Cincinnati opened its 139th football season the same way it has so often at Historic Nippert Stadium: with a win.
The Bearcats beat Boston College 34-15 on Saturday and pushed their home opener winning streak to 25 games, the second-longest active streak in the nation. The day came on a hot, sunny afternoon with Cincinnati football alumni on hand, including Jason and Travis Kelce, Connor Barwin and Brent Celek.
“I want to just start out with the atmosphere,” head coach Scott Satterfield said. “I thought it was an awesome atmosphere when we kicked the game off.
I know it was hot today. It's been hot all week, and but it was great to see that atmosphere out there today, and particularly the students.
Our students are incredible in that end zone over there.”
For Cincinnati, the story started with a new quarterback and a new backfield piece making an immediate impact. JC French IV, in his first start for the Bearcats, ran for three touchdowns and also threw a scoring pass to JV Gibson. Cincinnati native Gi’Bran Payne, making his UC debut, led the ground game with a career-high 108 yards on 14 carries.
Gibson finished as the team’s top receiver with four catches for 54 yards.
The Bearcats also looked sharp on the other side of the ball under new defensive coordinator Nate Woody. Boston College was blanked in the first half, went just 4-for-13 on third down and never found much room to breathe against a defense that produced eight tackles for loss and two turnovers. MJ Cannon was at the center of both takeaways, forcing a fumble and grabbing an interception.
“This was a complimentary win in all three phases: offense, defense, and special teams,” Satterfield said. “Thinking about kicking, Stephen [Rusnak] knocked down two long field goals.
I think it was a career-long 54-yarder, and Max [Fletcher] had the big fourth-down conversion on the fake punt. Huge day for the defense creating two turnovers there in the second half.
That's huge. And the offense running the football like they did, obviously leaning on the offensive line.”
Stephen Rusnak gave Cincinnati the first points of the season with a 54-yard field goal in the first quarter, matching his career long. The Bearcats then stretched the lead in the second quarter when French finished a 13-play drive with a four-yard touchdown pass to Gibson. A fake punt kept that march alive, with Malachi Henry connecting with Max Fletcher for eight yards on fourth down from UC’s own 39-yard line.
Boston College had a chance to answer before halftime, but the Eagles missed a 33-yard field goal after reaching the Cincinnati 17-yard line. The Bearcats forced three straight incompletions before the kick sailed left, and Cincinnati went into the break up 10-0.
The second half started with more of the same. Cincinnati opened the third quarter with a 10-play drive capped by French’s four-yard run to make it 17-0. Cole Tabb helped move the ball with 33 rushing yards on the drive, including a 19-yard run on third down.
Then came the first turnover, with MJ Cannon stripping Brady Clough and Jacob Finley recovering at the 45-yard line. French added his second rushing score of the day with 5:39 left in the quarter, and the Bearcats were in control at 24-0.
Boston College finally got on the board with a four-yard touchdown run by Evan Dickens, followed by a successful two-point conversion to cut the margin to 24-8.
The Eagles made one more push to open the fourth quarter, driving from their own 4-yard line all the way to Cincinnati’s 3. But the Bearcats slammed the door on fourth down with a sack by Filip Maciorowski, leaving Boston College empty-handed after a 15-play march.
Rusnak added a 44-yard field goal with 5:00 remaining, French scored again to make it 34-8, and Boston College tacked on a late touchdown with 1:02 left for the final 34-15 margin.
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