Bearcats Beat: Brendan Sorsby, Bearcats Makes Offensive Statement In Opener, Tame Towson, 38-20

CINCINNATI — The Clifton career of Brendan Sorsby couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start than it did on Saturday.

The Indiana transfer quarterback completed 22-of-31 passes for 383 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two scores to lead the Cincinnati Bearcats to a 38-20 win over the Towson Tigers Saturday at Nippert Stadium.

Cincinnati (1-0) amassed 658 total yards in winning its 23rd straight home opener. FCS Towson (0-1) held its own with 425 yards in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Sorsby was one of 34 players Saturday to appear in a game for UC for the first-time ever.

“Congrats to our guys in the locker room on getting a win,” head coach Scott Satterfield said. “That is an awesome start to the season. It’s not something we ever take for granted, to be able to get out here and get a win. We had a great start to the game, got out offensively and was hitting on all cylinders. It’s hard to maintain that throughout the game but I still think the overall offense did some good things.

“We played a lot of guys….Two big plays defensively that we gave up as well. And then the other two big plays in my mind were the two overzealous plays that we had on the quarterback. You have to be careful. We all know that. So, you take away those three or four plays there and it could have been a different game.

The Bearcats now get ready for a bigger test next Saturday at Nippert in Pitt of the ACC. Pitt will be looking for revenge from last season’s 27-21 UC win at Acrisure Stadium.

“Overall, proud of our guys but we still have a lot of work to do as we head into week two.”

Xzavier Henderson caught seven passes for 101 yards and a touchdown while Evan Pryor broke off runs of 64 and 32 yards and finished with 105 yards on just four carries.

Towson quarterback Carlos Davis completed 20-of-36 passes for 231 passes and two touchdowns.

In his first game for Cincinnati, Sorsby started out on fire. He completed 8-of-9 passes for 200 yards in the opening quarter, leading the Bearcats to a 21-3 lead.

After running two yards on a quarterback keeper for a touchdown to start the scoring, Sorsby threw perfect deep touchdown strikes of 42 yards to Henderson and 61 yards to Sterling Berkhalter to give Cincinnati (1-0) an 18-point lead.

But Towson (0-1), from the FCS Coastal Athletic Association, bounced back behind Davis. The senior connected on touchdown passes of 76 yards to Jaceon Ross and 28 yards to John Dunmore in the second quarter.

Sloppiness from the Bearcats kept the Tigers close. Cincinnati muffed a punt, missed a 31-yard field goal and had a kickoff land out of bounds.

Towson trailed just 28-17 at the half and could’ve been closer but Cincinnati’s defense, led by new coordinator Tyson Veidt, stopped Towson on back-to-back tries from the Bearcats 2 to start the second quarter.

Towson made it a one-score game, 28-20, when they took the opening drive of the second half and marched 59 yards, thanks to more carelessness from the Bearcats.

Cameron Roetherford took a roughing the quarterback penalty away from the play on third-and-13 from the Towson 22, extending the drive. Keegan Vaughn’s 33-yard field goal made it 28-20.

But on the next play from scrimmage, Pryor ran off the right side and broke free for a 64-yard touchdown to put Cincinnati up, 35-20.

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The Bearcats looked poised to added to a 38-20 lead, but Victor Dawson ended his 47-yard run down to the Towson 17 by losing a fumble.

Freshman safety/star Jiquan Sanks started the game at safety, making him the first true freshman to start a season opener since eventual Super Bowl champion Marquise Copeland in 2015. He finished with four tackles.

“He kind of turned heads when he got here and as we put him in and started playing we’re like, ‘man, he just keeps showing up, keeps making plays,’” Satterfield said. “We’re rotating about three or four guys at his position, and as we went through camp, he just kept being the more solid player in the run and pass.

“And I really believe, like those freshmen that played today, we had several that played, they’ll see some big jumps in how much better they’ll get from week one to week two to week three, just because they’ve never played. That experience they’re going to be able to get, he’ll grow so much off of that and it’s great to see him go out there and produce like he did. And I think he’s got to get a bright future head up for sure.”