ATHENS, Ohio – Boo Jackson caught his first career touchdown pass, ran for a touchdown and threw a pair of scoring passes to Terrence McCrae as Ohio wrapped up its home schedule on Senior Night with its sixth straight victory, 34-17, against Buffalo.

“I think (Jackson) displayed his talent in a lot of ways tonight,” Ohio coach Frank Solich said. “The catch he really had to battle for. There are full-time receivers that don't make that catch all the time. I thought he had some great individual plays."

Jackson finished his final game in Peden Stadium by completing 13 of 19 passes for 175 yards with one interception. He added 26 yards rushing and caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Phil Bates on the Bobcats’ second possession for a 14-0 lead.

“It's disappointing,” Buffalo coach Jeff Quinn said. “You got guys in position and they throw a throwback touchdown pass to their quarterback. You're going to have a rough night when your top corner can't cover one of their quarterbacks.”

Jackson scored on a one-yard run on the Bobcats’ first possession, and Ryan Boykin did the same in the second quarter for a 21-0 lead.

Freshman quarterback Alex Zordich threw his first career touchdown pass with 3:06 remaining before halftime, a 17-yard strike to Marcus Rivers.

McCrae's first touchdown of the game came on a 15-yard pass from Jackson with 10:15 remaining in the third quarter.

But the Bulls (2-7, 1-4 Mid-American Conference) made it close with 10 straight points, getting a 34-yard A.J. Principe field goal in the third quarter and a six-yard Zordich run with 12:10 remaining in the game to cut the deficit to 27-17.

Ohio (7-3, 5-1 MAC) put the game away, though, with Jackson and McRae hooking up again on a 15-yard pass on a fourth-and-one play.

“For most of the season I have gotten double coverage with the safety helping out over top,” McCrae said. “They were playing the one free and the safety came down and blew the coverage at the last second. We made it work.”

Buffalo’s offense struggled with just 208 yards. Zordich completed just 8 of 26 passes for 84 yards with two interceptions and he was sacked four times. He also led the team in rushing with 59 yards on 20 attempts.

Donte Harden paced Ohio’s running game with eight carries for 58 yards. Phil Bates, after playing only a handful of plays the last two games, saw significant action and finished with nine carries for 41 yards and was 1 of 2 passing with the touchdown.

Defensively, Stafford Gatling added 1.5 sacks to his season total to give him 6.5 on the year. He also forced a fumble that Dak Notestine recovered late in the first quarter, giving Ohio possession at the Buffalo 25-yard line.

“I guess we came in trying to get pressure on the quarterback and not worry about the rushing lanes, and he would just take off,” Gatling said. “In the second half, we tried to condense as much as we could so he wouldn't have as much room to take off, and it worked out a little bit better for us.”

Jackson threw an interception to give the ball back to the Bulls, however, but an Alphonso Lewis interception led to the Bobcats’ third touchdown.

Zordich also was picked off by Hilton Dawson III to end the first half, while Ohio had the second half’s only turnover, a Jackson fumble that gave Buffalo possession inside the Ohio 10-yard line and led to its first fourth-quarter points of the season.

First place in the MAC East will be on the line in Ohio’s next game, at 8 p.m. Nov. 16 at Temple. It will be broadcast on ESPN2.