Ohio Northern tops Heidelberg 35-10 on Senior Day

By Tim Glon

ADA — The Ohio Northern football team honored its 19 seniors in grand style, posting a 35-10 Senior Day victory over Heidelberg Saturday afternoon at Dial-Roberson Stadium.

The Polar Bears improve to 6-3 overall and are 5-3 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Student Princes fall to 3-6, 2-6.

Freshman quarterback Kyle Simmons led Ohio Northern by completing 16-of-22 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns in his first career start.

The Polar Bears crossed into Heidelberg territory on every possession except their final one when they kneeled on the ball to run out the clock, reaching at least the HC 41-yard line the first 12 times they had the ball.

Ohio Northern got on the board first when R.J. Meadows scored on a 12-yard run to make it 7-0 with 7:02 left in the half.

For the second year in a row, Heidelberg scored its first points of the game on a field goal on the final play of the first half. This year, Jesse Hawkins nailed a 47-yard field goal to make it 7-3 at intermission.

Simmons hit Ben Wittwer on a 6-yard TD pass to give ONU a 14-3 lead with 5:59 left in the third period.

The Student Princes answered immediately, pulling within 14-10 on a 8-yard pass from Steve West to Joe Richardson with 2:59 left in the third.

Northern put the game away with three touchdowns over the next 12:17.

Adam Bogner plowed in from two yards out to give the Polar Bears a 21-10 lead with 21 seconds left in the third period.

Simmons then hit Stephen Gill on a 31-yard TD strike to push the lead to 28-10 with 8:50 left in the game.

Tarry Summers then scored on an 8-yard run with 3:04 left in the game to cap the scoring.

Bogner ran 17 times for 82 yards and a score and Meadows ran 20 times for 75 yards and a score.

Steve West completed 12-of-5 passes for 123 yards and a TD and Aaron Johnhenry ran 16 times for 62 yards for HC.

Ohio Northern struggled in the red zone on the day, turning the ball over four times inside the Heidelberg 20-yard line and missed a field goal on another trip inside the 20.

“I was disappointed on the way we played in the compete zone,” ONU head coach Dean Paul. “But I was very happy with the way we maintained our composure and capitalized on our opportunities in the second half. We had a good defensive effort today against a very good offensive team. Our offense played well, but we had too many turnovers and need to finish drives. Kyle Simmons played well in his first start as a freshman.”

The Polar Bears rolled up 460 yards of total offense and the ONU defense limited Heidelberg to only 229 yards of total offense.

Josh Horn and Chris Stone led the Ohio Northern defense with nine and eight tackles, respectively.

Chris Strawser had a team-high 13 tackles for Heidelberg.

The Polar Bears will conclude their 2007 season next Saturday with a 1:30 pm OAC contest at Wilmington.