 TOLEDO, OH - For the second straight week, the Toledo Rockets rallied from behind to win, this time coming back from a 17-point deficit to defeat Ball State, 31-24, at the Glass Bowl Saturday night.
“Our kids showed some resiliency,” UT head coach Tim Beckman said. “We're 4-0 and excited about that. There's a lot of things we need to improve, and I couldn't be more proud of our seniors and this team for coming back to win.”
Down 17-0, the Rockets rolled up 31 consecutive points before the Cardinals scored with 12 seconds left to pull within a touchdown. BSU then recovered an onside kick on its own 45-yard line, but an interception by senior cornerback Desmond Marrow on the UT six-yard line sealed the victory.
A week ago, Toledo trailed Kent State at halftime, 21-7, before coming back to win 34-21.
Junior Adonis Thomas rushed for a career-high 130 yards and one touchdown, leading the UT offense to a season-best 249 yards on the ground against BSU.
“Adonis (Thomas) and Morgan (Williams) are two unbelievable backs,” Rockets quarterback Austin Dantin said. “It doesn't surprise me at all at how they are playing. Adonis is a playmaker and anytime he gets into space, he can break it, and Morgan is the same way.”
Dantin, a sophomore, recovered from two early interceptions, completing 14-of-18 for 197 yards and one TD. Dantin also rushed for 58 yards and two scores.
The win moves the Rockets to 4-0 in MAC play (5-3 overall) and helps them keep pace with Northern Illinois (also 4-0) in the race for the MAC West Division title. Ball State falls to 2-6, 1-3 MAC.
The Cardinals dominated play early, jumping out to a 17-0 lead before the Rockets rallied to tie the score, 17-17, at halftime. Ian McGarvey kicked a 35-yard field goal on BSU's opening drive. A short while later, QB Jack Tomlinson connected on a 42-yard strike down the middle of the field to a diving Keith Wenning to put the Cardinals up, 10-0.
On the very next play from scrimmage, Jason Pinkston picked off a Dantin pass and returned it to the UT 26-yard line. Six plays later Tomlinson hit Wenning again, this time from four yards out to make the score 17-0 with 1:43 to play in the first quarter.
The second quarter belonged to Toledo. On the first play of the quarter, Eric Page caught a short pass from Dantin and bolted 46 yards down the sidelines for the score, cutting the lead to 17-7.
UT's next possession resulted in a 10-play, 71-yard drive that was capped by a one-yard run by Dantin to make the score 17-14. Toledo then tied it up on the final play of the half on a 25-yard field goal by Bill Claus.
Isaiah Ballard got the second half off to a good start with a 56-yard kickoff return to the BSU 35 yard-line. Thomas then gave Toledo its first lead, 24-17, with a 35-yard bolt into the end zone.
UT went up by two touchdowns early in the fourth quarter when Dantin capped a 16-play, 80-yard drive with a four-yard TD run. After a Ball State punt, Toledo drove the ball to the BSU 26-yard line but gave the ball up on downs when Dantin came up three yards short of the first down on fourth-and-five with 1:30 remaining.
Ball State drove the ball methodically down the field, scoring on a 12-yard TD pass from Wenning to Torieal Gibson with 12 seconds left. Ball State caught a bouncing on-side kick to gain possession and one last try to tie the score but came up short when Marrow hauled in the Hail Mary pass from Wenning.
“Toledo is a good team,” Ball State head coach Stan Parrish said. “They adjusted to us. We threw a lot of stuff at them that they had not seen before. We took a lot of shots and pretty much emptied out our playbook. We had a 17-point lead, but we could not hold onto the lead.
The Rockets will put their undefeated MAC record on the line at Eastern Michigan next Saturday.
Ball State begins two weeks of inter-division play when it travels to Kent State (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.).
Courtesy of Toledo Athletics
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