Maurice Turner rushed for 160 yards and Jawhar Jordan added 115 yards on the ground with two long touchdown runs to help Louisville to a 24-7 victory over Cincinnati on Saturday in the Fenway Bowl at Boston.
Brock Domann started at quarterback in place of Malik Cunningham (opt out) and completed 13 of 21 passes for 132 yards, one touchdown and one interception for the Cardinals. Marshon Ford caught a touchdown pass and Louisville recorded seven sacks while claiming the Keg of Nails trophy in the first battle since 2013 between schools located roughly 100 miles apart.
Yasir Abdullah and YaYa Diaby each had 1.5 sacks as the Cardinals outgained the Bearcats in yards 419-127.
Cincinnati’s Evan Prater was 7-of-15 passing for 83 yards and one touchdown while starting in place of Ben Bryant (foot). Wyatt Fischer caught a touchdown pass for the Bearcats.
Despite the loss, Cincinnati leads the series 30-23-1.
Both teams played under interim coaches — Deion Branch for Louisville and Kerry Combs for Cincinnati. Combs filled in for Luke Fickell, who departed for Wisconsin. Branch served due to Scott Satterfield leaving for the Bearcats’ job.
Jeff Brohm, recently of Purdue, has returned to his alma mater as Louisville’s new coach.
Jordan’s two long scoring runs helped the Cardinals take a 21-7 halftime lead.
He provided the game’s first points when he darted right on a 49-yard scoring run with 21 seconds left in the opening quarter.
The Bearcats knotted the score at 7-7 when a highly pressured Prater got the ball to Fischer near the left sideline. Fischer navigated to his right to complete a 20-yard scoring play with 10:58 left in the half.
Louisville moved back ahead 14-7 when Domann connected on an 8-yard touchdown pass to Ford with 5:52 remaining in the half. Jordan again broke free to his right on a 41-yard scoring run to make it a 14-point margin with 42 seconds left in the half.
James Turner booted a 48-yard field goal with 3:49 left in the third quarter to boost Louisville’s lead to 17.
This was the first Fenway Bowl actually to be played. The inaugural 2020 bowl was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s game between Virginia and SMU was wiped out when the Cavaliers had a COVID-19 outbreak.
–Field Level Media