John Carroll seemed powerless to stop a potent Ohio Northern ground game in dropping a 35-14 decision to the host Polar Bears in an Ohio Athletic Conference match-up held at Dial-Robertson Stadium in Ada, Ohio.
Box Score
Brent Donley was the star on this afternoon as he set an Ohio Northern record with 44 rushing attempts and gained a career-high 287 yards and scored a pair of touchdownsto lead the No. 20-ranked Polar Bears to its third consecutive win over JCU.
Donley was the story of the day right from the start as he carried the ball on all seven plays as ONU marched 61 yards for a score on its first possession, going up 7-0 with 3:27 gone in the contest when he plowed in from four yards out.
He would give the Polar Bears a 14-0 advantage on the next possession, capping off a five-play drive with a 17-yard run.
ONU led 14-0 half with Donley already sitting at 171 yards.
JCU fell deeper in the hole when the Polar Bears marched 58 yards in 13 plays to go up 21-0 when quarterback Kyle Simmons hit Justin Linzy on a 14-yard touchdown pass with 9:43 showing on the third quarter clock.
The Blue Streaks answered at long last on its first possession of the second half, putting six points on the board when
Aaron Schecter (Athens, OH) ran in his first career touchdown as a Blue Streak from seven yards out.
Bradley Marchese (Columbus, OH, Saint Charles Prep) added an extra point to make the score 21-7 with 2:45 remaining in the third.
From there the teams traded touchdowns. Northern would push the lead back to 21 points on another Simmons to Linzy touchdown pass, this one covering 15 yards, to make the score 28-7 with less than a minute gone in the final quarter.
JCU's answer was a 57 touchdown that was capped off
Jeffrey Javorek (Chesterland, OH, West Geauga) scoring run with 11;31 left in the contest.
But 14 points would be as close as John Carroll would get, as Ohio Northern tacked on a final score midway through the quarter to put the game out of reach.
Ohio Northern (5-2, 4-2 OAC), which began the day tied for fifth place in the OAC with John Carroll, outgained the blue Streaks, 392-351, in total offense, with Donley accounting for all but 105 of those yards.
Vince Calloway was John Carroll's main nemesis on defense, as he had two big interceptions to go along with four tackles.
John Carroll (3-4, 3-3 OAC) was led on offense by Javorek, who finished the game 20 of 34for 181 yards passing and ran for a team-high 43 yards on 10 attempts.
Frank Ross (Canfield, OH, Canfield) followed up his school record 17 catch performance last week with 11 more receptions for 131 yards.
Jonathan Cooley (Gahanna, OH, Lincoln) ,
Zac Hesketh (Madison, OH, Madison) and
Emmett Lydon (Rocky River, OH, Saint Ignatius) all led JCU with nine tackles, with Cooley producing JCU's only turnover with his first career interception.
ONU and had the ball for 32:35 in the contest.