Buffalo coasts to a 37-17 win over Miami

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

November 05, 2008

Buffalo used a strong start and came up with an even better finish to defeat Miami (Ohio), 37-17, in front of a home crowd of 16,058 fans present at the UB Stadium and a national crowd tuning in on ESPN2.

The Bulls strung up three scoring drives of more than 70 yards in the first half to go up by 11 at 21-10 at halftime. Drew Willy drove his team 72 yards on 13 plays in the opening possession, capping it with a 1-yard run to the endzone for the first score of the game.

Following Nathan Parseghian's 39-yard field goal, the home team scored on their next possession on a 75-yard drive with Willy finding Naam Roosevelt from 34 yards out for a 14-3 lead. Clay Belton put the Redhawks back into the game after scoring on a 7-yard run to make it 14-10.

But the Bulls made it a 2-possession lead with Willy finding Brett Hamlin for his second touchdown pass from the 25. Miami however refused to go away, scoring on their first opportunity in the third quarter as J.R. Taylor found the endzone from 3 yards out. James Starks answered with his own scoring run from the 1-yard line to make it a 10-point Buffalo advantage with less than 8 minutes left in the third.

Then early in the fourth quarter as the Hawks drove from inside the Buffalo 20, MU tailback J.R. Taylor fumbled after a Mike Newton hit and lost the possession when Imani Chatman recovered the ball on their own 12 yard line.

The turnover led to a game-clinching drive as Starks cut back and went 62 yards for the game-clinching score with just over 2 minutes remaining in the game.

Starks finished the game with game highs of 177 rushing yards and two scoring runs on 26 carries while Willy threw for 245 yards and accounted for three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing). It was the 10th 100-yard rushing game for Starks, who has now amassed 877 yards on the year, the eighth highest total in school history. With Willy's passing yard output, he is now just 38 yards shy of becoming the school’s all-time leader for career passing yards.

Miami (2-7, 1-4) was led by Clay Belton with 178 passing yards on 17-of-30 completion with 1 rushing TD on a 7-yard scoring run.

The victory, which gave the Bulls their first three-game winning streak since 1996, also gave Buffalo (5-4, 3-2) a slight lead over Akron (4-4, 2-2) in MAC East Division Standings.

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