COLUMBUS, Ohio – Despite a strong start to the game, Ohio Dominican's football team couldn't sustain its momentum as ninth-ranked Hillsdale College pulled away with a 35-10 GLIAC victory on ODU's Homecoming game Saturday night at Panther Field.

Jeremy Fudge (Eaton, Ohio), making his second career start, set an ODU record for most rushing yards in a game by a quarterback as he ran for 144 yards on 13 carries, averaging 11.1 yards per rush. He also completed 11-of-20 passes for 113 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown to Tyler Maddox (Lewistown, Ohio).

Overall, the Panthers offense generated 305 yards but struggled on third downs, converting just 2-of-10 while possessing the ball for 22:03. Conversely, the Chargers (5-1, 4-1 GLIAC) racked up 486 yards, converting 10-of-14 third downs and holding the ball for nearly 38 minutes.

James Dews (Upper Marlboro, Md.) and Jeff White (Gahanna, Ohio) tied for a game-high 12 tackles, while Vincent Vasquez (Delray Beach, Florida) recorded 11 and Jason McCurdy (Columbus, Ohio) finished with 10. The Panthers had a season-high five sacks, including two by Tony Weisent (Newark, Ohio), and recorded eight tackles for loss as a team for 49 yards.

The Panthers (0-5, 0-5 GLIAC) rolled up 165 yards rushing in the first half, largely on the legs of Fudge, who had 124 of his yards in the half. He had runs of 21 and 15 yards on Ohio Dominican's first drive of the game as the Panthers worked their way to Hillsdale's 19 yard line. However, a false start penalty stalled the drive, and ODU settled for a 41 yard field goal from Chris Vortkamp (Cincinnati, Ohio) to take a 3-0 lead with three minutes left in the period.

Hillsdale scored on its next possession to take a 7-3 lead early in the second, and after the teams swapped punts, ODU's offense was on the move again. Fudge weaved in and out of traffic on a 41 yard scamper to set up the Panthers at Hillsdale's 18 yard line, and two plays later the Panthers faced third-and-one on the Hillsdale nine. However, the Chargers defense stiffened as ODU was held without a gain on its third and fourth down plays, turning the ball over on downs.

The Chargers' offense began to click at that point as quarterback Troy Weatherhead, who completed 26-of-28 passes for 354 yards and three scores, moved the Chargers 91 yards in just six plays and capped it off with a 17 yard TD toss to Andre Holmes to make it 14-3 with 4:45 to go before half.

Fudge had another long run of 22 yards on ODU's next possession, but the Panthers were forced to punt with 3:20 left, and again it took Hillsdale just six plays to move the length of the field for an 85 yard touchdown drive to make it 21-3 at intermission.

After a pair of punts to start the second half, ODU's offense finally hit the big play. Fudge found Maddox down the left sideline, who reached over a defender at the Hillsdale 45 to make the grab, turned and raced the rest of the way into the end zone for the 75 yard touchdown, the longest play of the season for ODU.

That cut the Panthers' deficit to 21-10 with 6:18 left in the third, but that would be as close as ODU would get. On the Chargers' ensuing possession, Weatherhead again orchestrated a drive that resulted in a touchdown, finding Holmes for a 16-yard score. Hillsdale put the game away on a 12 play, 87 yard drive that chewed up nearly seven minutes in the fourth quarter, capped off another Weatherhead TD pass.

Ohio Dominican will return to action at 1 p.m. next Saturday, Oct. 16 at Panther Field against Findlay for Veterans Appreciation Day.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu