GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - Chris Leak threw for 244 yards and three touchdowns in the rain Saturday, leading No. 11 Florida to a 49-10 rout of Eastern Michigan in the Gators' hurricane-delayed season opener. <br>
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Leak, whose 6-3 record was the best of any freshman quarterback in the nation last year, completed 16 of 25 passes before being replaced by Galvin Dickey at the start of the fourth quarter. <br>
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Ciatrick Fason rushed for 105 yards and two TDs, while DeShawn Wynn, O.J Small, Dallas Baker, Billy Latsko and Skyler Thornton all scored once for Florida. <br>
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Leak threw TD passes of 10 yards to Small, 7 yards to Baker and 4 yards to Latsko before setting up Thornton's TD for a 49-10 lead with a 39-yard throw to Chad Jackson to the Eastern Michigan 1. <br>
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Hurricane Frances forced postponement of Florida's scheduled season opener against Middle Tennessee State last week, and Saturday's starting time was moved up five hours to 1 p.m. because of threat posed by approaching Hurricane Ivan. <br>
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The earlier start, however, didn't prevent the teams or announced crowd of 90,009 from experiencing severe weather. <br>
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Lightning delayed the game for 64 minutes midway through the second quarter with Florida leading 14-3. <br>
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Wynn scored on a 2-yard run less than three minutes after play resumed, making it 21-3. Leak threw his TD pass to Small for a 28-10 halftime lead after Eastern Michigan drove 82 yards to score on Matt Bohnet's 20-yard pass to Eric Deslauriers. <br>
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Eastern Michigan (1-1) beat Mid-American Conference rival Buffalo 37-34 in its opener under first-year coach Jeff Genyk by running for 248 yards and getting a solid performance from Bohnet in his debut after transferring from Iowa. <br>
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The Eagles did have some success moving the ball against the Florida defense, marching 91 yards after the opening kickoff to take a 3-0 lead on Andrew Wellock's 23-yard field goal and putting together the 13-play drive that ended with Deslauriers taking a sideline pass from Bohnet and breaking a tackle before scoring. <br>
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But Anthony Sherrell, who rushed for 151 yards against Buffalo and an Eastern Michigan single-season record 1,531 last season, was limited to 24 yards on 16 carries. Bohnet was 19-of-36 for 201 yards with no interceptions, while Deslauriers finished with six receptions for 90 yards. <br>
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Fason's 100-yard game was the second of his career. After scoring Florida's first two touchdowns on runs of 8 and 3 yards, the 215-pound tailback broke a 44-yarder off right tackle to set up Leak's TD pass to Baker.
