Football drops 44-14 decision at No. 14-ranked John Carroll
October 14, 2023
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — The Ohio Northern football team dropped a 44-14 decision at No. 14-ranked John Carroll on a wet and windy Saturday afternoon at Don Shula Stadium.
The Basics
- Records: Ohio Northern (1-5, 1-4 OAC), John Carroll (5-1, 5-0 OAC)
- Venue: Don Shula Stadium - University Heights, Ohio
The Game
- Ohio Northern scored on back-to-back possessions to pull within 27-14 early in the third quarter.
- ONU drove 47 yards in six plays to score on a 3-yard TD pass from junior Brennon Norris (Steubenville/Indian Creek) to senior Evan Tekancic (Dublin/Hilliard Davidson) with 42 seconds left in the half.
- The Polar Bears took the second half kickoff and marched 70 yards in 12 plays to score on a 14-yard pass from Norris to senior L.J. Payton (Wheelersburg) with 10:15 left in the third.
- Sophomore Louis Blasiole (Mantua/Crestwood) ran 12 times for 51 yards for the Polar Bears.
- Norris finished 12-of-22 passing for 84 yards and two scores.
- JCU drove into ONU territory on all nine of its full possessions, scoring six touchdowns and going 1-for-3 on field goals.
- Defensively, junior Dalton Tjong (Cumming, Ga./West Forsyth) had 9 tackles and sophomore Terrion Ross (Findlay) had a career-best 8 tackles for Ohio Northern.
- JCU out-gained ONU in total offense 526-176.
Notables
- Dean Paul is in his 20th season as head coach of the Polar Bears with a 118-76 career record at ONU.
- Today's game was the sixth of a string in which five of Ohio Northern's first six 2023 opponents appeared in the D3football.com preseason poll. Mount Union was ranked No. 2, John Carroll was No. 19 and Alma (Mich.) was No. 24. Baldwin Wallace (5 points) and Heidelberg (2 points) also received votes in the poll.
- Senior Josh Bever (Ashland) now has 34 career sacks in 40 career games. He ranks second all-time in ONU history. All-American and 10-year NFL veteran Jason Trusnik holds the school record with 43.0 sacks from 2002-06.
- Bever is also second in ONU history with 49.0 TFL in his career.
Up Next
- The Polar Bears will stay on the road for the third consecutive game when they travel to Muskingum next Saturday for a 2 pm kickoff.