Cam Ward passed for 346 yards and a career-high five touchdowns as the No. 10 Miami blasted Ball State 62-0 on Saturday night in Miami Gardens, Fla.
Lightning in the area on Saturday delayed the start of the game by 2 1/2 hours, but that didn’t stop Miami (3-0), which set a school record with 750 yards of total offense
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Ward completed 19 of 28 passes and was not intercepted or sacked.
For the season, Ward has thrown for 1,035 yards and 11 touchdowns with just one interception, completing 73.0 percent.
Miami’s stars included Jacolby George (six catches 109 yards, one TD), Xavier Restrepo (three catches, 47 yards, two TDs) and Ajay Allen (104 rushing yards, one TD).
Defensively, Miami recorded nine tackles for loss, four sacks and an interception.
Ball State (1-1) was led by Kadin Semonza, who finished 16-of-26 passing for 111 yards. He was intercepted once.
The Cardinals were held to minus-4 yards rushing in the first half.
Miami led 10-0 after a first quarter in which Ward completed 9 of 11 passes for 135 yards and one touchdown, a 21-yarder to Restrepo.
Miami made it 17-0 with 4:46 left in the half as Ward hit Chris Johnson with a wide screen that went for a 37-yard touchdown.
The Hurricanes then scored two touchdowns in 23 seconds to take a 31-0 lead into halftime.
First, after stopping Ball State on a fourth-and-3 incompletion, Miami scored on a two-play, 47-yard drive, culminating with a 21-yard toss to Elijah Arroyo. Mark Fletcher Jr. made a key block on a blitz pickup.
Then Tyler Baron hit Semonza, which resulted in an interception by Elijah Alston. Miami cashed in with a 20-yard TD pass to Restrepo.
With 12:26 left in the third quarter, Ward took the rest of the night off after flipping a 17-yard TD pass to George.
–Field Level Media