Late field goal gives Muskingum a 33-31 victory over Football

By Tim Glon

ZANESVILLE — Muskingum's Hunter Albers kicked a 23-yard field goal with 27 seconds left to edge Ohio Northern 33-31 in an Ohio Athletic Conference football shootout on Saturday night at Zanesville High School's Sulsberger Stadium.

Senior Brody Hahn (Louisville) completed 23-of-39 passes for 327 yards and a score and ran 10 times for 51 yards and two TDs to lead the Polar Bears (1-1 overall, 0-1 OAC).

Senior Austin Eick (Rossford) caught a career-high 14 passes for a career-high 193 yards for ONU as well.

Jordan Garrett completed 25-of-36 passes for 336 yards and a score and ran 16 times for 32 yards and two scores to pace the Muskies (2-0, 1-0 OAC).

Hahn hit senior Chase Rose (Kenton/Upper Scioto Valley) on a 10-yard TD strike with 10:50 left in the game to give the Polar Bears a 31-30 lead.

After a change of possessions, the Muskies took over at their own 45 with 3:45 left in the game and drove 49 yards in eight plays for the winning field goal by Albers.

Hahn hit Eick on three consecutive passes to get ONU to its own 47 with three seconds left, but a hail mary pass as time expired was knocked away and MU held on for the win.

Each team scored on its first two possessions as a 4-yard run by senior All-American Brock Martin (Attica/Seneca East) and a 1-yard run by Hahn kept ONU on pace with the hosts.

After the Polar Bear defense forced the Muskies first punt of the season in the second quarter, senior Dom DiFalco (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) kicked a 29-yard field goal to put Northern up 17-14.

The Muskies scored with 27 seconds left in the second to lead 20-17 at halftime.

Northern took the second half kickoff and scored when Hahn ran in from 7-yards out and it was 24-20 Polar Bears with four minutes gone in the half.

Muskingum then converted a fourth and goal at the ONU 2 to grab a 27-24 lead, then kicked a field goal to make it 30-24 with 2:15 left in the third quarter.

Martin finished the night with 261 all-purpose yards, as ran 19 times for 75 yards and a score, caught two passes for 23 yards and returned six kickoffs for 163 yards.

Defensively, senior Jevon Taylor (Fort Wayne, Ind./North) had seven tackles to lead Ohio Northern.

MU edged ONU in total offense 469-467.

The game was played on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our country. The attacks happened on a Tuesday morning that year, but Ohio Northern and all of the OAC schools chose to keep playing that week in defiance of the terrorists.

That Saturday night, ONU and Muskingum met in a night contest in New Concord, with ONU winning 38-14.

The Polar Bears will return to action Saturday afternoon with a 3 pm contest at Wilmington.