Football turns in dominating defensive performance in 23-14 victory at Marietta

By Tim Glon

MARIETTA — Ohio Northern turned in a dominating defensive performance and posted a 23-14 victory at Marietta on a windy Saturday afternoon at Don Drumm Stadium.

The Polar Bears improve to 5-3 overall and are 4-3 in Ohio Athletic Conference action, while the Pioneers fall to 2-6, 1-6.

ONU's defense played extremely well throughout the contest and especially in the first half, limiting MC to just 12 yards of total offense and zero first downs as the Pioneers went 3-and-out on all seven of its first half possessions.

Northern held MC to just 112 yards of total offense, including just 41 through the air.

"Our defense did a great job all day," ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "We tackled well and swarmed to the ball. We had one blown coverage and that resulted in a touchdown, but other than that we were very happy with our defensive play."

Junior Justin Magazine ran 25 times for 116 yards and a TD to lead the ONU offense and Justin Tello and senior Malcolm Burrell each had seven tackles to lead the stout Polar Bear defense.

Northern got on the board first when junior Matt Chaney drilled a career-long 49-yard field goal with just 3:28 gone in the contest.

On their next possession, junior Andrew DiMario made a 38-yard field goal to give the Polar Bears a 6-0 lead with 7:15 left in the first period.

Magazine plowed in from 3 yards out with 14:09 left in the half to make it 13-0 ONU.

DiMario made it a 16-0 game when he hit a 24-yard field goal with 3:43 left in the half.

Marietta got back into the game when they blocked a punt and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown with just 24 seconds left in the half to pull within 16-8 at intermission.

Northern extended its lead to 23-8 when Angle hit junior Chad Bridges on a 27-yard TD pass with 10:27 left in the third quarter.

The Pioneers finally got their offense moving late in the third period and into the fourth quarter and pulled within 23-14 on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Akil Young to Nick Hineman with 14:15 left in the game.

MC's 2-point conversion pass falied and ONU maintained its two-score lead at 23-14.

Northern's defense limited Marietta to just five yards the rest of the game and ONU had the ball for 11:07 in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday at home against Wilmington on Senior Day at Dial-Roberson Stadium.