The Miami Red Hawks took the road in their first weekend of MAC action against the Cincinnati Bearcats and came away victorious 40-10.

No easy task considering the Red Hawks played a physical match against their alumni during their only bye week. Top that with a road trip against a stingy and big Bearcat squad and there’s definitely a chance that things could go wrong.

With a youthful, energetic squad, coach Jared Moore’s troops took to the pitch with a straightforward game plan and executed it with precision. 

“When you have a young team you don’t want to put too much on them,” Moore said. “It was really a total team effort. They ran the patterns well and played great defense, everyone complemented each other.”

One of the things of concern for Moore and the Red Hawks for the season was their lack of size in a physical conference. Not only did they turn heads with their great scrums and mauls, they scored off a maul when Sam McCarthy plunged in.

That was the first of many as four different Red Hawks found their to the try zone, including two from Connor Murray. At the half, the scoreboard was in heavy favor of the Red Hawks 35-0 with McCarthy making all of his conversions.

The second half was a little bit more low-key for Miami in terms of offense as they tied NIU in scoring with a try a piece. The defense, however, stayed consistent as players continued their ferocity keeping in mind that the game also had a bit of personal rivalry to it.

“We’re still not in full game shape yet, something we will work on in the coming weeks and individually,” Moore said.

Nonetheless, Miami played well enough to get all seven subs into the game; some of which even made strong consideration for immediate future playing time.

“I thought some of our B-side players played very well and there could be some personnel changes for the game next weekend,” Moore said.

That depth is a good sign for a team in a rebuilding year.

“We played into our system and it showed. Nobody tried to do too much, our pack did great and our backline played together. A whole team effort,” Moore said.

Miami will take confidence into their second game of the year against Dayton who hasn’t played a game thus far. Cincinnati will take to the road next weekend against Central Michigan who has won their first two games.