Box Score For the first 15 minutes of Saturday night's (Sept. 24) football game at Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field at the Dwight Schar Athletic Complex, the Ashland University Eagles resembled a 16-year-old student driver. They found themselves riding the brakes and struggling to stay between the lines.
At the conclusion of the first quarter, Ashland had been outscored by 23rd-ranked Northern Michigan, 13-0 and outgained, 155-15. The Wildcats led, 7-0 just 1:23 into the game. Northern Michigan scored on its first two possessions. That first drive started after the Eagles fumbled away the opening kickoff and Wildcats took over at the AU 38. Moments later, quarterback Carter Kopach scored on a 4-yard run for a 7-0 lead.
The Wildcats' second drive was a Sherman-like march, 88 yards in 12 plays. It ended with Kopach throwing an 8-yard scoring pass to Kyle Senn. Even though Rockne Belmonte missed the PAT, the Eagles gave no indication that they were going to do an about face any time soon. No one at the stadium saw what was coming unless a distant cousin of Nostradamus happened to wander through the gate.
After taking that 13-0 lead, the Wildcats watched the Eagles score the game's next 31 points. By the end of the night, Ashland (2-2/2-1GLIAC) had posted a 45-16 victory. The Eagles scored a touchdown off of a blocked punt, recovered a fumble, picked off Kopach twice, sacked him three times and over the last three quarters, limited NMU to 134 yards of total offense.
"This team has amazing spirit and fight," gushed AU head coach Lee Owens. "They just don't get fazed. I was fazed."
Ashland's rise from the dead began in this game near the end of the first quarter. NMU (3-1/2-1) had a third-and-one play at the AU44. Kopach threw incomplete down the field for wide receiver Christian Marble-King. That pass fell incomplete and on fourth-and-one, the Wildcats sent running back Prince Young into the line. He was stopped for no gain. That gave the Eagles a short field and the Eagles could release the emergency brake as the breaks of the game began to go their way.
While the Eagles were down 13 points, they had time to regroup and rally. That process started with a 39-yard field goal by Gregg Berkshire (Ashland, Ohio) with 9:30 left in the half. NMU gave the ball away to the Eagles on the next possession via a Kopach fumble at the NMU 25. The Eagles recovered and ran freshman running back Jordan McCune (Bellville, Ohio/Clear Fork) at the Wildcats on the next four plays. The last of those plays was a 6-yard touchdown run and the Eagles had closed to within, 13-10.
NMU's next drive ended when defensive back Mike McMillan (Hagerstown, Md./Mendocino College) intercepted Kopach at the AU 42. He returned the ball seven yards to the Ashland 49. That set up the Eagles for a seven-play drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown drive by senior slot back D.J. McCoy (Cleveland, Ohio/Collinwood). That touchdown and Berkshire's extra point put the Eagles ahead to stay, 17-13.
This was McCoy's first game action since the opener at Bloomsburg. The touchdown was his first of the season. McCune ran over the Wildcats for a career-high 143 yards on 21 carries with two touchdowns. This was the first 100-yard game of his career.
"I thought if we got the big guy the ball once or twice we had a chance," said Owens. "He sparked us."
Instead of relying on a one-back scheme, the Eagles went to a two-back formation and that paid huge dividends. Ashland rushed for 255 yards and averaged 5.0 ypc. Freshman Anthony Taylor (Arlington, Va./Washington-Lee) had 59 yards rushing on 11 carries (5.4 ypc.) and junior Justen White-Reid (Akron, Ohio/Copley) had 41 yards on five tries. McCoy had 12 yards and two touchdowns.
"For our young guys, getting in the two back helped them," said Owens.
By this point, the defense had also gotten itself together. A year ago, Kopach had two long touchdown runs against AU while engineering a 23-19 win. Over the first three weeks of this season, he had been an exceptional two-way threat, running with abandon and using a deep and athletic receiving corps to wear defenses thin. That didn't happen to the Eagles after those first two drives.
"We had a different scheme last year," reminded senior defensive end Matt Stoinoff (Cincinnati, Ohio/Colerain), when asked to compare last year's NMU game to this one. "We had our defense in a four-man rush. When we attack, bring backers and we're angling up front we're a different defense. I don't know the stats, but he was hit a lot."
AU had six quarterback hurries and a season-high 10 tackles for loss. Stoinoff had 10 tackles and a sack. He acknowledged that everything began with neutralizing Kopach.
"We game-planned for him all week," noted the senior. "We did scramble drills all week. When you build an offense around one guy, you stop him, you stop the offense."
There was no stopping the Eagles offensively or defensively at this point. The Eagles scored three touchdowns in the third quarter. McCune scored his second touchdown on an 8-yard run with 13:42 left to go in the quarter. With 11:29 to go in the quarter, Ashland's Ryan Stackhouse (Ashland, Ohio) blocked a punt and Da'Vell Winters (Marion, Ohio/Marion Harding) fell on the ball in the end zone. Ashland entered the fourth quarter leading, 38-16.
"From the second quarter on, we took complete control of the game," said Owens. "We're getting better. Any time you win the battle up front consistently you have a chance to win."
The second half saw McCune run roughshod over the Wildcats. On several runs, he dragged multiple defenders down the field with him. Normally, it's the local fairs that run demolition derbies. Just down the road from the Ashland County fairgrounds, the Eagles staged their own version of that event.
"As the game goes on I get stronger and the defense gets weaker," said McCune. "Playing here, with the conditioning program, it makes you stronger in the third and fourth quarter. It doesn't allow you to feel tired."
Ashland outgained the Wildcats, 352-289 and converted 7-of-13 third down opportunities. AU had the ball for 33 minutes and went 4-for-4 in the red zone (all touchdowns.).
The Eagles will play at Northwood next Saturday (Oct. 1, noon).
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