ASHLAND — Ashland University moved into the Top 10 in last week’s Division II football coaches poll. On Saturday night the Eagles looked the part.
Quarterback Austin Brenner threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns and the defense limited Northwood to 230 total yards in ninth-ranked Ashland’s 56-17 win at Jack Miller Stadium.
AU (4-0 overall, 2-0 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference) is one of only two teams in the nine-team league yet to lose a conference game. Tiffin is atop the GMAC standings at 3-0.
With Northwood (2-3, 1-1) committed to slowing down tailback Gei’vonni Washington and AU’s high-powered rushing attack, Brenner was able to pick apart the Timberwolves’ secondary. He completed 17-of-25 passes, including a 31-yard scoring strike to Malik Wooldridge and an 88-yarder to Logan Bolin.
“It makes it a lot easier when you’ve got some stud running backs and some dudes on the outside who will make some plays and then obviously an offensive line that will make things happen and give us some time to throw the ball and get a lot of push up front,” Brenner said.
AU still rushed for 176 yards, but didn’t have any of its typical explosive plays in the run game.
Washington, who came in averaging 7.63 yards per carry, had 59 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 15 carries. Larry Martin added 54 yards and two TDs on 10 attempts, while Eli Potts had 27 yards and a score on nine carries. Fullback Garret Niss, an Ontario product, scored his first collegiate touchdown on a 1-yard plunge in the second quarter, giving AU a 28-0 lead.
“It wasn’t a great day for us running the football … but we want to be more balanced,” AU coach Lee Owens said. “This is a team that was really taking it away from us.
“The linebackers were playing down hill and the safeties were crowding the line of scrimmage so we were able to hit a lot of crossing routes off play-action and Austin had a good day.”
As good as the offense was, the defense was even better.
Linebacker Michael Ayers, who has begun to draw the interest of several NFL scouts, had nine tackles, two sacks and forced a whopping three fumbles. His strip sack of Northwood quarterback Nate Gomez led to the first of Washington’s two short TD runs, a 2-yarder that gave the Eagles a 14-0 lead late in the first quarter.
“I kind of expected to be blocked. I didn’t think I was going to get there free,” Ayers said. “I just tried to make something happen and luckily we recovered the fumble.”
The Eagles led 28-7 at the half and extended the gap to 35-7 early in the third on Wooldridge’s 31-yard TD grab. The Eagles put an exclamation point on the win early the fourth period when Bolin hauled in a short slant, made one would-be tackler miss and outran the rest of the Northwood defense 88 yards for a 49-10 advantage.
“It’s a play we missed on last week and we were upset about,” Bolin said. “We repped it a lot this week. Austin just trusted me and made a good throw and I just broke one tackle. After that, my old legs had to keep going.”
Three of the eight teams in front of AU in the most recent coaches poll lost Saturday, meaning the Eagles will likely inch closer to the top 5 when the next poll comes out early next week.
With a veteran team, Owens doesn’t expect the high ranking to be a distraction.
“They get it. They’re staying in the moment,” Owens said. “It’s not about being undefeated. It’s not about being ninth in the country. They’ve done a great job with that.”
