By Tim Glon
Ohio Northern celebrated America's Veterans with several ceremonies, including an F-16 flyover, in its 2012 home football opener against Heidelberg on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Dial-Roberson Stadium.
But Heidelberg spoiled the party, scoring 29 unanswered second half points to post a 43-7 Ohio Athletic Conference victory over ONU.
The Polar Bears fall to 0-2 overall and are 0-1 in OAC play, while the Student Princes improve to 2-0, 1-0.
The games was Veterans Appreciation Day at ONU and the players wore special camouflage uniforms which were auctioned off to raise money for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
HU also claimed its second consecutive Bendekovic Bowl trophy. The trophy is named after the late Ron and Jason Bendekovic, who passed away in recent years while serving as assistant coaches at Ohio Northern and Heidelberg.
Northern got a 35-yard TD pass from junior Tyler Rue to junior Devian McKennie with 55 seconds left in the first half to pull within 14-7 at intermission.
But HU scored on a 28-yard pass from Michael Mes to Donteea Dye with 4:58 left in the third period, then got a 38-yard interception return for a score by Adam Cepik just 1:42 later to take a 28-7 lead.
"We did not take advantage of opportunities we had to score in the first half and it cost us," ONU head coach Dean Paul said. "Heidelberg is a very good football team and we needed to score points when we had our chances. They took advantage of our mistakes and made us pay by putting points on the board.
"We are disappointed but not discouraged. We will challenge our players to get back to work on Monday and get better."
Mees ran in from 28 yards out with 14:05 left in the game to make it 35-7 and Cartel Brooks broke free on a 51-yard run to cap the scoring with 12:11 left to play.
McKennie ran 17 times for 50 yards and senior Justin Wilson caught four passes for 63 yards for ONU.
Rue finished the day 10 for 31 passing for 157 yards and a TD.
Defensively, senior Joe Powell had 10 tackles and a half of a sack and sophomore Steven Kenny had nine tackles and a half of a sack for the Polar Bears.
Brooks ran for 184 yards and 2 TDs on 24 carries, Mees was 24 of 37 for 346 yards passing and two TDs and Dye caught five passes for 146 yards for the Student Princes.
The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday with a 1:30 pm home contest with Capital at Dial-Roberson Stadium.
