AKRON, OH - The University of Akron took advantage of a depleted and frustrated Buffalo team and scored a 49-14 Mid-American Conference football victory on Saturday night at the Rubber Bowl.

The Bulls played without four starters for most of the game and Akron took better advantage of first-half miscues to pull away from Buffalo late in the first half to improve to 5-5 and 4-1 in the MAC East Division. Buffalo fell to 2-8 and 2-3 in the MAC East with the loss.

Already missing flanker Zeke McKine (Hollywood, FL/McArthur) and free safety Craig Rohlfs (Cincinnati, OH/Moeller), the Bulls lost split end Andre Forde (Penfield, NY/Penfield) on the opening kickoff to a hip pointer and also played without defensive end Jamie Guerra (Belle Vernon, PA/Belle Vernon) for most of the game.

More than that, however, head coach Craig Cirbus felt his team lost its composure and that led to several costly penalties and four turnovers.

"The number one thing that impacted everything was that we lost our poise," said Cirbus. "Now when you combine that with not having so many key players, you have the potential for bad news."

The news wasn't good early for the Bulls as Akron opened the scoring with a 71-yard drive in five plays capped by Brandon Payne scoring from seven yards out. The Bulls, however, responded immediately as Albert Grundy (Springfield, PA/Springfield) capped a 14-play, 69-yard drive with a one-yard plunge to tie the score at 7-7 with 1:38 remaining in the first half.

After the Zips surged ahead 14-7, two key plays changed the game. After UB's Duane Williams (Detroit, MI/Denby) intercepted his second pass of the season to set up the Bulls at the Akron 43; the Zips recovered a fumble by Grundy on second down and increased their lead to 17-7 on a 35-yard field goal by Zac Derr. On Buffalo's next possession the Bulls drove to midfield before quarterback Joe Freedy (Bethel Park, PA/Bethel Park) was intercepted by All-MAC cornerback Dwight Smith who returned it 59 yards for the crucial touchdown to make it 24-7 Zips.

Akron would go on to score 39 unanswered points in all to clinch the contest and snap a three-game losing streak.

"We created some turnovers, which was encouraging," said Cirbus. "We get a big interception by Duane but give it right back on a good hit by Akron and that affected us. Later on the interception (by Smith) put the icing on the cake."

Freedy, without his top two targets of McKine and Forde for the game, struggled throughout. He completed just 9-of-26 passes for 100 yards and was sacked three times. Senior tight end Brandon Shaughnessy (Stafford, NY/LeRoy) was Freedy's favorite target with three receptions for 44 yards.

The UB running game, however, had very impressive numbers led by the play of redshirt freshman Marquis Dwarte (Baltimore, MD/Perry Hall). Dwarte had a career-best 24 carries for 163 yards and helped set up both UB scoring drives with strong runs. Grundy, meanwhile, scored a pair of touchdowns to bring his total to four on the season. Dwarte's 100-yard effort was the third time that UB has had a rusher go over 100 yards in a game and the Bulls' rushed for 243 yards on the game - their second-best effort of the season.

The UB defense was paced by senior safety Tory Smith (Centereach, NY/Half Hollow East) who had eight solo stops while senior linebacker Marcus Cole (Buffalo, NY/Turner-Carroll) had four solo stops and his first career interception. Redshirt freshman Lamar Wilcher (Ossining, NY/Ossining) had three tackles for loss.

The Bulls close the 2000 season at home against Miami, OH on Saturday, Nov. 18th at 1:00 pm.