Rhodes, Perry lift Panthers over Zips to snap losing streak

By: Jackson Wolek / Staff Writer

The losing streak stopped at two games as the offense scored three rushing touchdowns in their victory over the Akron Zips on Saturday, Oct. 8. The game stayed close the whole way through, and both players and head coach Mario Cristobal said they know it wasn’t their best game.They allowed just 157 yards on passing to quarterback Clayton Moore in the 27-17 win, after giving up over 200 yards in each of their last two games.Sophomore running back Kedrick Rhodes finished with 22 carries for 126 yards and one touchdown in the victory.

“After watching the film, we knew that we could run the ball and we could move the ball,” said Rhodes. “It wasn’t our best football; we could have capitalized more… if we critique some of our mistakes we would have got at least five touchdowns.”

The win brings the Panthers to 4-2 halfway through the season and end non-conference play with a 3-1 record. They now finish off the second half of the season against Sun Belt teams, with four road games and just two at home.

“Right now we are going into the most important part, I know I sound like a broken record when I say this every week, it really is and now the urgency and meaning behind each and every game as it relates to the conference just gets bigger and bigger and greater and greater.”

The Panther defense smothered  the Akron run offense on the first two possessions, only giving up 12 yards of offense in that span. However, Akron running back Jawon Chisholm, who sat out the first two drives, came in on the third possession and got 27-yard run that was followed by a 19-yard pass from Clayton Moore to Keith Sconiers. That set up Chisholm for a 1-yard touchdown run to put the Zips up 7-3.

FIU turned the ball over twice in the game, one off a fumble from wide receiver Wayne Times, and another from an interception by quarterback Wesley Carroll.

Carroll, who had not thrown an interception all season, got picked off by Johnny Robinson in the endzone early in the second quarter. Akron had zero interceptions coming into this game.

“Bad read on my part. The defensive back made a good read on it, and it was good that our defense was able to hold them after that and they didn’t score any points off it,” said Carroll.

Akron was not able turn the turnover into points and when FIU got the ball back, they got their first touchdown of the game with a 2-yard run from senior running back Darriet Perry, making him the all-time leading rusher for touchdowns in FIU history with 25, passing previous record holder Rashard Smith.

The Zips had one last try at scoring in the second quarter, but turned it over off an interception from quarterback Clayton Moore, picked off by safety Terrance Taylor. FIU took the ball to the Akron 4-yard line, but came out with only a 21-yard field goal from Jack Griffin again, giving the Panthers a 13-10 lead at the half.

On the third possession of the second half, FIU finished off a six-play, 81-yard drive that started at their own 19-yard line and ended with a one-yard run from Rhodes putting them up 20-10. The Zips kept it close with a 15-yard scramble by Moore into the endzone making it a three-point game going into the fourth quarter.

Perry put the game out of reach with his second touchdown of the game (26th in his career),  a three-yard run that gave FIU a 27-17 lead with 12:38 to go in the game. The Panther defense held the Zips scoreless for the rest of the game to secure the win.

“I thought the defense did a really great job,” said Cristobal. “ We’re starting to feel more comfortable with some of the multiple packages.”