Continuing its impressive early part of the 2022 season, the No. 12-ranked Ashland University football team went to Quincy, Ill., on Saturday (Sept. 24) afternoon and came back with a 34-14 non-conference victory over the Hawks.
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The Eagles are 3-0 for the first time since 2016, and the 3-0 start is the fifth for AU under head coach
Lee Owens (2005, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2022).
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Quincy is 2-2.
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Ashland has won both games in the home-and-home series with the Hawks. Last fall, the Eagles topped Quincy at home, 63-23.
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WHAT HAPPENED
- After an early feeling-out process by both teams, the first collegiate interception for Eagle sophomore safety Anthony Harkness set up a four-yard touchdown run by junior tailback Gei'vonni Washington for a 7-0 lead at the 5:07 mark in the opening quarter.
- Washington collected his second touchdown run of the first quarter, this one a 24-yarder with 59 seconds to go for a 14-0 advantage. That capped a five-play, 62-yard drive in just 2:20.
- The Eagles finished off a 17-0 first half when freshman kicker A.J. Rhodes hit a 29-yard field goal with three seconds remaining.
- Early in the third quarter, senior quarterback Austin Brenner found sophomore fullback Johron Johnson for a four-yard touchdown pass – the first TD of Johnson's Eagle career.
- Following a Quincy TD in the third to make it a 24-7 game, Rhodes hit another field goal, this one from 21 yards, for a 27-7 lead. Washington's third rushing score of the contest late in the third put AU on top, 34-7, and the Hawks scored their second major late in the fourth for the final margin of victory.
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THE WRAP-UP
- Washington finished with 89 yards and three scores on the ground, and fellow junior tailback Larry Martin contributed 60 rushing yards, and 62 receiving yards on four catches.
- Brenner was 14-for-25 for 199 yards, one TD and one interception.
- Defensively, senior linebacker Michael Ayers had nine total tackles (eight solo) and a tackle for loss.
- Ashland ran up 423 yards of offense, and averaged 6.0 yards per play.
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UP NEXT
The Eagles (1-0 Great Midwest Athletic Conference) will play the first of three October home games on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. at Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field against Northwood (2-2, 1-0). The game is Military Appreciation Night and the 1972 team recognition, as well as the second Fan Fest, where country artist Eric Chesser will perform a concert and have a $500 scholarship giveaway, which any AU student who attends the concert has the opportunity to enter into the raffle to win.