Football: Otterbein (3-0 Overall, 2-0 OAC) at Ohio Northern (1-1 Overall, 0-1 OAC)

Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017, 1:30 pm - Dial-Roberson Stadium, Ada, Ohio

| Game Notes (.pdf) | 

Saturday's Contest: is the second home game of the 2017 season for Ohio Northern, which is in its 123rd football season. It is also Homecoming Weekend at ONU. 

ONU Head Coach Dean Paul: Paul in his 14th season at ONU with a 90-46 record. He is 129-58 in 18 seasons overall and is 10-3 against OU.

HU head coach Tim Doup: Doup is in his 7th season at OU with a 30-23 record. He is 1-5 vs. Ohio Northern.

Homecoming Heroes: ONU has won 13 of its last 20 Homecoming games. In 93 previous Homecoming games, Northern has a 48-41-4 mark. ONU defeated Muskingum 44-3 on Homecoming in 2016.

ONU Last Week: QB Will Freed threw for 289 yards and 3 TDs to WR Chad Rex to lead Ohio Northern in a 40-21 loss to Heidelberg at Dial-Roberson Stadium. Freed hit Rex on TD passes of 2, 55 and 3 yards, but the Heidelberg offense picked up 655 yards of total offense to spoil Northern's home-opener. Rex finished the day with six receptions for a career-high 144 yards. Defensively for ONU, S Greg Dennis had a career-high 10 tackles and S Andrew Valenti had a career-high 9 tackles and a blocked PAT in his first career start. ONU RB Christiaan Williams carried 21 times for 73 yards, marking the first time in his 11-game career that he was held under 100 yards rushing. He did catch five passes for 44 yards, giving him 117 all-purpose yards and marking the 11th consecutive game he surpassed the 100-yard all-purpose yardage mark. Heidelberg out-gained Ohio Northern 655-372 in total offense, but ONU won the time of possession battle 31:17 to 28:43.

ONU Leaders: The ONU running game is led by All-OAC RB Christiaan Williams (56 att, 255 yards, 1 TDs). All-OAC QB Will Freed is 44 of 68 passing for 584 yards and 6 TDs. WR Chad Rex (12 rec, 245 yards, 4 TDs), RB Rodney Holmes (9 rec, 75 yards) and RB Christiaan Williams (9 rec, 59 yards) lead the receiving corps. LB Mark Niles, S Greg Dennis, LB Zach Schmerge and CB Cyler Caldwell lead the defense with 18, 15, 12 and 12 tackles, respectively. Niles and DL Justin Croswell lead the team with one sack each.

OU Last Week: Otterbein remained perfect on the young season, flying past visiting Wilmington 56-28 as part of Homecoming weekend. OU opened a 28-0 lead by halftime and finished the day with 466 yards of total offense. The Cards needed just two plays to score on their opening possession, as QB Logan Stepp hit WR Julian Lowe on a 39-yard TD pass. Otterbein proceeded to build the lead from that point with 3 more TDs before intermission. Stepp was involved in all three, finding TE Josh Plieninger on a 6-yard pass, punching a short one in himself on fourth-and-goal, and then hitting Lowe on a quick strike near the goal line a bit later.

OU Leaders: The OU running game is led by QB Logan Stepp (34 att, 208 yards, 4 TDs) and RB Christian Johnson (47 att, 177 yards, 2 TDs). QB Logan Stepp is 57 of 78 passing for 936 yards and 10 TDs. WR Julian Lowe (22 rec., 316 yards, 3 TDs) and WR Junter Joseph (18 rec., 356 yards, 4 TDs) lead the OU receivers. S Fred Hargrove, LB Jake Harper and LB Austin Jones lead the defense with 29, 25 and 20 tackles, respectively. LB Steven Masters leads OU with 3.0 sacks.

ONU Statistical Leaders:

All-Time Series: ONU leads the series between the two schools by a 37-19 margin. ONU has won 4 straight and 6 of the last 7, including a 16-10 win in Westerville last season. ONU is 17-12 at home overall and is 5-1 in games played in Dial-Roberson Stadium.