Sports
Ohio University Football delivers a bounce-back performance in a dominant win over NIU
By: Andrew Bowlby
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Ohio University Football (4-3, 2-1 MAC) played at Peden Stadium for the first time since Sep. 27 hosting Northern Illinois (1-6, 0-3 MAC) Saturday on homecoming weekend.
Following a rough showing against Ball State two weeks ago, the Bobcats offense got going again leading Ohio to a 48-21 win.
“Proud of our team,” head coach Brian Smith said. “I think that they really accepted the message of how we were going to get better and how we were going to respond.”
NIU had the ball first but only went three yards before punting to Ohio. Chase Hendricks returned the punt and got deep into Huskies’ territory setting up the offense with a short field.
The early score marked the eighth-career touchdown in Ohio homecoming games for Bangura.
NIU’s second drive was similar to their first. The Huskies did manage to get a first down but quickly punted the ball back to Ohio.
The Bobcats did not have the field position they had on the first drive, but it didn’t seem to matter. Starting on their own nine-yard line, Navarro began to get the ball to Hendricks. He made catches of 12, 11 and 15 yards to get the drive started.
From there, Navarro linked up with Rodney Harrison on back-to-back plays setting the Bobcats offense up in the red zone again. Once Ohio got inside the NIU 20, they turned back to Bangura who set up a nine-yard Navarro rushing score doubling the Ohio lead.
In just two drives, and 5:54 of game time, Ohio had equaled its point total from the Ball State game.
Things continued in Ohio’s favor as the Bobcats forced another NIU punt and got the ball back for a third time in the first quarter. Ohio got the ball to the five-yard line and handed it off to Bangura who scored for the second time in the half pushing the Bobcats out to a 21-0 lead.
Bangura would add one more score later in the game taking his career total in homecoming games up to 10 total TDs. He also finished the day just one yard shy of a career high on the ground with 147 yards.
“This is when my family comes, so I feel like that plays a part in my energy when I go out on the field,” Bangura said. “Just me going in my head, ‘I’ve got family in the stands, I’ve got to do something’. But I’m still playing within myself and within the team to make sure we get the win.”
On Northern Illinois’ fourth drive of the game the Huskies finally created some positive momentum. It started with a 67-yard kickoff return by Dev’ion Reynolds to the Ohio 20. Just a few plays later Devon Akers scored on a seven-yard rush getting NIU on the board.
The Huskies also converted a two-point attempt making the score 21-8 with the Bobcats ahead.
Both teams had chances to add points at the end of the half, but neither could with Navarro throwing an interception at the end of the half.
While the first came to a bit of a frustrating close, the second got off to a great start. On a third-and-1 play, Duncan Brune got lose running for 66 yards to the house. It was another quick score that put Ohio up 27-8 just over a minute into the third quarter.
After the Bobcats defense forced another three-and-out, Brune was in the end zone again. While it ended with a touchdown, the drive didn’t start with a positive. Hendricks downed the Huskies’ punt at the Ohio three-yard line. In a similar situation against Ball State, Ohio had a safety, against NIU, it was the opposite.
Bangura broke free and got the ball to the other side of the field running for 49 yards before finally being taken down. From there the ball was pushed closer to the goal line and Brune finished it with a four-yard score extending the lead to 34-8.
Brune’s second TD was part of a dominant night in the red zone for Ohio. Two weeks after struggling to convert against BSU, the Bobcats were 5-5 with five touchdowns against NIU.
At that point, it felt like the game was all but over. There would be four more scores, two by each team, resulting in the 48-21 final but all came past the point of the game being competitve.
The most notable of the four scores was Ohio’s second defensive touchdown of the season. Late in the fourth on a quarterback rush, Charlie Christopher punched the ball out and Jalen Thomeson returned it 91 yards to the end zone to put a bow on the victory for Ohio.
The Bobcats finished the game with 333 rushing yards, a season high.
“We can do whatever we want with this team. When we’re running the ball well, I don’t think anyone can stop us in this league,” Navarro said. “I think that just puts confidence behind us every drive that ‘we’re going to go score’”.
“We embraced the fourth quarter mentality of running the ball effectively in the fourth quarter to end the game,” Smith said.
With a win, Ohio improved to 2-1 in MAC play on their final Saturday at Peden Stadium this season. The Bobcats will be back on the road next week facing off with Eastern Michigan to round out the Saturday slate for the season.