Football rallies with two fourth quarter touchdowns for thrilling 42-41 victory at Capital

COLUMBUS — Ohio Northern scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to rally for a 42-41 victory at Capital on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (4-2 Overall, 3-2 OAC), Capital (0-6 Overall, 0-5 OAC)
• Venue: Bernlohr Stadium - Columbus, Ohio.

The Game

• Junior Louie Blasiole (Mantua/Crestwood) banged in from 22 yards out with 2:36 left in the game to complete the comeback and give ONU a 42-41 lead.
• Junior Myles Aldrich (Lima/Shawnee) then iced the game with an interception at the Ohio Northern 49-yard line with 1:12 left in the contest.
• Trailing 41-28, Northern scored on a 21-yard TD pass from junior Sam Feldman (Springboro) to junior Matt McKeown (Brighton, Mich.) to get within 41-35 with 9:33 left.
• Blasiole finished the day with 133 yards rushing on 22 carries and two TDs.
• Sophomore Jordan Pettaway (Oregon/Clay) ran 13 times for 108 yards and returned a kickoff 93 yards for a TD. Pettaway finished the day with 280 all-purpose yards.
• Feldman completed 21-of-32 passes for a career-high 304 yards and three TDs.
• Capital took a 14-0 lead with a 63-yard TD pass and a 94-yard fumble recovery for a score in the first 13 minutes of the game.
• Feldman hit junior Jamar Grace (Dekalb, Miss./Kemper County) on a 66-yard TD pass and it was 14-7 with 58 seconds left in the first.
• After a Capital field goal extended the lead to 17-7, Pettaway returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for a TD to make it 17-14 with 9:49 left in the half.
• CU answered with 38-yard TD pass and a 34-yard field goal to go up 27-14 with 2:33 left in the second.
• Pettaway returned the next kickoff 72 yards to the CU 14, setting up a 2-yard TD run by Blasiole to get ONU within 27-21 at intermission.
• Feldman put the Polar Bears on top 28-27 with 7:06 left in the third when he hit sophomore Seth Borondy (Bellbrook) on a 10-yard touchdown pass.
• Capital went over the top on back-to-back possessions, scoring TDs on pass plays of 53 and 65 yards, to grab a 41-28 lead with 2:20 left in the third.
• Defensively, junior Cooper Braden (Orange City, Fla./University) had 10 tackles and senior All-American Dalton Tjong (Cumming, Ga.) had 9 tackles.
• The Polar Bears out-gained the Comets in total offense 555-445 as the two teams combined for exactly 1,000 yards of offense.

Notables

• ONU leads the series between the two schools by a 46-25-1 margin. ONU leads the series 21-14-1 in Columbus.
• ONU has now won 16 of the last 17 games in the series.
• Today's game was the sixth of 10 in the 130th season of football at Ohio Northern. Ohio Northern is now 562-523-36 all-time, a winning percentage of .517.
• Pettaway has gained 674 yards this season on just 64 carries and leads the nation with an average of 10.5 yards per carry.
• Andy Fries is in his first season as head coach at ONU with a 4-2 record.
• Northern is now 2-1 on the road this season.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action Oct. 26 with a 1:30 pm home contest with No. 3-ranked Mount Union.