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Pike, Cincinnati smother South Florida

Oct 31, 2008 - 4:28 AM CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Cincinnati stymied quarterback Matt Grothe en route to a 24-10 victory over 23rd-ranked South Florida in a Big East game on Thursday.

Grothe entered the game with 1,896 yards passing and a 67.1 percent completion rate for the Bulls. However, the Bearcats harassed him into a 13-of-31 passing effort for 174 yards and three interceptions.

"I don't know what happened," Grothe said. "They did a good job of stopping us and we did a good job of stopping ourselves. To sum it up, it (stinks)."

Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly was proud of his team's defensive effort.

"Three turnovers is huge," Kelly said. "Our defense played very well. That was arguably our best performance of the year defensively."

Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike starred, going 20-of-28 for 281 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, despite playing with a broken left forearm that was in a cast.

"Tony Pike hung in there with a broken arm," Kelly said. "It was a great bounce-back win."

Cincinnati was coming off a 40-16 whipping at Connecticut on Saturday.

"We won today because of Sunday," Kelly said, referring to when the team saw a review of their performance against the Huskies.

"Guys decided that the way we played at UConn was unacceptable. We had great energy. We got off to a good start, which was really important."

Pike sealed the victory in the fourth quarter, when he found Connor Barwin for a one-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-10.

"It was definitely a roller coaster," Pike said. "On Sunday, it was sore and I had a lot of trouble gripping the ball."

Pike was replaced by freshman Zach Collaros after the final touchdown.

"After the touchdown to Connor, it was pretty painful," Pike said.

The Bulls drove to the Cincinnati 8 with less than five minutes left, but Grothe threw two incompletions before South Florida turned over the ball on downs.

The Bearcats then ran out the clock.

"That was the funnest part of the game," Barwin said. "You get those stops there, it's exhilarating as a defense. Getting one stop is big. Getting two stops is huge."

South Florida coach Jim Leavitt wasn't happy with the Bulls' offense.

"We turned the ball over too much," the coach said. "I think (Grothe) tried to hard. We gave up too many long pass plays. They made great catches and we didn't.

"We got into the red zone twice and didn't score. We have to score when we get there."

Cincinnati (6-2, 2-1 Big East) shut down Grothe in the first half, limiting the quarterback to eight yards rushing and 65 passing as he went 4-of-8 with an interception.

John Goebel scored on a two-yard run midway through the first quarter to get the Bearcats on the scoreboard. But the Bulls (6-3, 1-3) evened it less than two minutes later, when Moise Plancher ran into the end zone from one yard out.

Jake Rogers kicked a 32-yard field to give Cincinnati a 10-7 lead with 3:41 left in the opening period.

A few plays after crashing into the crowd in the back of the end zone and running into a youngster in the stands, Marshawn Gilyard turned a short pass from Pike into a 26-yard scoring play to make it 17-7 in the second quarter.

Gilyard took off his helmet and consoled the child after crashing into him. He praised Pike for making the Bearcats better.

"He sees the whole field," Gilyard said. "When he's under there, he does a good job of getting the offense going. When he's in there, everything is so fluid."