SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – A 31 point explosion in the third quarter lifted Ohio Dominican's football team to a 45-7 victory over Notre Dame Saturday night at Korb Field in GLIAC action.

ODU racked up 258 yards of offense in the third quarter alone and broke open a 7-0 lead by scoring on its first four possessions of the quarter.

With the win, the Panthers improved to 5-3 on the season (4-3 GLIAC), while the Falcons fell to 1-7 (0-7 GLIAC).

Freshman Dez Stewart (Cincinnati, Ohio) had a career game, finishing with five catches for 143 yards, both the best tallies in his career. Sophomore quarterback Mark Miller (Cincinnati, Ohio) completed 14-of-21 passes for 235 yards and two scores.

The Panther running game was strong again, finishing with 278 yards, the sixth-highest total in program history. Freshman Brandon Schoen (Olentangy, Ohio) had his fifth straight 100-yard game to start his career, registering 119 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns. He matched Mike Noffsinger's streak as the only Panther backs to have five straight games of over 100 yards rushing and moved into second on ODU's single-season rushing list with 817 yards this year.

A stout defensive effort limited one of the GLIAC's top scoring teams to 233 yards of offense, 183 yards below its season average. The Panthers were paced by junior Justin Bell (Groveport, Ohio) with eight tackles, while seniors Jeff White (Gahanna, Ohio) and Eisen Hardy (Pickerington, Ohio) both had seven stops. Senior Ben Patterson (Parma, Ohio) finished with a career-best six tackles, including 2.0 for loss, which was also a career-high.

A sluggish first half saw no scoring for the opening 29:19, as the Panther defense kept Notre Dame off the board for its seven possessions. The Falcons reached Panther territory four times, but ODU held on a turnover on downs, a blocked field goal and two punts.

ODU's offense couldn't generate many scoring opportunities either though, also turning the ball over on downs at the Falcon 29 midway through in the first quarter.

That was their best scoring opportunity until late in the first half, as Miller connected with Stewart on a 46 yard pass to the Notre Dame 37. Five runs later, Schoen dove over the top of the line from two yards out to give the Panthers a 7-0 edge with 41 ticks left before half, and that was the tally as the teams went to the break.

But on the first play of the second half, Schoen took an inside handoff, bounced to the right side, broke a tackle and outran the Falcon secondary for a 69 yard touchdown run. It was his second longest run of the season after scoring on a 75 yard run at Grand Valley and fourth-longest in school history.

Freshman Billy Eakins (Pickerington, Ohio) then came up with a diving interception on the Falcon sideline on the ensuing possession. Four plays later Miller rolled to his right and found senior Andy Mick (Hamilton, Ohio) wide open for a 13 yard touchdown, extending the Panther lead to 21-0 just over three minutes into the third quarter.

The defense forced a punt, and Miller hooked up with Stewart for a 50 yard completion to the Falcon 11. Senior Mark Nichols (Newark, Ohio) capped the drive with a one-yard plunge that made it 28-0, and the lead grew to 31-0 later in the third with just over four minutes to play in third as freshman Brent Wahle (Pataskala, Ohio) hit a 28 yard field goal.

After another Falcon punt, Miller connected with freshman Ronald McCloud (Cleveland, Ohio) in the front corner of the end zone on ODU's first play from scrimmage to make it 38-0 late in the quarter. The Panthers capped the scoring six minutes into the fourth quarter with an eight yard touchdown run by Nichols.

Notre Dame scored with just over two minutes left in the contest, snapping what had been 91 minutes of shutout football by the ODU defense, dating to the second half of last week's 63-31 win over Findlay.

Nichols finished with 49 yards on the ground, freshman Tajuan Green (Columbus, Ohio) had 43 yards on just five carries, and Miller also ran for 34 yards.

ODU outgained Notre Dame 513-233 for the game, marking the fifth time in the past six games the Panthers tallied over 500 yards of offense.

Ohio Dominican returns home for a 1 p.m. kickoff against Tiffin on Saturday at Panther Field.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu