Football gets dominating performance in 41-0 victory at Heidelberg

Gabe Washington

By Tim Glon

| Box Score |

TIFFIN — Ohio Northern used dominating performances on both sides of the ball to post a 41-0 Ohio Athletic Conference football victory on  a perfect Saturday afternoon at Frost-Kalnow Stadium.

The Polar Bears improve to 1-4 overall and are 1-3 in OAC play, while the Student Princes fall to 1-4, 0-4.

The game can be seen tape-delayed on SportsTime Ohio Saturday night at 8 pm and again Sunday morning at 5 am.

Gabe Washngton had a career-high 15 tackles and a fumble recovery to lead an outstanding defensive effort as ONU posted its first shutout since a 42-0 win over Millikin (Ill.) in last season's opener.

Northern's defense forced five Heidelberg turnovers and registered eight quarterback sacks on the day.

Brent Donley ran 19 times for 102 yards and a career-high three TDs to lead the ONU offense. He has now rushed for 100 yards in consecutive games after gaining 105 yards last week against Muskingum.

Max Rothacker had a solid game in his second career start, completing 13 of 17 passes for 138 yards and a TD. Brook Crawford caught six passes for a career-high 99 yards and a score and Kenton Sneed carried 15 times for 88 yards for the Polar Bears.

"We got a few breaks and were able to take advantage of them," ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "Washington playted very fast today. He's been nursing some minor injuries and was healthy today and he showed what he's capable of. Donley ran hard and Rothacker made good decisions all day. We played well on both sides of the ball."

Northern led 14-0 on Donley TD runs of 2 and 1 yards in the first 16:44 of the game.

The big play of the game came when Rothacker hit Crawford on a 2-yard TD pass as time expired in the first half to make it 21-0. Northern has now scored in the final minute of the half in four of its five games this season.

The defense dominated from there, limiting HC to two first downs and 64 yards of total offense in the final 30 minutes.

Rothacker ran in from 1-yard out on an option play to make it 28-0 Polar Bears with 2:02 gone in the third period.

The drive was set up by a Washington fumble recovery at the HC 43-yard line on the first play of the second half.

Donley raced in from 25 yards out with 9:40 left in the game to put ONU up 34-0.

Connor Warye ended the scoring when he swept in from 6 yards out for a TD with 2:44 left in the game.

Northern out-gained Heidelberg 384-167 in total offense, had a 21-10 advantage in first downs and held the ball for 32:16 in the game.

Jon Griffo had a team-high 2.0 sacks to go with his four tackles and Chane Porter added 1.5 sacks and six tackles for the ONU defense.

Andrew Miller completed 11 of 26 passes for 138 yards to lead the Student Princes.

The Polar Bears return home for Homecoming next weekend when they play host to Marietta at 1:30 pm at Dial-Roberson Stadium.