Ashland University's football team ended the 2023 regular season with a seventh consecutive victory on Saturday (Nov. 11) night – a 56-23 win at Kentucky Wesleyan.
The Eagles are 8-3 overall and 8-1 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference – finishing in second place and most likely earning a trip to the America's Crossroads Bowl on Dec. 1 in Hammond, Ind., as the league's representative against the highest-ranking team from the Great Lakes Valley Conference which doesn't make the NCAA Division II postseason.
KWC is 4-7, 3-6.
Ashland's seven straight wins ties for the program's longest such streak since 11 wins in a row in 2017.
The Eagles scored two rushing touchdowns in the first six minutes on Saturday – a two-yarder by senior tailback
Larry Martin, then a 37-yard jaunt by senior tailback
Gei'vonni Washington. Junior whip
Isaiah Clark's 35-yard scoop-and-score later in the first quarter put Ashland ahead by a 21-0 count.
Following a 73-yard KWC touchdown pass, Martin got his second rushing score of the game, a one-yarder, early in the second half. The Eagle lead increased to 35-7 on a 15-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback
Trevor Bycznski to junior wide receiver
Jent Joseph, then it became 42-7 on Martin's third TD scamper of the game, another two-yarder.
The Panthers kicked a field goal in the third quarter to make the score 42-10, but early in the final period, Bycznski found senior wide receiver
Dezmin Lyburtus for a 15-yard score and a 49-10 advantage.
Following two more Panther touchdowns in the fourth quarter, Ashland finished the game's scoring when junior tailback
Patrick Blubaugh went in on a 12-yard jaunt.
POST-GAME NUGGETS
- Ashland's 56 points are the team's most this season, and most since 56 at home vs. Northwood on Oct. 1, 2022.
- The Eagles ran for 276 yards and five touchdowns as a team on Saturday night, with both Washington (95 yards and a TD on 14 carries) and Martin (94 yards and three TDs on 16 carries) narrowly missing 100-yard games.
- Senior linebacker Jackson Myers ended the night with three sacks, three tackles for loss and six total tackles (five solo), and Clark had the fumble recovery TD and an interception.
- Head coach Doug Geiser becomes the first Ashland football rookie head coach with at least eight wins.
- Ashland's eighth win marks the program's 21st season with eight or more, and the Eagles' 18 wins in back-to-back seasons are the most since 2016-17 (20).
