The University of Akron Athletics
Football Gives Up 47-10 Decision at Kentucky
September 19 | Football
- Derrick Locke ran for a career-high 166 yards and two touchdowns to lead Kentucky past Akron 47-10 on Saturday night at Commonwealth Stadium.
Mike Hartline passed for 250 yards and two scores for the Wildcats (3-0), who won their 18th-straight regular season nonconference game. Kentucky opens Southeastern Conference play next week at No. 10 Florida. Akron plays at Big Ten Conference foe Indiana next Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, in a game scheduled to be televised nationally on the Big Ten Network.
The Wildcats took their time getting going against the Zips (0-3) before scoring touchdowns on six-straight possessions to break it open.
Kentucky's Randall Cobb caught five passes for 43 yards and a touchdown, but spent the second half on the sidelines with heartburn symptoms.
Locke made sure the Wildcats didn't need Cobb, cutting through Akron's defense to become the seventh running back in school history to top 2,000 career yards.
The Wildcats outgained Akron 544-172 and collected five sacks, while failing to turn the ball over for the third-straight game. The Zips also did not commit a turnover.
Kentucky scored 17 points in the final 7:49 of the first half as Hartline got hot. He hit Cobb for a 13-yard touchdown pass and then found Chris Matthews in the corner of the end zone on Kentucky's next drive to put the Wildcats up 20-3 at the break.
Locke did the rest. He opened the second half with a 5-yard scoring run, then scored on a 56-yard touchdown burst.
Kentucky's defense limited Akron quarterbacks Patrick Nicely and Matt Rodgers to 6-of-24 passing for 105 yards, the majority of which came on a late scoring drive. Rodgers capped off an 8-play, 73-yard drive in the final minutes of the contest by connecting with Antoine Russell on a 30-yard touchdown pass to make the final margin.
Akron hung around early, using a 29-yard field goal by Igor
Iveljic to tie it at 3-all early in the second quarter. The
score was 6-3 in favor of UK with 7:49 to go until halftime.
Zips Notebook: Akron and Kentucky were meeting for
the first time on the football field, but the Wildcats were the
fifth SEC opponent the Zips have faced all-time (first since LSU in
1997). UA's record versus schools from the automatic qualifying BCS
conference dropped to 0-5 (losses to Auburn, Florida, LSU and
Tennessee) ... Kentucky managed 30:26 time of possession, while
Akron had 29:34 ... The two teams were virtually even in the
penalty yardage column as well, with UA getting flagged six times
for 50 yards and UK six times for 60 yards ... The Wildcats were
6-for-6 on scoring chances in the red zone (4 TDs, 2 FGs) ... The
Zips were 1-for-1 in the red zone (FG).
