CINCINNATI — For the first time ever, Scott Satterfield has won seven straight games.
Brendan Sorsby threw a strike to Cyrus Allen for a touchdown in the first half and sealed the game with a 23-yard touchdown keeper with just over six minutes left as the No. 21 Bearcats held off the Baylor Bears, 34-20, Saturday before a capacity Homecoming crowd at Nippert Stadium. Sorsby, who had just 52 yards passing in the first half, finished 13-of-21 for 111 yards with two touchdown passes and a touchdown run. He added 85 yards on 11 carries.
Tawee Walker and Evan Pryor ran for touchdowns in the first quarter as the Bearcats built a 24-0 lead and cruised to their seventh straight win. Walker had 84 yards on 19 carries while Pryor finished with 66 yards on 13 carries. Cincinnati finished with 265 yards on the ground while holding Baylor to just 266 yards of total offense on the day.
Kicker Stephen Rusnak continued his red-hot streak with two more pivotal field goals for the No. 21 Bearcats improved to 7-1 and 5-0 in the Big 12 and maintained their perch atop the conference standings. Rusnak is now 11-for-11 this season and perfect in his last 22 attempts dating back to 2024.
In his days at Appalachian State, Louisville and Cincinnati, Satterfield has never coached a team that has won seven straight before Saturday. This marks his 13th as a head coach in FBS.
Baylor (4-4, 2-3) helped the Bearcats out by going for two-point conversions on their first two touchdowns and failing to convert. They converted a two-pointer after their third touchdown that closed Baylor within seven, 27-20, with 13:34 left in the game.
Pryor finished with 66 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown before leaving with an apparent left ankle injury after an 11-yard run early in the fourth quarter.
The Bearcats took the game’s opening drive and marched 81 yards in 11 plays, capped off by a Tawee Walker one-yard run just five minutes into the game. The key play on the drive was defensive pass interference on Baylor’s Levar Thornton Jr. when the Bearcats faced third-and-6 at their own 23.
The defense forced a punt when Jake Golday and Jalen Hunt combined to sack Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson on third down. Dontay Corleone went down on the play grabbing his left ankle, the same ankle that has forced him to miss several games this season.
The Bearcats answered with another efficient scoring drive as Sorsby directed the Bearcats down the field 66 yards in 10 plays, finished off when Evan Pryor ran up the middle from five yards out to make it 14-0. The Bearcats built their lead to 24-0 in the second quarter when Rusnak hit from 46 yards and Sorsby found Cyrus Allen on a perfect out pass in the far corner of the end zone.
The Bears dominated the third quarter, scoring on the first possession of the second half when they drove 80 yards in 10 plays, capped by a nine-yard strike from Robertson to Josh Cameron.
The Bearcats added a 36-yard field goal from Rusnak to push the lead to 15 at 27-12. But the Bears made it interesting when Robertson ran it from one-yard with 13:34 left in the game. The Bearcats were called for three different pass interference calls on the drive.
But Sorsby directed a 75-yard scoring drive taking up 7:21 of the fourth-quarter clock to seal the game. The Bearcats recovered a Baylor fumble on the ensuing kickoff and Sorsby hit Isaiah Johnson on an 8-yard rollout to his right to make it 41-20.
