Sports
Ohio Football wins final non-conference game against Stonehill
By: Eli Baxter
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Ohio football (2-2) hosted FCS opponent, Stonehill (1-4), for their last non-conference game of the regular season. The Bobcats would handily take down the Skyhawks, 35-7.
Stonehill faces their second consecutive MAC opponent after their loss to the UMass Minutemen last week, 36-14. The Skyhawks found themselves in a similar deficit at half as they trailed 14-7.
In the first half, Ohio jumped out to an early lead on only their second drive of the game. They were able to march down the field on the long 14-play drive that began on their own 24-yard line. Matt Vezza found Riley Neer on a 20-yard pass to flip the field. After a Vezza scramble on third down, the Bobcats faced a short fourth down.
Preston Bowman would follow his blockers to move the chains on a short screen pass. Yet again, the Bobcats faced another fourth down. Victor Rosa would push through the line for Ohio’s second fourth-down conversion of the drive. Just a few plays later, Vezza would avoid multiple Skyhawks in the backfield and reach the end zone on an 18-yard scramble.
Stonehill would then run the first quarter clock down to triple zeroes just after reaching the Bobcats side of the field. On the 32-yard line and needing a fourth-down conversion of their own, Jack O’Connell found Cole Clark wide open on the sideline. Clark would reach the end zone, and Stonehill would draw the game level at seven.
It was not even for long as Ohio would score on their next drive. Primarily sticking to the ground with a couple passes to Neer, Rosa would score his first on the day. The Bobcats would carry this lead into the break. Stonehill would stop another Ohio touchdown late in the half with a red zone interception by Chris Gill.
The Skyhawks could not carry the momentum into the second half as they punted their first three drives. Ohio would score two times off of their defensive stops to grow their lead. Vezza would connect with Dom Dorwart for a massive 42-yard touchdown pass to grow the lead to 21-7. Dorwart’s touchdown seemed to flip momentum, and Ohio would pull away.
“I think anytime you hit them over the top, it’s going to loosen them up a bit,” Ohio Head Coach John Hauser said. “They [Stonehill] were playing a lot of two-high, which probably gave us some of the success we had.”
On their next drive, Irving Brown would break free for a 60-yard run before being tackled at the seven-yard line. Vezza would once again run it in to take a 28-7 lead. Rosa would also score twice on the day with a short punch-in to score the last Bobcat score of the day.
Ohio will head to Kent State next Saturday for their first MAC game of the year. The Golden Flashes sit at .500 with a win against Ball State, 26-13 to open MAC play. Last time the Bobcats faced Kent State was in 2024 at Dix Stadium, when Ohio won 41-0.