Sports
Ohio Northern Holds Marietta Scoreless, 45-0
By: Justin Holbrock
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Homecoming weekend was even sweeter for the Ohio Northern Polar Bears, as they defeated the Marietta Pioneers, 45-0. The Pioneers’ inability to score on offense remains a problem, while the Polar Bears relied on the passing game once again to end their two-game losing streak.
Both teams started the game slow with Ohio Northern leading only 3-0 at the end of the first quarter. From there, the Polar Bears broke away from Marietta, scoring 21 unanswered points in the second quarter, including a 70-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Patrick Angle to receiver Devon Price with 1:30 remaining before halftime.
After career games in last week’s 38-17 loss to Baldwin Wallace, Angle and Price stepped up once again and came up with a dominating win. Angle completed 14 of his 27 passes for 253 yards and three touchdowns, while his go-to receiver, Price, caught half of those 14 completions for 152 yards.
The Pioneers, however, did not experience the same success in the passing game. Quarterback Tom Fulton threw for only 62 yards and no touchdowns for the second week in a row. Fulton was also intercepted twice by Ohio Northern, which gives him five interceptions in the past two years against the Polar Bears.
Although the passing game has proved to be unreliable, Marietta can still find some sort of positive light out of this week’s loss. Running back duo Tim Conner and Roger Bush combined for 216 yards rushing and consistently moved the chains for the Pioneers.
After only 31 yards rushing in last week’s 62-7 loss to John Carroll, Connor came back strong this week and picked up 118 yards on the ground. Bush also rushed for over 90 yards for the second straight week and has proved himself as an offensive weapon for the Pios.
Marietta will need its running game to remain strong as it hopes to pick up its first win of the season next week against the winless Wilmington Quakers.
Kickoff from Marietta is slated for 1:30 pm. at Don Drumm Stadium between these Ohio Athletic Conference foes looking to end their losing streaks.