for the second straight year another brutal early season loss at home for the Bearcats Mike petralia inside nippard stadium here Saturday the Bearcats built a 27-6 late third quarter lead only to lose in the closing seconds to the pit Panthers 2827 the Bearcats really started off this game very hot very much in the way they won last week against talson winning 38 to20 building up a big lead early on and then cruising to Victory looked like the same formula here again on Saturday afternoon Brendan sorby uh with a terrific first half a couple of touchdown passes including a 52 yd Beauty down the right sideline to jamy May and that was 52 yards that put the Bearcats on the board by a score of seven to nothing Bearcats would go up 17-3 and looked like they were going to go up 20 to3 in the closing seconds of the first half but Carter Brown missed a 25 yd field goal the laces were pointed in and the technique according to head coach Scott saterfield from the whole unit was just off by hair and that made a difference they missed the field goal but the kicker no punt intended uh to that whole missed opportunity at the end of the first half was pit was able to capitalize and go down the field the Bearcats thought time had run out but no the officials put a second back on the clock and allow the pit Panthers to kick a 53 yd field field goal just before halftime instead of a 20 to3 halftime lead the Bearcats only LED 17-6 but everything looked good in the early in the third quarter as the Bearcats got a defensive stop to start the second half they went down the field Brendan sorby with his third touchdown of the game that made it 24-6 they added a field goal from Carter brown 27-6 with just over four minutes to go in the third quarter and it looked like the Bearcats were in cruise control to 2 and0 and a meeting next week with the Miami Red Hawks in the victory bell game not so fast bearcat's defense ran out of gas they gave up three touchdowns late but managed because of an Eric Phillips uh sack of uh the quarterback the pit quarterback they were able to hold off the two-point conversion LED 2725 barats could not move the ball at all in the fourth quarter they didn't have a single point and that came back to haunt them as the Bearcats had the pit Panthers fourth and four on their own 26 yd line and it looked like the Bearcats were about to get off the field but before the snap it was Cameron Wilson getting called for mimicking the snap count a delay of game called on the defense instead of fourth and four it was first and 10 for the pit Panthers a couple of plays later the Panthers were in field goal range and then a 35 yd field goal clinched the deal by Ben Sauls with 17 seconds to go and that gave pit a 27 28-27 lead and the Bearcats could do nothing more with it instead of a 2 and0 start the Bearcats have a horrible loss and are now one and one going into the game last year that really kickstarted their nose dive they're to three and nine on the season the Miami Red Hawks of course won in overtime on this very field 3 won to 24 last year after the game Scott safield was not too thrilled with the officiating toward the end of the game did not understand the call on Cameron Wilson that led to the delay of game he also thought the officiating at the end of the first half that gave pit an extra three points was also Highly Questionable but also he knows that the Bearcats let their foot off the pedal they didn't execute in all three phases of the game and it was interesting because I asked Gavin Gearhart he said there will be no poutin like there was last year there's a different element in the locker room and I said why do you feel that way and Gearhart said because we've learned a lot as a unit there was a lot of positivity in the locker room even after a game like this he said believe it or not we are sticking together we know we are a close group but of course only time will tell the other big highlight for the Bearcats in this game The Return of Dante Corleone he had a couple of big run stops including one on third down that gave the Panthers fourth and four uh in the third quarter but they began their comeback by converting uh that fourth and four pass for a 38 yd touchdown and that began their comeback from uh 21 points down they scor 22 unanswered points and win this game 28 to 27 we'll have complete coverage on our YouTube channel ciny sports Studio at you tube.com be sure check out all the postgame reaction over there of course follow my reaction on the X at trag TR R AGS and of course ciny sports fans are looking forward to the Bengals season opener Sunday afternoon at payor Stadium against New England Patriots we'll have you covered on clns cincy.com all day long be sure to follow the jungle Roar pod J on youtube.com youtube.com SL jungle warp pod for all of your Bengals season opening coverage final again inside Nipper Stadium this afternoon it was the pit Panthers 28 and the Bearcats 27 Mike petralia 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