Dru DeShields Accounts for Five Touchdowns as Kent State Beats Akron 35-20 to Keep the Wagon Wheel

Kent State walked into the Wagon Wheel game averaging 12 points per game, which ranked 138th in the country. Dru DeShields had four touchdown passes all season. Wayne Harris had one touchdown catch. A week earlier, the Golden Flashes had scored exactly two points at South Florida.

So naturally, DeShields threw four touchdown passes in one afternoon, Harris caught three of them, and Kent State scored 35 points to beat Akron 35-20 at Dix Stadium on Saturday. Rivalry games do not care about your season averages.

The Wagon Wheel stays in Kent for a second straight year, and the Golden Flashes snapped a three-game losing streak in the process.

Two struggling offenses, one trophy

Neither team arrived in great shape. Kent State had managed two points in a 29-2 loss at South Florida the week before, and DeShields carried a season line of four touchdown passes and six interceptions. Akron had lost 34-14 to Miami (OH), with quarterback Brayden Roggow throwing four interceptions in that one, and the Zips entered at minus-7 in turnover margin, 131st nationally. Oddsmakers made Kent State a 3 1/2-point favorite, which felt about right for a matchup of two offenses ranked well outside the top 100.

Nobody expected fireworks. That is usually when rivalry games provide them.

The first half: a slog with a late jolt

For about 29 minutes, this looked like the game everyone expected. Akron's Jordan Gant scored on a 6-yard run midway through the first quarter, and Kent State's offense spent most of the half going nowhere in particular.

Then DeShields found some rhythm. With the clock running down, he led an eight-play, 77-yard drive and finished it with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Harris with 36 seconds left in the half. Tied 7-7 at the break, and a crowd of 12,375 suddenly had something to feel good about.

DeShields admitted he did not have much choice on that goal-line throw. "He would've been mad at me if I wouldn't have thrown the ball on the 1-yard touchdown," he said of Harris. "He knew. He said it right after. He's like, 'I knew you were throwing it to me.'"

The third quarter: haymakers both ways

Akron came out swinging. Gant scored again early in the third, this time from 5 yards, to put the Zips back on top 14-7. Kent State answered almost immediately when DeShields hit Harris for a 55-yard touchdown to tie it at 14.

Aidan Stire's 40-yard field goal gave Akron a 17-14 lead, but that was the last time the Zips would be in front. Kent State went 75 yards in four plays, and DeShields found tight end Hunter Hopperton for a 2-yard touchdown, the first catch for a score of Hopperton's college career. Kent State led 21-17 heading to the fourth.

The fourth quarter: Akron beats itself

This is where the game turned, and Akron did a lot of the turning. Norey Johnson intercepted Roggow. Then, with 7:34 left and momentum sliding toward Kent State, Joe Moorhead rolled the dice on a fake punt that came up short.

"I made an aggressive decision there to go for the fake punt when momentum was swinging their way," Moorhead said, adding: "I was told the look was there, so we let the thing rip."

It did not rip. DeShields hit Harris for a 19-yard touchdown at 6:40 to make it 28-17, and things got worse on the ensuing kickoff. Akron running back Luke Reed muffed it, linebacker Tanner Mintz recovered at the Akron 13, and three plays later DeShields ran it in himself from the 1 with 4:54 left. In roughly two and a half minutes of game time, a four-point game had become an 18-point game.

Stire added a 50-yarder in the final minute to set the final margin.

The star turn

DeShields completed 18 of 33 passes for 294 yards and four touchdowns, with no interceptions and no sacks taken. He added 28 rushing yards and the late touchdown run. That is five total touchdowns from a quarterback who entered the game with four passing touchdowns for the entire season.

This is not a new story in this rivalry, either. DeShields threw five touchdown passes in last year's 42-35 overtime win at Akron, the game that brought the Wagon Wheel to Kent in the first place. Something about the Zips brings out the best in him.

Mark Carney kept his praise simple. "Dru's pretty good," Carney said. "I enjoy coaching him. We've been through a lot together here."

Harris was the other half of it, with nine catches for 156 yards and three touchdowns. Before Saturday, he had 30 catches for 384 yards and one score on the season. Brandon White chipped in a 52-yard catch-and-run and led Kent State with 44 rushing yards.

Defensively, Hayden Dawahare was a problem all afternoon with eight tackles and two sacks, and Josue Cordoba led the team with 10 tackles. Moorhead's postgame line about Kent State's defense might be the quote of the day.

"Their game-wreckers wrecked the game for us," he said.

The numbers that tell the real story

Here is the strange part. Akron outgained Kent State 422-376, piled up 26 first downs to Kent State's 21 and held the ball for more than 34 minutes. Gant was excellent, carrying 28 times for 162 yards and two touchdowns. Roggow, Akron's third-string quarterback making his fifth straight start, threw for 275 yards.

And Akron still lost by 15, because of one absurd number: 15 penalties for 165 yards. Kent State was flagged three times for 35. When you hand a rival 130 more penalty yards than they hand you, the yardage edge evaporates in a hurry. Add the 2-1 turnover margin and the failed fake punt, and the math gets ugly.

Kent State also went 2-for-3 on fourth down. Small thing, but in a game this tight through three quarters, every extra possession mattered. The Kent State recap (opens in a new tab) and box score (opens in a new tab) have the full breakdown, and Akron's side is in the Zips' recap (opens in a new tab).

What it means

Kent State is 3-5 overall and 2-2 in the MAC, which keeps the Golden Flashes very much alive in the conference picture. Carney sounded like a coach who knows it. "But, man, we've still got everything we want right in front of us," he said.

Next on the schedule was a first-ever meeting with Sacramento State, a Friday night trip west on Oct. 30. If the offense that showed up against Akron is the real one, Kent State's back half of the schedule looks a lot more interesting.

Akron falls to 1-7 and 0-4 in conference play. The quarterback situation explains plenty. Reese Poffenbarger, the planned starter, has not played because of NCAA eligibility issues, and backup Cibastian Broughton has been out since a leg injury against Minnesota on Sept. 19. Moorhead is hoping to have Broughton back when the Zips host Ohio on Nov. 3.

The last word

Kent State came into this game with one of the least productive offenses in the country. It left with 35 points, a trophy and a quarterback who has now torched Akron in back-to-back years. Rivalry games are supposed to be weird, and this one delivered. The team that gained more yards, earned more first downs and owned the clock went home empty-handed, mostly because it could not stop drawing flags.

The Wagon Wheel is staying in Kent. For a team that scored two points the week before, that is about as good as a Saturday gets.

Sources: Kent State Athletics and Kent State University recaps, the Akron Beacon Journal and The Associated Press. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Kent State Athletics.