Kentucky football defeated the Akron Zips 35-3 on Saturday, Sept. 16, in Lexington during the 50th anniversary of Kroger Field.
The win marked the third consecutive week in which the Wildcats have played at home in the Bluegrass.
During its previous matchup, Kentucky got off to an unbalanced start against Eastern Kentucky, but found its rhythm in the second half to defeat the Colonels 28-17.
After the starting whistle, the Wildcats proved they had learned from past mistakes and found the endzone on their first drive of the game, courtesy of a six-yard pass to sophomore tight end Josh Kattus for his first career touchdown.
Kentucky went on to put a simple stop on the Zips’ first drive of the night, holding them from reaching the Akron 20-yard line and quickly punting the ball away.
The following drive for the Wildcats was not promising for Kentucky, but after Akron muffled the returning punt, defensive back Zion Childress wasted no time to recover the fumble and get back the Kentucky ball.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the second-chance drive did not last long after short rushes from Ray Davis and an incomplete pass to Dane Key saw the team come up short on the first down.
Concluding the first quarter, Kentucky had held Akron to just 23 yards, one turnover and one first down while looking to use that momentum heading into the second quarter.
It looked like Kentucky was going to do so when Devin Leary’s deep 59-yard pass to Jordan Dingle had fans begin to rise, that was until a hapless fumble at the Akron 10-yard line saw the football recovered by Akron’s Shammond Cooper.
Wasting no time, the Zips, quite literally, zipped down the field, but were ultimately stopped on Kentucky 30-yard line with help from Trevin Wallace and Darrion Henry-Young who piled the sacks on Akron quarterback DJ Irons.
With its final possession of the first half, the chaotic drive that was to come for the Wildcats started off how no team wants their drive to begin – a quarterback sack.
Looking to shake it off, Leary made up for this lost yards with a 25-yard pass to Jordan Dingle and 28-yard pass to Tavyion Robinson.
With Davis adding some rushing yards and Akron invoking a pass interference, Kentucky soon found itself in the redzone, but the chaos was to unfold after a fumbled snap cost the Wildcats 21 yards and as it seemed to look, the touchdown.
However, finding the endzone in the midst of the chaos was Robinson. The 22-yard completed pass to the senior ended the errorful drive and put the Cats up 14-0 heading into the second half.
Akron would finally get some numbers on the scoreboard after a holding penalty called back a Kentucky touchdown and the Zips intercepted a pass from Leary.
Knowing the sloppy minutes from Kentucky allowed Akron to make a field goal, Davis was quick to take back the momentum.
After narrowly avoiding a sack, Leary threw a 58-yard pass to Davis who returned it impressively down the field for a Kentucky touchdown. It was the longest completed pass reception of the running back’s career.
Evidently not ready to be out of the spotlight, Davis did it again on Kentucky’s next drive.
The Vanderbilt transfer rushed the ball 55 yards down the field as he bounced around the Zips’ defense for another impressive run to the endzone.
Davis would go on to end the game leading in receiving yards (97) and rushing yards (72).
With the score 28-3 beginning the fourth quarter, Akron again looked to find a touchdown, but were ultimately shut down by Brad White’s defense and its 38-yard field goal attempt was no good.
Beginning the next drive for the Cats, Leary took a hard hit during a pass-attempt to Kattus. Taking a short moment to recover, Leary jogged off the field as sophomore Kaiya Sheron stepped in as quarterback for the remainder of the game.
After the Zips turned over the ball in the redzone, the Wildcats finished off the night with one last touchdown in just four plays for 62 yards. Demie Sumo-Karngbaye rushed six yards to find the end zone and move the score to 35-3.
Kentucky will now look ahead to its first road game of the season when they travel to Nashville, Tennessee, to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores. Kickoff will be on Saturday, Sept. 23, at noon EST at FirstBank Stadium.
