KENT — Nathan Rourke went to work at his own 19-yard line at Dix Stadium with 5:07 to play. The Bobcats were down five and hadn’t led in the game Saturday.
On a first-down scramble from his own territory, he gained 5 yards before running out of bounds. But after he had already stepped out, he was hammered on the sidelines. Personal foul.
Tack on 15 yards.
After that, Rourke terrorized the Kent State defense — as he did for much of the day — and he capped the drive off with a dazzling, spinning, game-winning touchdown run from 8 yards out with just 1:28 to play, lifting Ohio to a 27-26 come-from-behind victory over Kent State.
“They weren’t doing anything we didn’t think they were going to do,” Rourke said. “I had control out there. I was my own biggest enemy today.”
Ohio trailed for 58 minutes and 22 seconds. It was down 14-0 early in the first quarter and it turned the ball over three times when it had chances to score. But after all that, Rourke was able to rally and deliver the gut-punching final drive. Javon Hagan ended Kent’s drive, intercepting quarterback Woody Barrett with under a minute to play to seal the win.
The touchdown run capped off a brilliant day from Rourke, who was 18-of-20 through the air for 284 yards and a touchdown. He was nearly flawless passing the ball, aside from his first quarter interception and his one incompletion.
This kind of game is becoming a norm for Rourke — and for the Bobcats. Rourke and the offense struggles early. The defense allows touchdowns and Ohio has a double-digit deficit. Rourke finds his stride and the Bobcats earn key defensive stops at timely moments and the offense digs them out of a hole.
Early in the first half, Kent scored on the first play from scrimmage, a 75-yard bomb from Barrett. It set the tone. Rourke’s offense stalled, and Kent then took a 14-0 lead. But Rourke never hung his head, and the Bobcats grew stout.
Following the first two touchdowns, Ohio gave up four field goals.
“The defense came up with some big plays right at the end,” said coach Frank Solich, who earned his 100th win at Ohio with the victory.
And as Ohio’s (3-2, 1-0 Mid-American Conference) defense found ways to limit the Golden Flashes’ (1-5, 0-2 MAC) scoring drives, Rourke and the offense moved the ball. With the score 20-7 in favor of the Flashes, Rourke hit an open Andrew Meyer in stride for a 59-yard score.
All Kent could muster was a field goal. Ohio scored another touchdown thanks to Rourke completions of 27, 10 and 19 yards, along with an A.J. Ouellette run into the end zone.
Ohio cut the lead to two and had the momentum.
That was early in the fourth quarter, before Rourke had to stand on the sideline for over seven minutes while Kent State milked the clock. But all the Flashes could do was kick another field goal and extend the lead to five.
As he entered the game with just over five minutes to play, Rourke needed a touchdown to win the game. It was similar to a couple weeks ago, when the Bobcats had a chance to win at the end of their loss to Cincinnati.
“They’re all different games, but it seems like we make more of a game out of it than we need to,” Solich said. “The Cincinnati game, I see as different because we had our shot to win it and we didn’t get it done.”
But this time, Rourke finished. He finished the drive with six points. And he finished the game with a road, conference win. That’s a feeling that’s different than when he left Cincinnati two weeks ago.
“Much better,” he said with a smile. “We were in the exact same situation, pretty much. We were able to get it done this time. The theme of both games is that we don’t play good, then we have one drive to do it.”
