ATHENS, OH - Jamel Patterson rushed for a career-high 180 yards on 17 carries and Ohio University rambled for 393 yards on the ground in posting a 45-6 Mid-American Conference football victory over visiting Buffalo on Saturday night at Peden Stadium.

The Bobcats (1-3) overcame a strong first quarter by the Bulls (0-3) and slowly wore down the injury-depleted visitors. Buffalo was forced to play without two starting defensive linemen in the game and fell to 0-2 in MAC conference play.

The Bulls jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on a 34-yard field goal by Scott Keller (Amherst, NY/Amherst Central) with 6:31 left in the first quarter and tied the game at 6-6 on a 37-yard Keller field goal with 8:37 left in the first half. Those field goals were sandwiched around a Raynald Ray six-yard touchdown run.

The decisive play of the game came late in the second quarter when on a third-and-four play from the Buffalo 11, Patterson broke three tackles behind the line of scrimmage and scored the tie-breaking touchdown that set off an avalanche of 39 straight points by the Bobcats.

The Bulls, despite gaining 315 yards of total offense never were able to score a touchdown and have now been held without a touchdown for over eight quarters.

"There were some positives there that we were able to move the ball down the field but certainly we'd rather have touchdowns instead of field goals. We were moving the ball and we were holding them in the first quarter, so those are some of the encouraging things."

Senior flanker Drew Haddad (Westlake, OH/St. Ignatius) continued his assault on the UB record book with another glittering performance. Haddad had eight catches for 140 yards, the 12th time in his career he has gone over 100 yards receiving in a game, a new school record.

"The whole defense from Ohio did a good job," said Haddad. "It was one of those things where we couldn't punch the ball in, they're defense held us every time. We had drives but we just couldn't seem to score."

Sophomore quarterback Joe Freedy (Bethel Park, PA/Bethel Park) had a rough night despite setting a new career high with 220 yards passing on 17-of-30 aerials. Freedy was sacked six times and intercepted three times as the Bobcats defense turned up the heat after the first quarter.

Redshirt freshman tailback Bam McDonald (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta) had a career-high 22 carries for 81 yards for the Bulls while tight end Brandon Shaughnessy (Stafford, NY/LeRoy) had three catches for 30 yards.

Defensively, the Bulls got another strong game from free safety Craig Rohlfs (Cincinnati, OH/Moeller). Rohlfs led the Bulls with nine tackles and forced a fumble, while inside linebacker Chris Shelly (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler) had eight tackles and a forced fumble.

Cirbus agreed that Ohio's running attack was the key to the game.

"They were getting to our flank awfully successfully," said Cirbus. "Between outside people and secondary play we just couldn't stop them, we couldn't contain them. Then our lack of depth and our fatigue really made it a disaster later on in the game."

"I told them we're not going to be the least bit discouraged with this game," said Cirbus. "They played their hearts out. Ohio University is an awfully good football club and our people have to realize that this level of competition - the Mid-American Conference - has outstanding, outstanding football. We played hard, we were in this football game and in the third quarter things broke open and maybe I put some reserves in too early."