ASHLAND — Lee Owens doesn’t know how to describe it, but Ashland University’s longtime coach knows it when he sees it.
And Owens sees it in redshirt freshman quarterback Austin Brenner.
Making just his third collegiate start, Brenner completed 17 of 29 passes for 227 yards and tossed his first two career touchdown passes as the Eagles hammered Northwood 35-10 in front of a Homecoming crowd of more than 3,500 fans Saturday at Jack Miller Stadium.
“He has that ‘it’ factor at the quarterback position where he makes guys around him better than what they are just because of how he plays,” Owens said. “It gets better every week. His ceiling is extremely high and he’s nowhere close to being as good as a quarterback as I think he has a chance to be.”
The Eagles (2-2, 2-0 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) took the opening kickoff and marched 90 yards on eight plays and took a 7-0 lead on Luke Ogi’s 4 yard touchdown run. It was the first of two Ogi TDs on the day.
“The offensive line did a great job. We have a young group up front, but they’ve done a great job every game,” said Ogi, a West Holmes graduate. “They’re just getting better and better. Every game I’ve noticed a difference.”
The Eagles extended their lead to 14-0 on their second possession, going 85 yards on six plays. Freshman Ronald Lee capped the drive with a 1 yard run. Ogi’s 21 yard run early in the second gave AU a 21-0 lead.
“That’s what we needed to do against this offense,” Owens said of Northwood’s clock-eating triple option attack. “We were going to have limited possessions so we needed to make sure we cashed in.”
While the offense was firing on all cylinders, Ashland’s stingy defense limited the Timberwolves (0-4, 0-2) to just 152 total yards. Northwood managed just 44 yards after halftime.
“It’s kind of hard to defend the triple option. You’ve got to defend all three parts of it: the dive, the pitch and the quarterback (keeper),” said AU linebacker Clay Shreve, who had a team-high 11 tackles and two sacks. “We don’t really see it a whole lot. We saw it last year versus Harding (in the second round of the NCAA playoffs) and these guys.
“You can’t run your normal stuff. You have to put in basically a completely new defense.”
Leading 21-3 at the half, AU put it away when Brenner hooked up with Kamaron Green for a pair of second-half touchdown passes. The duo connected on a 25 yarder midway through the third and added a 5 yarder early in the fourth.
“It’s a learning process every week,” said Brenner, who came into Saturday’s game with the top competition percentage in all of Division II (72.3 percent). “Every week is something new. It’s just been fun being able to be out there with the guys and being able to do our thing.”
