by Toledo, OH
The Toledo Rockets overcame two early 21-point deficits to defeat Kent State today 52-31 thanks in part to the brilliant performance of quarterback Dequan Finn. The signal caller had a game for the ages with his feet and arm. He ran for 87 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown. He passed for 262 yards with 6 touchdowns to 4 different receivers.
A wild first quarter saw Kent. St jump out to a 21-0 lead less than 6 minutes into the game. A perfect storm of kick returns, field position, turnovers and just flat our crazy plays led to madness for Toledo and scoring mayhem for Kent St. Marquez Cooper lit the fuse with a 3 yard touchdown run for the Golden Flashes. From there, they would get the ball back after a quick three and out, and drive a few plays until Collin Schlee rushed it in from 12 yards and made it 14-0.
It was only seconds later that the Golden Flashes capitalized on a Rocket turnover at their own 19-yard line. It took one play for Cooper to rush it up the middle for 19 more yards and his second score of the game. With still 9:46 to go in the first quarter, it was already 21-0 Golden Flashes and the scoring was just getting started.
The Rockets used the speedy legs of quarterback Dequan Finn to get them back in the game. Finn continued to make the most of broken plays by taking off out of the pocket. Finn rushed up the middle of the field untouched to paydirt from 27 yards out to make it 21-7 with still 7:56 to play in the first quarter.
The Golden Flashes would answer a short while later on the first play of the second quarter with another Collin Schlee run from 10 yards out to make it 28-7. The Golden Flashes would continue to benefit from great field position off great kick returns, and that drive was no exception.
Down 28-7, it looked bleak for Toledo, but they still had 3 full quarters to work with. Wild enough it would only take them 12 minutes to tie the game as their offense exploded from Earth like a rocket from NASA to the Moon! Finn proceeded to throw 3 touchdown passes on 3 consecutive possessions to three different receivers to make it 28-28 with 3 minutes to go in the opening half. The Rocket touchdown passes went the way of Devin Maddox, Jerjuan Newton and Mikel Barkley.
The first half scoring wasn’t over with yet however, as Kent State put together a tremendous two minute drive to get a first and goal from the Toledo 8 with 56 seconds left to play. The Rocket defense stood tall however and stopped three straight Golden Flash attempts. They would settle for a 21 yard Field Goal by Andrew Glass to make it 31-28 at halftime.
In the first half alone, Kent State running back Marquez Cooper had 134 yards on 20 carries, at halftime! Toledo quarterback Dequan Finn had 87 yards on the ground to go along with three passing touchdowns as both teams combined for 59 first half points.
After a slower start to the third quarter, Toledo would get it cooking again and tie the game at 31 off of a Thomas Clucky 42-yard field goal with 9:32 to play in the third quarter. Toledo would get the ball back later in the quarter off of a missed Golden Flash Field goal, and use that momentum for another scoring drive. This time they would cash in on a Finn touchdown pass to a wide open Jamal Turner from 6 yards out. It was now 38-31 as Finn had hit 4 different receivers for touchdowns.
The next time the Rockets got the ball, the Finn airshow as back in session as he found Jerjuan Newton splitting tight double coverage to leak free and layout for a 41-yard touchdown catch to increase the Rocket lead to 45-31. This occurred with 13:11 to play in the game.
The monster night from Finn still wasn’t over as he found Barkley again from 8 yards out to extend the lead to 52-31 with 7:39 to play. It appeared that Finn was running out of bounds before he stopped and slung it across his body for the score.
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