Incredibull!

Heavy rain, sloppy mud and big time losing streaks made no difference to the Buffalo Bulls, who were able to capture their first victory of the year and create one of the more emotional scenes at UB in recent history on Saturday.

After a close hard fought game against Marshall last week, the UB Bulls (1-8, 1-4 Mid-American Conference) made sure there was no letdown this week as they overcame an early 14-0 deficit to defeat the Ohio Bobcats 26-17.

It was the Bulls first home win - and MAC win - since beating Ohio in 2001 by a score of 44-0.

There were only 4,423 in attendance, but those who came witnessed another solid game for the second week in a row by the Bulls who smoldered their nation-leading 18-game losing streak.

This time the Bulls completed the comeback and finally were able to celebrate a win with a few of the students in the crowd who rushed to the field to help celebrate with the players in a feel good moment for all involved as they jumped for joy and celebrated on the 50-yard line.

"Right now this is the best feeling in the world," said UB's quarterback P.J. Piskorik. "You put in so many hours, and it is basically a job even though we go to school ... and to get that victory, there is no words to explain how it feels."

As amazing as the game turned out to be for Buffalo, things did look pretty bleak as hope seemed to be slipping for the Bulls when Piskorik was injured on the third play of the second half with UB still only trailing 14-7.

Randall Secky came in and was looking ineffective at QB all the way to the beginning of the fourth, as the Bulls offense went three and out on two straight series from the end of the third to the start of the fourth.

But the defense made a huge stand during that stint, with Lamar Wilcher sacking Ohio quarterback Ryan Hawk on a first down, and then tipping a third down pass that was eventually intercepted and returned to the OU seven-yard line by Buffalo's Phil Jacques.

UB's offense could not completely capitalize however, as the Bulls were forced to kick a field goal after failing to cash into the endzone. The Dallas Pelz field goal made the score 14-10.

Despite cutting the lead for the moment, a dose of healthy offense was severely needed because the Bobcats would add another field goal to put the lead back at seven.

So it was only natural that Piskorik made a Willis Reed-like entrance back to the game as the crowd of 4,000-plus roared for his arrival back into the huddle.

Little did they know that Piskorik was about to lead the Bulls on an epic 93-yard touchdown drive.

"I don't know if it was my return or what it was, but we just knew we had a shot," said Piskorik on sparking the team. "We were just clawing and scratching, trying to get a win. We were getting closer as the game went on. It was all heart."

It was Dave Dawson that blasted the Bulls back into the game however, as he cracked off a 50-yard scamper during that drive to bring the Buffalo offense all the way to the Bobcat 31.

"It was set up very well, it was a great call by the coaches ... " said Dawson before head coach Jim Hofher cut him off by saying, "It was better execution than the call, my friend."

Dawson would run for 107 yards on 18 carries for the day, and the 50-yarder was his fourth 50-plus yard run on the season.

With the crowd back on their side, the Bulls got help from a pass interference call on Ohio, and then on a botched bootleg that faked the entire stadium; Piskorik ran it in from six yards and tied the game at 17 after the extra point.

"It was a broken play," said Piskorik. "It was supposed to be an option to the left, I just got lucky. I used my natural instincts and just got lucky."

Not many would believe what happened next.

On the ensuing kickoff Dawson came up huge once again as he drilled the Bobcat's Chris Jackson, forcing a fumble that was recovered by UB's Gemara Williams at the OU 28-yard line.

Buffalo took advantage of their fortunate opportunity and set up Pelz for a 28-yard field goal that he drilled.

A flag was thrown on the play however, and Pelz was then forced to kick a 33-yarder to give Buffalo the lead 20-17. They would never relinquish that lead.

"When it's in close that's not that big a difference," said Hofher on the retry of the field goal. "But still you need poise and have got to say, 'Okay, I gotta do this.'"

The Bulls would add two more field goals and Hofher was given the Gatorade shower from his players, as he and his players tasted victory for the first time in over a year.

"We got the monkey off our back," said Bulls' senior safety Mark Graham, who ended up with an enormous 15 tackles. "We really needed this win and the guys came out and busted their humps."

It started to look like the same old Bulls early on, as UB failed to execute on an attempted fake field goal from the Ohio 28 as Secky was sacked for a 10-yard loss.

The Bobcats scored on the resulting series after Ohio quarterback Fred Ray completed a key third down pass for 36 yards to Adam Porter all the way down to the UB 14. On the very next play, Ray ran it in from 14 yards for an early 6-0 first quarter lead after the extra point was blocked.

Ohio added more points early in the second quarter as Ray connected with Ray Huston for a 28-yard touchdown and gave the Bobcats a 12-0 lead.

They would add a safety the immediate series after, as Piskorik was called for intentional grounding in the end zone.

All of a sudden the Bobcats had a 14-0 lead and it began to look like another routine day at the office for the Bulls.

UB would strike back though, with Piskorik connecting on a 58-yard touchdown pass to Matt Knueven with 4:11 to go in the quarter to make it 14-7.

"It was just a simple go route and I started to freeze the cornerback to keep on the way down," said Knueven. "I just ran by him and it was just a jump ball and I came down with it. It bounced up and I was still able to take it to the house."

The Bobcats would fumble away the ball their first series after the touchdown with quarterback Austen Everson taking over for Fred Ray who left the game with a bruised right shoulder. The Bulls would not convert from that and both teams would go into the locker room with the Bobcats leading 14-7 at the half.

The UB Bulls will try to continue their winning ways next Saturday night as they travel to Ohio to play Toledo at 7 p.m.