No. 11 ONU holds off Otterbein 27-14

By Tim Glon

ADA — No. 11 Ohio Northern built a 27-0 halftime lead and held on for a 27-14 victory at Otterbein Saturday evening at Memorial Stadium.

The Polar Bears improve to 4-0 overall, 3-0 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Cardinals fall to 1-3, 1-2. ONU has now won six consecutive games, dating to last season.

R.J. Meadows ran 15 times for 82 yards and Trevis Stephens ran 14 times for 74 yards to lead ONU. Ben Wittwer caught nine passes for 97 yards and Jeff Pankratz completed 17-of-35 passes for 177 yards and two TDs.

Paul Stelzer completed 13-of-29 passes for 111 yards and a TD for OC.

The Polar Bears got on the board first when Pankratz hit Brook Crawford on a 15-yard TD strike with 7:07 gone in the contest. Steve Gunter set up the score with a 24-yard return of an interception, giving ONU the ball at the OC 28-yard line. The extra point failed because of a bad snap and the Polar Bears led 6-0.

Meadows ran in from 26 yards out on the first play of the second quarter. He then ran it in for the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 14:53 left in the half. Michael Busch set ONU up with another short field, returning a punt 49 yards to the OC 33-yard line.

Gunter set the Polar Bears up at the OC 14-yard line after blocking an Otterbein punt on the ensuing possession.

Pankratz hit Meadows on a 14-yard TD strike one play later and it was 21-0 Ohio Northern with 12:34 left in the half.

Jake Heaphy drilled a 40-yard field goal on ONU's next possession. The Polar Bears marched 46 yards in 11 plays to go up 24-0 with 4:29 left in the half.

Northern then executed its 2-minute drill to perfection, marching 40-yards in six plays in 29 seconds, and went up 27-0 at intermission on a 27-yard field goal by Heaphy as time in the half expired.

The third quarter was all Cardinals, as the hosts scored on a 2-yard run by Eric Yates and a 15-yard TD pass from Stelzer to Mike Detwiler to make it 27-14 with 4:17 left in the third.

The Ohio Northern defense would stiffen and hold the Cardinals at bay the rest of the way as Northern would extend its winning streak over Otterbein to 18 games.

"We played pretty well and were in control in the first half," ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "Give Otterbein credit, they got the momentum back in the second half and kept playing hard. I was proud of the way we responded, especially defensively, in the fourth quarter. We need to do a better job of finishing drives and getting touchdowns when we get close, but this was a good win."

Gabe Washington led the Polar Bear defense with nine tackles and a sack.

ONU recorded five sacks in the game and held OC to 193 yards of total offense, marking the 15th time in the last 16 games that ONU held its opponents under 300 yards to total offense.

The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday when they play host to No. 1-ranked Mount Union at 1:30 pm at Dial-Roberson Stadium.