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Bulls' Turnovers Spell Defeat at Miami

Gemara Williams

The RedHawks took advantage of some early miscues by the Bulls to open up a commanding 17-0 first quarter lead en route to a 54-13 victory. Buffalo turned the ball over five times in the first half, and eight times overall, in suffering their worst defeat of the season. The Bulls fell to 0-9, 0-6 in the MAC, while Miami (6-3, 4-2) won its fourth straight.

“Miami is an exceptional football team that played almost flawlessly today,” head coach Jim Hofher said. “I really think our defensive guys competed as hard as they could compete. They were put onto the field in some really tough field position situations. It doesn’t matter who you face, eight turnovers in a game will not give you any chance of winning and that’s what out football team faced today.”

The highlight in the game for the Bulls was the play of senior cornerback Gemara Williams (Oak Park, MI/Brother Rice) and junior tailback Steven King (Hempstead, NY/Uniondale). Williams became the career leader in passes defended, moving by Mark Graham, with three pass breakups in the game. Williams, an All-MAC candidate, now has 38 for his career, one more than Graham, who played from 2000-03. King, meanwhile, rushed for a season-high 94 yards on 13 carries, setting up Buffalo’s two second half scores. He added three catches for a career-best 42 yards.

After the Bulls stiffened Miami’s first drive to force a 36-yard field goal, the Miami defense made two big plays to change the game. John Glavin intercepted true freshman Drew Willy (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) on Buffalo’s second possession and the RedHawks’ Martin Nance scored his first touchdown of the afternoon on a three-yard toss from Josh Betts.

The Bulls’ next drive ended on a sack by Joey Card that forced Buffalo to punt from its own end zone. Buffalo’s low kick was scooped up by Ryne Robinson and returned 30 yards to the Buffalo 22. Three plays later, Betts hit Nance again, this time from six yards out to make it 17-0 and the route was on.

The first half didn’t get any better as Buffalo turned the ball over three more times, with Miami turning two of them into defensive scores. Robbie Wilson intercepted a pass from Willy and returned it 37 yards for a score in the second quarter and Darrell Hunter picked up a fumble by freshman fullback Phil Warren (Brunswick, ME/Brunswick) and raced 27 yards for a score as Miami led, 47-0, at halftime.

Because of turnovers and ineffective offensive play, Miami’s average drive start in the first half was the Buffalo 44-yard line as the Bulls were limited to 27 total offensive yards.

Steven King

In the second half, the Bulls’ offense did put together a pair of scoring drives behind the play of backup quarterback Tony Paoli (Fort Lauderdale, FL/St. Thomas Aquinas). Paoli hit 6-of-8 passes on the day for 93 yards, including a 40-yard touchdown pass to junior Evan Wallace (Santa Clara, CA/Wilcox) to close the scoring for the Bulls.

Buffalo’s first score of the game came after Paoli hit King with a 22-yard screen pass to the one-yard line. Warren bulled in on the next play to put the Bulls’ on the scoreboard with 5:35 remaining. It was Warren’s second career touchdown. The drive was set up by an interception by sophomore Ronald Sears (New York, NY/New Utrecht), the first of his career, who returned it 29 yards.

Freshman flanker Brett Hamlin (Jupiter, FL/William T. Dwyer) added a team-best four catches for 30 yards for Buffalo.

Defensively, sophomore free safety Kareem Byrom (New Brunswick, NJ/New Brunswick) led the Bulls in tackles for the third straight game. Byrom had nine tackles, while senior captain Bryan Cummings (Cincinnati, OH/Madeira) added seven tackles, a half sack and a tackle for loss. Defensive tackle Rob Schroeder (East Rochester, NY/East Rochester) continued his stellar play with 2.5 tackles for loss, while sophomore James Judges (Pickering, Ontario/St. Marys Secondary) had a career-best four tackles, including his first sack. Senior defensive end Aaron Sanders (Clarence, NY/St. Joseph’s) added four tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss, while also breaking up a pass.

The Bulls hit the road for the final time next week when they travel to Kent State for a 1 pm kickoff versus the Golden Flashes.