to kick a 36-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead. It was the first of three field goals on the afternoon for the senior. Before the first quarter was over, Sloman kicked a second field goal, this one a 41-yarder, upping MU’s lead to 6-0.
At the start of the second quarter, Dustin Crum got the Flashes offense in gear. Fueled by a 35-yard punt return from Kavious Price, KSU moved down to the Miami five. When Crum’s pass into the end zone fell incomplete, PK Matthew Trickett connected on a 22-yard field goal.
First Sloman, and then Trickett, added field goals in the period and the teams broke for intermission with Miami holding a 9-6 edge.
The RedHawks scored the game’s first touchdown early in the third quarter. Eight plays into the 77-yard drive, Gabbert found senior WR Mike Mayock in the end zone from 13 yards out to make the score 16-6.
Late in the period, Kent State put together its most sustained drive of the game. After recovering a Miami punt on the MU 47, Kent State drove the ball to the two-yard line. It was first and goal when Jo-El Shaw fumbled and MU recovered.
Miami appeared to kick a field goal to make it a 19-6 game when Sloman again split the uprights. However, the RedHawks elected to take points off the board when a penalty gave them a first down at the Kent State 10-yard line.
One play later, KSU recovered a fumble. Crum took the offense 88 yards in 11 plays. Redshirt freshman RB Craig Elmore blasted up the middle from 12-yards up the middle for his first collegiate touchdown to close the margin to 16-13 with 6:03 remaining.
After Bester’s touchdown seemed to put the game out of reach, KSU fought back and managed to get a 42-yard field goal from Trickett, his second of the game with 92 seconds remaining to make the score 23-16.
After the field goal, the Flashes tried an on-side kick. However the kick did not travel the necessary 10-yards and Miami took over.
Statistically, MU had 467 total yards, with 289 of them coming on the ground. KSU finished the game with 336, getting 159 in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, junior LB Ryan McWood led Miami with 10 total tackles (six solo), while Travion Banks recorded an interception. For KSU, junior LB Mandela Lawrence-Burke had 10 total stops, with seven solo.
The Flashes are back in action on November 10th when they play the first of two consecutive night games, beginning in Toledo against the Rockets.
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