No. 1 Mt. Union downs No. 8 Ohio Northern in battle of top-10 unbeatens

By Tim Glon

ADA — Top-ranked Mount Union downed No. 8-ranked Ohio Northern in a battle of unbeaten top-10 teams Saturday afternoon in front of a Dial-Roberson Stadium record crowd of 5,177.

The Polar Bears fall to 4-1 overall, 3-1 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Purple Raiders improve to 5-0, 4-0 after the 44-0 Mount Union victory on ONU’s Homecoming weekend.

The attendance easily surpassed the previous Dial-Roberson Stadium record crowd of 3,812 that saw ONU defeat Muskingum 31-11 in the Dedication Game of the stadium on Sept. 24, 2004.

Four different players had 11 or more tackles for Ohio Northern, led by Chane Porter with a career-high 14. Lenny Trusnik had 12 tackles, Gabe Washington had a career-high 11 tackles, 2.5 TFL and 1.5 sacks and Jarrod Babik had a career-high 11 tackles and one TFL.

R.J. Meadows ran 15 times for 43 yards and Jeff Pankratz completed 13-of-31 yards for 133 yards to lead Ohio Northern.

The Purple Raiders were led by Justin Wray, who ran eight times for 82 yards and a carer-high four touchdowns.

Nate Kmic ran 17 times for 96 yards and a TD and Greg Micheli competed 18-of-26 passes for 207 yards for MUC.

The Raiders scored on the third play from scrimmage when Wray raced in from 60 yards out to make it 7-0 with just 59 seconds gone.

Terrance Morring scored on a 13-yard run to make it 14-0 with 8:33 left in the opening period.

Kmic scored from 3 yards out, MUC got a safety on a bad snap on a punt and Wray plowed in from a yard out in the second quarter as MUC led 30-0 at halftime.

Wray scored on two more 1-yard plunges in the third quarter to wrap up the scoring.

Northern crossed into Mount Union territory four times on its six second-half possessions, but could not dent the scoreboard.

Mount Union out-gained ONU 526-136 in total offense.

"Mount Union is an outstanding football team," ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "They executed very well and took advantage of our mistakes. We had some positives, but we were not consistent. We had too many breakdowns to be successful in a game like this. We need to get back after it as we've got another big game against another top-10 team next week."

The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday when they travel to No. 6-ranked Capital at Bernlohr Stadium in Columbus.