Kurtis Rourke, Ty Son Lawton combine for 4 TDs to help unbeaten Indiana rout Charlotte 52-14

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Kurtis Rourke threw one touchdown pass, ran for another and Ty Son Lawton rushed for two more scores Saturday as the Indiana Hoosiers routed the Charlotte 49ers 52-14.

Indiana is 4-0 for just the third time since 1991 and only the eighth time in school history. Curt Cignetti also became the first coach to open his Hoosiers career with four consecutive wins.

Charlotte (1-3) kept it close through the first 21 minutes but allowed two TDs in the final three minutes of the first half and another to open the second half and it never recovered.

The Hoosiers asserted themselves quickly, too.

Fourteen of their first 15 snaps were in Charlotte territory with Lawton scoring on an 8-yard run to open the scoring and Nicolas Radicic capping Indiana's second drive with a 27-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead a little less than 11 minutes into game.

Charlotte finally answered with a 13-yard TD run from C.J. Stokes.

But after the teams traded two more TDs, Indiana broke the game open with Rourke's 12-yard scoring run and a 19-yard scoring strike from Rourke to Ke'Shawn Williams in the final four minutes of the first half to take a 31-14 lead. Lawton sealed it with a 5-yard TD run with 12:13 left in the third quarter.

Rourke, the Big Ten's reigning offensive player of the week, finished 16 of 20 with 258 yards and ran four times for 32 yards. Lawton carried seven times for 35 yards and Justice Ellison finished with nine carries for 58 yards. The Hoosiers had six different players score TDs and finished with 510 total yards.

Charlotte quarter Trexler Ivey finished 14 of 23 with 119 yards and one TD. Cartevious Norton ran 11 times for 58 yards.

“I guess we could have scored a TD on that one drive,” Cignetti said at halftime. "Those two scores at the end of the half are (good). But it's far from perfect, trust me. We've got to play with more energy, sharper, we're not playing great."

Charlotte: It's been a rough stretch for the 49ers, who are 7-21 since the 2022 season and have only one Power Four win in school history. But they hung around for most of the first half. It still might be another long season in Charlotte, but the strong start was promising.

Indiana: It's already been a storybook season for the Hoosiers, who have now surpassed last year's victory total, moved within two wins of becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 2020 and have a shot to go 5-0 for just the third time ever (1910 and 1967).

Indiana started the week averaging the sixth-highest points per game total (50.0) in the FBS. While they increased that average to 50.4 Saturday, it doesn't tell the whole story.

When Indiana beat Western Illinois 77-3 in Week 2, it was the highest single-game scoring total in the 140-year-old history of the program. Saturday's victory also gave Indiana its most points in any four-game stretch in school history (202).

The 49ers wound up running 33 times for 137 yards despite being without their two key runners for most of the game.

Terron Kellman sat out for the second straight week with an undisclosed injury, and Stokes did not return after hurting his shoulder in the first half.

Charlotte: Visits Rice next Saturday.

Indiana' Hosts Maryland in its Big Ten opener.

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