Football falls at Denison 42-13 in 2019 season opener
By Tim Glon
GRANVILLE — The Ohio Northern football team opened its 2019 season with a 42-13 non-conference loss at Denison on a beautiful Saturday night at Piper Stadium.
The Polar Bears (0-1) opened the scoring on the second play of the second quarter when senior Anthony McFadden (Chillicothe/Paint Valley) hit sophomore Austin Eick (Rossford) on a 6-yard pass to go ahead 6-0.
The Big Red (1-0) answered with three touchdowns, including two in the final 3:04 of the half, to take a 21-6 lead into intermission.
DU scored just 1:28 into the second half and went ahead 35-6 on a fifth touchdown at the 14:12 mark of the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Junior All-American Christiaan Williams (Sidney/Anna) ran 18 times for 59 yards and McFadden was 9-for-17 passing for 100 yards and ran 20 times for 64 yards and a score to lead the ONU offense.
"We knew coming in that Denison would be a good team," ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "We struggled on the line of scrimmage and they hit a few big plays which hurt us. I told our players to be disappointed, but not discouraged."
McFadden made it 35-13 on a five-yard run with 11:47 left in the game.
Denison out-gained ONU 453-224 and stopped the Northern offense four times on fourth down, all in the first half.
Senior Mark Niles (Miramar, Fla.) had 13 tackles and a fumble recovery and senior David Haseleu (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) had 11 tackles to lead the ONU defense.
The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday with a 1:30 pm kickoff at Muskingum in the Ohio Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
