The Marietta College football team was denied its first victory of the 2012 campaign Saturday in a 56-14 loss to Ohio Northern at Don Drumm Stadium.
The Polar Bears racked up 535 total yards on the day and forced three turnovers en route to their second victory of the year. Ohio Northern improves to 2-4 while the Pioneers fall to 0-6.
"We broke down in a couple areas in the secondary," said Marietta head coach Jeff Filkovski. "We allowed a couple big plays. We blitzed, and you got to get to the quarterback. He steps up, and we've got a free guy there to make the tackle, and if you miss it everybody is in man to man and now the ball is behind you."
The Polar Bears outgained Marietta 257-66 on the ground. The Pioneers only rushed the ball 26 times in the game compared to 50 times for Ohio Northern. Filkovski said getting down early forced the offense to throw more.
"I'd love to stay in the football game a little bit where you don't have to become one-dimensional and hurry up and try to get back in the game," Filkovski said. "Certainly we've got to finish the drives where we're getting down in there, and that requires running the ball a little bit."
The Polar Bears jumped out to an early 21-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to three yard touchdown runs by Carter Paul and Tate Humphrey, as well as a 55 yard touchdown pass from Humphey to Justin Wilson.
Fact Box
At Don Drumm Stadium
Ohio Northern 56, Marietta 14
ONU 21 21 7 7 - 56
MC 0 7 7 0 - 14
1st quarter:
ONU- Paul 3 run, Matt Chaney kick, 13:57
ONU- Humphrey 3 run, Chaney kick, 6:21
ONU- Wilson 55 pass from Humphrey, Chaney kick, 0:56
2nd quarter:
ONU- Price 74 pass from Humphrey, Chaney kick, Chaney kick, 14:46
MC- Williams 48 pass from Fulton, Conor Durina kick, 13:24
ONU- Paul 2 run, Chaney kick, 9:31
ONU- Paul 2 run, Lee Luckasevic kick, 2:12
3rd quarter:
ONU- Thien 32 pass from Humphrey, Luckasevic kick, 11:59
MC- Harris 6 pass from Fulton, Durina kick, 8:16
4th quarter:
ONU- Payne 4 run, Nick Newman kick, 7:07
Team stats: Rushing: ONU: 50-257; MC: 26-66; Passing: ONU: 15-22-278-0; MC: 26-56-295-3; Total yards: ONU: 535; MC: 361; First downs: ONU: 21; MC: 21; Penalties/yds: ONU: 10/106; MC: 5/39; Fumbles/lost: ONU: 0/0; MC: 0/0; Punts/avg: ONU: 5/34.6; MC: 6/39.7
Individual stats: Rushing: ONU: Paul 23-121, 3tds; Payne 8-49, 1td; Humphrey 10-38, 1td; MC: Tevin Dones 12-57; Alexander Fountain 7-32; Passing: ONU: Humphrey 14-21-271-0, 3tds; Tyler Rue 1-1-7-0; MC: Fulton 25-55-290-3, 2tds; Lucas Havens 1-1-5-0; Receiving: ONU: Price 2-94, 1td; Wilson 5-75, 1td; Thien 2-71, 1td; Kyle Baker 3-20; Paul 1-6; Ryan Malone 1-7; Justin Buenger 1-5; MC: Harris 9-120, 1td; Sean Munfield 3-65; Williams 3-58, 1td; Tannon Roberts 4-24; Dones 3-16; Nick Awrey 2-11; Jake Kobilarcsik 2-1
Next games: Marietta at Wilmington at 2 p.m. Saturday; Ohio Northern at John Carroll at 6 p.m. Saturday
In the second quarter, Humphrey hit Devon Price on a 75 yard scoring play to up the lead to 28-0. Marietta was able to respond on its ensuing possession, as Tom Fulton threw a 48 yard touchdown pass to Linaird Williams to cut the deficit to 28-7.
Paul, who had 121 yards on 23 carries on the day, who punch in a pair of two yard touchdown runs on Ohio Northern's next two possessions to extend the lead to 42-7 just before halftime.
After Humphrey hit Frank Thien on a 32 yard touchdown pass, Fulton hit Kirby Harris in the endzone from six yards out to make it 49-14.
DeMarqus Payne capped the scoring with a four yard touchdown run with 7:07 remaining in the game to produce the final score of 56-14.
Individually, Humphrey was 14-for-21 passing with 271 yards and three touchdowns, while also rushing for 38 yards and a score. Fulton was 25-for-55 with 290 yards and two touchdowns to go along with three picks. Harris was the leading receiver in the game with 120 yards on nine catches and a touchdown.
Filkovski said one of the Pios' biggest problems is inflicting damage on themselves.
"The big thing right now is we just can't beat ourselves and that's a lot of what we're doing," Filkovski lamented.
"We can't give up the big play. We've got to be able to function a little bit on offense to give the defense a break. That seems to be the big thing these past few weeks. If we eliminate those big plays off the film it's some good football. I understand those plays are where we've got to get better."
Marietta will look to pick up its first victory of the season on the road against Wilmington at 2 p.m. Saturday.
