Oklahoma Overcomes Slow Start, Overwhelms Kent State

NORMAN — On a university soccer Saturday full of memorable upsets, Kent State figured possibly they may very well be subsequent.

With 20 seconds left earlier than halftime, the Golden Flashes — a 33.5-point underdog — had been in place to ship a shocker.

As a substitute, No. 7-ranked Oklahoma narrowly prevented the first-half shutout, then put collectively an entire second half in a 33-3 victory over the Flashes at Memorial Stadium.

Issues obtained offensively ugly within the first half — a lot so after 4 straight ineffective possessions that Sooner Nation started raining down some verbal discontent.

However offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who signed right here as a participant and labored these sidelines as a younger coach, didn’t appear bothered by the booing.

As a substitute, he and quarterback Dillon Gabriel schemed to get the soccer to star receiver Marvin Mims on 5 straight performs: move completions of 14, 13 and 36 yards to finish the primary half — the latter was a face-saving and momentum-shifting landing — and seven yards to begin the second half earlier than a 15-yard move interference penalty on a deep ball.

Mims’ TD lastly obtained OU on the scoreboard with 18 seconds left within the first half and completed off the Sooners’ most spectacular possession of the night time: 76 yards on simply 5 performs and 52 seconds.

That one completion was 47 p.c of the Sooners’ earlier passing complete: 77 yards.

Kent State — which introduced again seven starters from final yr’s crew that ranked 116th nationally in move protection, 116th in run protection and 124th in each scoring protection and complete protection — held the Sooners to 158 complete yards within the first half, together with simply seven yards dashing.

Eric Grey led the Sooners in dashing at halftime with simply 9 yards on 4 carries.

Gabriel appeared hesitant all through the primary half, uncertain the place to place the soccer, and though he competed 12-of-15 passes, he had simply 77 yards earlier than the ultimate drive of the half.

However issues cleared up for him within the second half as he resolved to get the soccer to the Sooners’ finest participant.

Mims’ day — which additionally included a 42-yard punt return — consisted of a seven catches for 163 yards (each profession highs) and two touchdowns. His second-half rating was a 58-yard bomb from Gabriel, a straightforward pitch and catch on which he was nearly 10 yards behind the protection.

In the meantime, the run sport picked up as nicely, as Grey busted a 44-yard run and completed with 71 yards, and Marcus Main obtained issues going between the tackles with a handful of highly effective runs and ended up with 38 yards.

The OU protection was led by linebacker Danny Stutsman (career-high 12 tackles). Justin Broiles and Billy Bowman every had 11 stops, and Bowman added a fumble restoration, whereas Ugwoegbu obtained credit score for a security when he pressured Kent State QB Collin Schlee to step out of bounds.

The Sooners had 13 tackles for loss and 4 quarterback sacks and held the high-flying Flashes for 295 yards complete offense.

OU (2-0) now turns its consideration to subsequent week’s showdown with Nebraska in Lincoln. After struggling to place away FCS North Dakota final week, the Cornhuskers on Saturday struggled once more with Georgia Southern.