Fourth quarter comeback leads Football to a thrilling 34-33 Homecoming victory over Marietta
By Tim Glon
ADA — Senior Brody Hahn (Louisville) hit senior Austin Eick (Rossford) on a 9-yard touchdown pass with 18 seconds left to cap a furious fourth quarter rally and lift the Ohio Northern football team to a 34-33 Homecoming victory over Marietta on Saturday afternoon at Dial-Roberson Stadium.
The Polar Bears improve to 4-1 overall and are 3-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Pioneers fall to 2-2, 2-1.
Trailing 33-24 in the fourth quarter, Hahn drove ONU 52 yards in nine plays for a 40-yard field goal by senior Dom DiFalco (Murraysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) with 8:33 left in the game to get the hosts within 33-27.
Northern then drove to the MC 22-yard line on its next possession, but turned the ball over on downs with 4:32 to play.
The Pioneers marched to the Polar Bear 32-yard line, but the ONU defense got a stop on 4th-and-7 and Northern had one last chance with 68 yards to go for the winning touchdown and only 57 seconds and no timeouts left to do it.
Hahn hit senior James McDougald (Bowie, Md./Bridge Tutorial) on completions of 9, 8 and 18 yards and Northern was at the Marietta 33 with 35 seconds left.
Hahn the scrambled for 24 yards to the 9 and the Polar Bears had it first and goal with 27 ticks to go.
On second and goal, Hahn hit Eick on a fade route and Eick hauled it in with a spectacular catch in the corner of the end zone for the game-winner.
Sophomore Ed Manning (Sanford, Fla./Seminole) intercepted MC two plays later to clinch the victory.
Hahn finished the day 24-of-44 passing for 441 yards and four touchdowns.
Senior Chase Rose (Kenton/Upper Scioto Valley) caught seven passes for 150 yards and Eick finished with six receptions for 123 yards and three TDs for ONU.
"We did a great job of keeping our poise down the stretch," ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "We got ourselves in some bad spots with some dumb plays and penalties, but give Marietta credit for taking advantage of the momentum swings. We talk about standing tall when things are not going our way and we did a great job with that in the fourth quarter and came away with a big Homecoming win."
Running back Bryce Agnew ran 32 times for 148 yards and a score and caught four passes for 109 yards, including an 83-yard touchdown pass, for MC.
Northern scored twice in the final 1:27 of the first half to lead 17-7 at intermission.
Senior Jack DiMario (Dayton/Alter) caught a 54-yard touchdown pass from Hahn with 1:27 left to cap an 8-play, 80-yard drive to put Northern up 10-7.
DiFalco then pooched the ensuing kickoff and sophomore Nick Tangeman (Maria Stein/Marion Local) recovered the ball on the first bounce at the MC 25.
Five plays later, Hahn hit Eick on for a 9-yard TD pass with 27 seconds left and it was 17-7.
The game was delayed 40 minutes due to lightning just three plays into the third quarter.
Marietta came out of the delay and scored four touchdowns in a span of 13:33 to lead 33-24 with 11:27 left in the game.
Northern had an 80-yard TD pass from Hahn to Eick to give ONU a 24-20 lead in the middle of MC's 27-7 run.
Junior Josh Bever (Ashland) had 11 tackles and a sack and senior Jarrett Sitton (Paulding) had 10 tackles to lead the ONU defense.
Ohio Northern out-gained MC in total offense 507-463.
The Polar Bears will have next week off and will return to action Oct. 16 at John Carroll.
