Toledo, OH –Junior quarterback Logan Woodside threw for 438 yards and three touchdowns but was not able to rally the Rockets in the waning seconds as Toledo fell to Ohio, 31-26, at the Glass Bowl Thursday night.

Trailing 31-20 late in the fourth quarter, the Rockets scored on a Woodside pass to sophomore Jon'Vea Johnson with just over three minutes left to cut the lead to five points. However, a last-gasp drive with less than a minute left in the game came up short.

Toledo fell to 6-2, 3-1 in MAC play, while Ohio is now 6-3, 4-1 in the MAC.

Woodside connected on 32-of-46 passes and broke the UT record for touchdown passes in a season with 31. Johnson had six receptions for 156 yards and two touchdowns. Senior Corey Jones added seven catches for 115 yards and one TD.

The game started out slowly as both teams failed to score in the first quarter, though Ohio had two great opportunities that went for naught. Papi White returned a punt 19 yards to the UT 27-yard line, but Ohio was pushed back six yards in three plays and forced to punt. On their next drive, the Bobcats moved down to the UT 17-yard line but a 31-yard loss on a bad snap pushed them out of scoring range.

Ohio finally broke through with the first score of the game on a 57-yard TD bomb off a scramble from Quinton Maxwell to Kyle Belack with 9:17 left in the first half. Toledo countered with a 29-yard field goal by Jameson Vest to cut the lead to 7-3. But the Bobcats came right back when backup quarterback Sebastian Smith hit Greg Windham in the end zone for a 33-yard score to make the score 14-3 with 1:55 left in the half. Toledo used up the remaining time in the first half, moving the ball 38 yards in nine plays to set up a career-long 47-yard field goal by Vest to cut the lead to 14-6 at halftime.

While the first half was a defensive slugfest, the second half was a long-distance shootout. Toledo scored its first touchdown of the contest came in the third quarter on a 98-yard bomb from Woodside to Johnson to trim the lead to 14-13. The pass was the longest play from scrimmage in UT history.

Ohio came back with a big play of its own, a 25-yard TD connection from Maxwell to White to extend the lead to 21-13. But the Rockets landed another big punch moments later, a 24-yard TD from Woodside to Jones. It was Woodside's 30^th TD pass of the season, breaking the school record of 29 set by Bruce Gradkowski in 2003 and 2005.

Ohio closed out a high-scoring third quarter with a 39-yard field goal by Louie Zervos to move the Bobcats' lead to 24-20. The Bobcats added another touchdown on a 51-yard run by Dorian Brown to make the score, 31-20, with 8:08 remaining. Brown finished with 212 yards rushing.

Toledo cut the lead to five, 31-26, on a 10-yard pass from Woodside to Johnson. It looked like the lead was cut to a field goal when Woodside and Johnson hooked up for the two-point conversion, but the play was ruled no good due to Johnson receiving the ball after initially going out of bounds.

Toledo then forced Ohio to punt and received the ball on its own 25-yard line with 55 seconds left. Woodside moved UT to the Ohio 44-yard line but with time running out he completed a pass to Kareem Hunt that was stopped for a five-yard loss. Toledo tried to get off another play but was whistled for snapping the ball too soon and the game was over.

The Rockets will try to bounce back on Wednesday at Akron for 7:30 p.m. battle with the Zips.


Head Coach Jason Candle


Quarterback Logan Woodside


Tight End Michael Roberts