Reed Allen returns opening kickoff for a TD, leads Football to 42-7 victory at Muskingum

By Tim Glon

NEW CONCORD -- Junior Reed Allen returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown to jump start Ohio Northern to a 42-7 football victory at Muskingum on a wet Saturday afternoon at McConagha Stadium.

The Polar Bears improve to 5-2 overall and are 4-2 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Muskies fall to 0-7, 0-6.

Allen returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, caught three passes for 18 yards and another score and had 140 yards of total offense to lead Ohio Northern.

In his first career start, sophomore Ricardo Johnson completed 14-of-17 passes for 116 yards and two scores and ran 12 times for 76 yards and a touchdown.

Senior Justin Magazine carried the ball 20 times for 89 yards and two scores and caught three passes for 25 yards and a TD.

Defensively, sophomore Zach Meronoff had a career-high nine tackles and sophomore Zach Schmerge had seven tackles to lead the Northern defense.

"We knew it would be important to get off to a quick start," ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "Allen's return was huge. Muskingum has been in quite a few close games so we wanted to get out front early. We did a decent job of managing the offense. I thought we were very good on defense, which was important part of the game."

Allen returned the opening kickoff 91 yards for a score to give the Polar Bears a 7-0 lead just 14 seconds into the contest. It was his first career kickoff return.

Magazine plowed over from six yards out on the first play of the second period, capping an 11-play, 54-yard drive, to put ONU ahead 14-0.

Johnson swept in from 9 yards out on Northern's next possession and it was 21-0 with 9:07 left in the half.

Johnson then found Allen on a 6-yard touchdown with six seconds left in the half to put Ohio Northern up 28-0 at intermission.

The Polar Bear defense limited the Muskies to 30 yards of total offense and no first downs in the first half, forcing three-and-outs on all six MU possessions.

Northern extended its lead to 35-0 on its first possession of the third period when Johnson hit Magazine on a swing pass for a 10-yard touchdown.

Magazine pounded in from yard out and Northern led 42-0 with 39 seconds gone in the fourth quarter.

Each team had the ball exactly 30 minutes and ONU out-gained MU 274-214 in total offense.

The Polar Bears will return home next Saturday for a Halloween night contest with Marietta at 6 pm at Dial-Roberson Stadium.