Arizona football at Cincinnati final score: Wildcats knocked off 22nd-ranked Bearcats for 3rd straight win
After beating Kansas last weekend to get bowl eligible, Arizona celebrated, and rightfully so. The next game, on the road against a ranked opponent battling for a spot in the Big 12 title game, was the type of game a team content with their accomplishments could mail in.
Arizona is not that team.
The Wildcats won their third straight game, beating No. 22 Cincinnati 30-24 on Saturday afternoon. It was the second straight victory in which Arizona (7-3, 4-3 Big 12) trailed at halftime, the first time it had won back-to-back games in that manner since 2019.
Noah Fifita became the school career passing touchdown leader with a 4th quarter strike to Gio Richardson, finishing with 294 yards on 23-of-31 passing. The redshirt junior has 68 TD passes, one more than Nick Foles and Willie Tuitama.
Michael Salgado-Medina kicked three field goals, including a 51-yarder with 1:34 left, after missing two in the first half with one getting blocked. And Arizona’s defense held Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby to 154 yards and a TD on 15-of-28 passing with two interceptions, doubling his season pick total.
The UA outgained the Bearcats (7-3, 5-2) 475-344, running for 181 yards (201 not including sacks) with Kedrick Reescano gaining 94 on 13 carries including a 50-yard go-ahead TD. Kris Hutson had eight catches for 123 yards with four of his receptions coming on third or fourth down.
Arizona was 8 of 16 on third down and held Cincinnati to 3 for 12. The Bearcats ran for 190 yards but 140 of that came on back-to-back drives in the first quarter,
Down 14-10 at the break, Arizona got the ball to start the second half for just the third time this season. And for the fourth time in five possessions it got into the red zone only to have to settle for a field goal attempt. Salgado-Medina’s 25-yarder cut the deficit to one with 9:42 left in the third quarter.
A fourth straight defensive stop set the stage for the Wildcats to retake the lead. They had to go 99 yards to do it but got 80 of that in two plays, with Chris Hunter making a 30-yard catch along the sideline on 3rd down and then Hunter blocked downfield asReescano scored on a 50-yard run to put the UA up 20-14 with 5:21 left in the third.
Cincinnati made it a 3-point game with a 28-yard field goal on the final play of the third, but Arizona answered in an historic way.
The Wildcats went 75 plays in nine yards, the last a 15-yard TD catch byRichardson for a 27-17 lead with 9:53 to go. It was the second career TD for the freshman and the 68th thrown by Fifita.
Down two scores, the Bearcats went for it twice on 4th down and converted both times. A 1-yard TD run by Zion Robinson cut Arizona’s lead to 27-24 with 6:38 remaining.
Arizona converted a couple third downs on its final drive, forcing Cincinnati to use all its timeouts, before Salgado-Medina drilled a 51-yarder to make it a 6-point lead with 1:34 to go. The Bearcats then turned it over on downs and Fifita took a couple of knees to secure the victory.
The UA got a takeaway on the first play of the game, with Dalton Johnson tipping a pass that Jay’Vion Cole picked off for his team-leading fourth interception. Two plays later, Ismail Mahdi went untouched for a 27-yard TD run.
Cincinnati needed only six plays to tie it, though, getting a 4-yard TD run from Sorsby after a couple chunk runs. The Bearcats then went up 14-7 midway through the first on a 7-yard pass from Sorsby to Jeff Caldwell that was set up by a 54-yard run from Tawee Walker.
The Wildcats’ first sustained drive got into the red zone but then stalled and resulted in no points after Salgado-Medina missed a 40-yard field goal. And after Cincinnati went 3-and-out the UA again got inside the Bearcats’ 20 only to have to settle for three again but Salgado-Medina’s 34-yard try was blocked.
Johnson picked off Sorsby with 4:50 left in the first half, setting up Arizona’s second scoring drive. The Wildcats stalled in the red zone for a third time but Salgado-Medina did convert a 24-yard field goal with four seconds left before halftime.
Arizona returns home to host Baylor next Saturday for Senior Day. It will be the second meeting with the Bears, the last coming in the 1992 Sun Bowl.
