DETROIT — It took longer than expected, but three weeks into the season the Ashland University football team secured its first win of the 2018 campaign.
The Eagles traveled to Detroit on Saturday night to earn a 30-21 victory at Wayne State in their 2018 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener.
“This is a tough place to play, a tough place to win,” Ashland head coach Lee Owens said. “(Wayne State head coach) Paul (Winters) does such a great job with his team. It’s a physical game. We’re built kind of the same way he’s built, just to kind of get after each other.”
Ashland is 1-2 overall, 1-0 in the GLIAC, while Wayne State falls to 1-2, 0-1.
The Eagles broke on top first when senior tailback Andrew Vaughn scored on a 4-yard touchdown dash with 3:24 to play in the first quarter.
The Warriors tied the game when quarterback Jake AmRhein fired a 30-yard TD pass to Darece Roberson Jr.
Ashland responded on junior tailback Luke Ogi’s 12-yard TD scamper to make it 14-7. But Wayne State tied it on AmRhein’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Steven Glenn to make it 14-14 at halftime.
Vaughn ripped off a 30-yard scoring run to put the Eagles on top 21-14 in the third quarter.
Sophomore kicker Satchel Denton drilled a 32-yard field goal for a 24-14 margin with 3:26 to play in the period.
Wayne State answered when AmRhein tossed a 27-yard TD pass to Roberson in the fourth quarter to make it 24-21.
Denton tacked on a pair of field goals in the final stanza to ice it.
Vaughn ran for 135 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, while sophomore inside linebacker Ryan Corkrean had seven total tackles, a sack and 2½ tackles for loss.
Ashland hosts winless Northwood (0-3, 0-1) in next week’s Homecoming game.
