ASHLAND — Sixth-ranked Ashland University fought back from its first halftime deficit of the year to nip Ohio Dominican 14-7 on Saturday night and keep its unbeaten season alive at Jack Miller Stadium.
The Eagles (6-0 overall, 4-0 in the Great Midwest) started their game-winning drive on their own 6, and junior tailback Larry Martin finished it with a 6-yard touchdown blast to give the Eagles their first lead of the night with 1:47 remaining.
“Larry just took over on some of those runs (in the last drive),” Ashland coach Lee Owens said. “I’m proud of him.”
Martin finished the game with 66 yards rushing.
“It’s a great win,” Martin said. “Our defense really helped the offense out today, really saved our butts.”
The AU defense forced the Panthers to turn the ball over on downs with just 53 seconds remaining.
“Hats off to the defense and the way they played against a really good passing team from Ohio Dominican,” Owens said.
The Panthers (4-3, 3-2) jumped on top 7-0 in the first quarter when Travis Whittaker scored on a 35-yard run. It stayed that way through halftime.
The Eagles finally answered in the third period when Austin Brenner tossed a 31-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Turnbaugh.
That set up the final sequence.
“It’s a real blessing to be able to coach this game, but when you can coach a bunch of young guys like I do that care about each other, believe in each other…that permeates around the whole team,” Owens said.
“It’s awesome being 6-0, and that’s a really good football team we beat.”
AU puled into a first-place tie with Tiffin, who was idle on Saturday.
Ashland hosts Tiffin next week in the Homecoming game.
For more on Saturday’s game, check out the Ashland University website.
