Brendan Sorsby finished 22-of-31 passing for 383 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two scores to lead host Cincinnati over FCS Towson 38-20 on Saturday in the season opener for both teams.
Cincinnati (1-0) amassed 658 total yards in winning its 23rd straight home opener. Towson (0-1) held its own with 425 yards in the first meeting between the schools.
Xzavier Henderson caught seven passes for 101 yards and a touchdown while Evan Pryor broke off a 64-yard TD run and finished with 105 yards on just four carries.
Towson’s Carlos Davis completed 20-of-36 passes for 231 passes and two touchdowns.
In his first game since transferring from Indiana, Sorsby started out on fire. He completed 8-of-9 passes for 200 yards and two TDs in the opening quarter, guiding the Bearcats to a 21-3 lead.
After opening the scoring on a 2-yard QB keeper, Sorsby threw perfect, deep scoring strikes of 42 yards to Henderson and 61 yards to Sterling Berkhalter.
But Towson (0-1), which plays in the FCS Coastal Athletic Association, bounced back behind Davis. The senior connected on TD passes of 76 yards to Jaceon Doss and 28 yards to John Dunmore in the second quarter.
Towson trailed 28-17 at the half and could’ve been closer but Cincinnati’s defense, led by new coordinator Tyson Veidt, stopped the Tigers on back-to-back tries from the Bearcats’ 2 to start the second quarter.
Towson made it a one-score game at 28-20 when it took the opening drive of the second half and marched 59 yards, thanks in part to errors by the Bearcats.
Cameron Roetherford took a roughing-the-passer penalty away from the play on third-and-13 from the Towson 22, extending the drive. Keegan Vaughn’s 33-yard field goal made it 28-20.
But on the next play from scrimmage, Pryor ran off the right side and broke free for a 64-yard touchdown to put Cincinnati up 35-20.
The Bearcats looked poised to add to a 38-20 lead, but Victor Dawson ended his 47-yard run down to the Towson 17 by losing a fumble to open the fourth quarter.
–Field Level Media