Live Blog: Kent State vs. Ohio University in the season opener

FOURTH QUARTER

0:00 ... Final from Dix Stadium ... Ohio 17, Kent State 14

A Josiah Yazdani 44-yard field goal as time expired ended this one.

The Flashes defense came up big forcing four consecutive fumbles on four Ohio possessions, but couldn't quite keep the Bobcats out of field goal range on the final drive.

A nice touch afterwards as both teams get together for a prayer at midfield following what has been a very tough week here at Kent State.

I hope the Flashes fans are proud of the effort even in a frustrating loss.

The KSU offense needs to find a way to run the football in the coming weeks. The final numbers have the Flashes at 31 rushing yards on 22 attempts.

Colin Reardon finished his night with 264 yards and two touchdowns on 30-for-41 passing. He spread the ball around, too, hitting Humphrey six times for 91 yards and a score. Ernest Calhoun caught 11 passes for 62 yards, and James Brooks averaged 22.5 yards per catch on his two grabs.

Anthony Meray was the only KSU player to average more than 1.3 yards per carry, running six times for 19 yards (3.2 avg.)

Nate Holley had a spectacular night defensively with 12 solo tackles and six assists for 18 total, he also forced two fumbles and recovered another as KSU's defense kept the Flashes in the game during the second half.


3:34 ... The fourth time was the charm. After the fourth consecutive Ohio fumble to end a drive, the Flashes have tied the score, 14-14.

Reardon-to-Humphrey reminiscent of Montana-to-Clark for a 23-yard touchdown – Reardon rolling to his right and finding Humphrey breaking open, sliding to the back corner and not across the middle the way Clark did back in the 1982 NFC Championship Game.

Reardon is now 30-for-41 for 264 yards and a pair of touchdowns.


5:18 ... Colin Reardon finally has the Flashes offense back on the move. The sophomore quarterback just hit Chris Humphrey for a 28-yard pickup and a first down at the Ohio 33 yard line.

Add a leap on a reverse to Calhoun for 5 yards and the Flashes are at the Bobcats 28 for a 2nd-and- play with exactly five minutes to go.

7:39 ... Four consecutive Ohio possessions now have ended with a fumble in Kent State territory.

This time Murray recovers another fumble forced by Holley at the KSU 22.

Time to finally take advantage of the Bobcats errors.

8:26 ... Same story for the last three quarters... Kent State offensive line continues to struggle, both opening holes in the running game and protecting the quarterback. It's been a tough situation

11:40 ... Kent State defense keeps coming up big.

With Ohio on the move again, the Flashes defense has forced another fumble. Cunningham forced it with another hit on Patterson, and Holley was on the spot for the recovery.

The officials talked about it for a while before giving the football to the Flashes. Now they are reviewing the call.

Replay confirms the call. It'll be 1st-and-10 Flashes at their own 25.

THIRD QUARTER

1:44 ... The running game is finally in positive numbers... 21 yards on 19 carries.

The Flashes defense needs to come up big again here with Ohio pinned a bit at their own 10 yard line following a pooch kick by Melchiori.

Reardon continues to play well, 23-of-30 for 213 yards so far. Vick is having an even bigger game, though, with 309 yards on 15-of-21 passing.

4:55 ... The Flashes offense is on the move again, thanks to another forced fumble, this time a hit by Nate Holley dislodged the football from Ohio's Daz' Patterson. Nate Terhune recovered.

A third-down throw from Reardon to Pierce moved the chains, and now a 7-yard run by Reardon has Kent State out near midfield.

11:46 ... The first turnover of the game is a fumble forced and recovered by Nate Vance on a hit of Ohio's Tim Edmond.

Unfortunately, even after Reardon passes of 16 yards to Brooks and 10 yards to Pierce for a first-and-goal, the Flashes came away with no points after Anthony Melchiori missed a 20-yard field goal.

Too many mistakes tonight, and yet the Flashes trail by just seven.

SECOND QUARTER

0:00 ... Kent State trails Ohio 14-7.

The Flashes have found some success in the passing game where Reardon is 14-of-17 for 118 yards and a touchdown.

The running game hasn't had any success with negative-4 yards so far on 14 rushing attempts. And that's even with Reardon picking up 9 yards on one carry. Anthony Meray leads the Flashes 10 yards on four attempts.

Ohio's Vick was 8-of-12 in the first half for 151 yards and two scores, both to Smith.

With 55 yards on 18 attempts, Ohio's running game has been just average, but it has at least provided some compliment to Vick.

The Flashes need Terrell Johnson to come back. He is a 5th-year senior with experience on an offensive line that is younger and already reworked after last week.


1:02 ... It is great to see former Kent State stars Dri Archer and Brian Winters on the Dix Stadium sidelines. The Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver and New York Jets offensive linemen were spotted by MAC Sports Twitter.

Right tackle Terrell Johnson was just helped off the field with an injury.

He has been replaced by freshman Brock Macaulay, who opened camp with the first unit at right tackle.

2:59 ... The war in the trenches is starting to take its toll on Kent State. While Ohio is winning on both sides of the football at the moment, the Bobcats defensive front is making life very tough for the Flashes offensive line. 

There hasn't been even a crack of room to run through so far as the Flashes have negative-8 yards on 11 attempts so far. That includes 4-yard sack of Reardon on Kent State's previous offensive play.

Miles Hibbler made his freshman debut at running back on the last Kent State possession.

Trayion Durham is in uniform, but is unlikely to play, and my guess that would include short-yardage situations.

6:53 ... It took Ohio three plays and 21 seconds to take advantage of Kent State's careless mistake.

Ohio takes the lead on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Vick to Smith – the second scoring connection by those two already tonight.

7:46 ... A major careless error by Kent State has extended an Ohio drive.

The Bobcats punting on fourth down, but Kent State had two players on the field wearing the same number.

Ohio takes advantage with a big 38-yard pass from Vick to Patterson to the KSU 8 yard line.

Frustrating moment for Flashes fans.

7:54 ... We have our first contender for tackle of the year.

Kent State freshman Jon Cunningham with a full body slam of Ohio wide receiver Papi White on a running play. 

As Kent State sports information director Aaron Chimenti said, the tackle would have been good for 5 points in freestyle wrestling.

11:37 ... Some quick numbers ... Colin Reardon is 10-of-12 for 98 yards. The running game has struggled a bit, though, with negative-1 yards on eight attempts.

The Kent State secondary is starting to find its form. Jordan Italiano just made a great play to bat down a Vick throw for wide receiver Jordan Reid that would have picked up a first down for the Bobcats in front of the KSU sideline.

FIRST QUARTER

5:58 ... A Colin Reardon-led 75-yard touchdown drive has tied the score at 7-7.

Great ball skills all drive long from the sophomore quarterback, who set up a key 19-yard throw to Casey Pierce with a beautiful play fake to Meray. 

Reardon also hit James Brooks on the drive for 29 yards before hitting Josh Boyle pickups of 9 and 8 yards – that last one a screen throw to a leaping Boyle, who sifted through Ohio defenders for the score.

10:01 ... Some errors in the Kent State secondary have helped Ohio to a 7-0 lead.

Two plays after Murray was beaten down the field for the big play, Ohio wide receiver Landon Smith found himself facing single coverage from Kent State linebacker Matt Dellinger. That's a tough matchup for the Flashes, and with safety Calvin Tiggle arriving late, Vick had little trouble finding Smith for an easy 23-yard touchdown pass.

11:00 ... Kent State's defense just gave up its first big play of the year – a 58-yard hookup from Vick to Brendan Cope, who had KSU corner Najee Murray turned around down the field in single coverage. Murray managed to haul down the Bobcats receiver at the Flashes 25.

11:45 ... Anthony Melchiori may be a little pumped up for the new season. His kickoff to open the game sailed 9-yards deep for a touchback. 

Then after a three-and-out on Kent State's first possession of the new season, Melchiori boomed his first punt 71 yards to the Ohio 13 yard line. And the punt had very little roll.

Ohio's offense also went three-and-out capped by the first of what should be many big hits on the season by Elcee Refuge from the star position. Refuge upended Ohio quarterback Derrius Vick after he tucked to run on a third down rollout.

PREGAME

6:06 p.m. ... The 2014 season is underway with Anthony Melchiori booming a kickoff 9 yards deep in the end zone. 

Kent State won the coin toss and chose to defer to the second half.

 4:33 p.m. ... We are less than an hour and a half to kickoff of the 2014 college football season here at Dix Stadium and the parking lots are already starting to fill up.  They will be parking cars on the grass behind the south scoreboard pretty soon.

With so many fans arriving early, that has meant the tailgate areas are popping. I visited with Matt French of AMETEK at the tailgate zone in front of Dix Stadium's west gate just a little while ago. That area is starting to jump. He also shared a photo from behind the north stands where American Fireworks from Hudson is setting up what should be a wild fireworks display for after the game. to the right you can see a picture of those fireworks all lined up in rows near the field hockey and soccer stadiums.

5:41 p.m. ... Kickoff is almost here.  I just returned to the press box after a short walk around Dix Stadium to get a feel for what is going on. Tailgating in the student section is also jam packed. If the atmosphere from behind the east stands carries into the stadium, Paul Haynes should get exactly the atmosphere he wants from Kent State's student body. He's asked them to "act a fool" for this one.

Players are now off the field following the pre-game. The helmets with Jason Bitsko's "54" on one side look very sharp. I love the tribute. It's classy, and it also offers a throwback look that I think Bitsko would have loved. His hard work on and off the field made him very much a throwback type of college football player.

Fans entering the stadium are also being handed stickers with the number 54 inside the state of Ohio. Stars on the image are for Kent and Bitsko's hometown of Huber Heights.


While the stadium is still far from packed at the moment, the grass lots behind the south scoreboard are starting to fill up. Fans are having so much fun outside the stadium that they just haven't made their way in yet.  Here's a look at what the stadium looked like during pre game just a few minutes ago.