Top 25 football \ Saturday’s games

No. 3 Alabama 38, Kentucky 20

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mark Ingram ran for a career-high 140 yards and two touchdowns. Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy added a pair of scoring passes as the Crimson Tide (5-0, 2-0 SEC) pulled away from the Wildcats (2-2, 0-2) during a dizzying stretch in the second and third quarters when Alabama scored 24 points in about 5 minutes. Derrick Locke ran for 76 yards and added another 63 yards receiving for Kentucky, but fumbled late in the first half. Alabama’s Courtney Upshaw picked the ball up and sprinted 45 yards for a touchdown to give Alabama a 21-6 halftime lead. Alabama turned four Kentucky turnovers into 17 points and had little trouble moving the ball after a sluggish start.

No. 4 LSU 20, No. 18 Georgia 13

ATHENS, Ga. — Charles Scott scored on a 33-yard run with 46 seconds remaining to cap a wild finish. No touchdowns were scored through the first three quarters, but the teams went back and forth over the final 3 minutes before the Tigers (5-0, 3-0 SEC) won their second straight close call. With Georgia (3-2, 2-1 SEC) ahead 7-6 after finally scoring in the opening minute of the fourth period, LSU reclaimed the lead, 12-7, on Scott’s 2-yard run with 2:53 remaining. The Bulldogs bounced back on Joe Cox’s 16-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Green with 1:09 left, going up 13-12 before missing a 2-point conversion. But LSU, starting in good field position after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Georgia, was already in field goal range when Scott broke two tackles at the line and went all the way to the end zone.

No. 6 Virginia Tech 34, Duke 26

DURHAM, N.C. — Tyrod Taylor threw two long touchdown passes and Virginia Tech dodged a letdown. Taylor was 17 of 22 for a career-high 327 yards, with TD tosses of 36 yards to Danny Coale and 28 yards to Jarrett Boykin. Josh Oglesby had two late touchdown runs for Virginia Tech (4-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference). Playing one week after dominating then-No. 9 Miami, the Hokies were nowhere near that sharp. But they were good enough to claim their ninth straight victory over the Blue Devils. Thaddeus Lewis was 22 for 40 for 359 yards with two touchdown passes, including a 4-yarder to Austin Kelly with 25 seconds left.

No. 10 Cincinnati 37, Miami (Ohio) 13

OXFORD — With its state-of-the-art passing attack stymied most of the day, No. 10 Cincinnati showed it can win the old-fashioned way, too. Jacob Ramsey ran for 103 yards and three touchdowns in Cincinnati’s pass-oriented offense and the Bearcats broke open a close game in the fourth quarter. The oldest rivalry west of the Allegheny Mountains has been a mismatch since coach Brian Kelly showed up at Cincinnati and turned the Bearcats (5-0) into Big East champs. The Bearcats won their fourth straight over Miami (0-5) in front of the biggest crowd at Yager Stadium in six years. Tony Pike had a so-so game, going 23 of 42 for 270 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. The senior came in with 70.5 percent completion percentage, but repeatedly forced throws against a defense stacked to stop the pass. Ramsey became the first Bearcat to run for 100 yards since 2007 and the 15th in school history to score three touchdowns in a game. His 2-yard run with 11:35 remaining gave the Bearcats a 30-13 lead. Miami’s Zac Dysert, a redshirt freshman making his second start, did quite a Ben Roethlisberger impersonation and kept the RedHawks in the game. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound quarterback was as elusive as Big Ben, who led the RedHawks to their last win over a Top 25 team in 2003 and has his name and number honored on a brick column below the videoboard. Dysert slipped away from two tacklers in the backfield and threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to tailback Andre Bratton that cut it to 23-13 late in the third quarter. Then, Miami took a big gamble and tried an onside kick that bounced its way. Dysert led the RedHawks to the 3-yard line, getting the Miami fans in the mixed-allegiance crowd of 23,493 on their feet. The first Top 10 team to play at Yager Stadium ended the comeback there. J.K. Schaffer intercepted Dysert’s pass into the crowded end zone. Crestfallen, the RedHawks fell apart. Dysert ended up being sacked 10 times and finished 33 of 47 for 286 yards.

Associated Press