By Tim Glon
It was a career night for several Ohio Northern football players, as ONU rolled to a 62-21 victory over Marietta on Halloween Night on Saturday at Dial-Roberson Stadium.
The Polar Bears improve to 6-2 overall and are 5-2 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Pioneers fall to 1-7, 1-6.
Senior Justin Magazine ran 24 times for a career-high 200 yards and a TD and senior Devon Price caught 10 passes for a career-high 182 yards and three TDs, but sophomore Ricardo Johnson may have had the biggest night of all for the ONU defense.
Johnson completed 13-of-19 passes for a career-high 235 yards and 3 TDs and ran 10 times for as career-high 106 yards and three more touchdowns. In all, Johnson accounted for 341 yards and six touchdowns.
On defense, junior Trent Stout had a career-high 18 tackles and senior Justin Tello had a career-high 13 tackles for the Polar Bears.
Marietta took the opening kickoff and marched 57 yards for a touchdown, but it was all Ohio Northern after that.
The Polar Bears would score on 10 of their first 11 possessions, amassing 618 yards of total offense on the night.
Senior Andrew DiMario pulled ONU within 7-3 with a 22-yard field goal on Northern's first possession.
The Polar Bears would then score three touchdowns on eight plays from scrimmage to take command of the game.
Johnson hit Price on a 27-yard TD pass, capping a 2-play. 68-yard drive, to put ONU on top for good at 10-7 with 2:51 left in the first quarter.
Magazine scored on a 15-yard run on ONU's next possession, capping a 2-play, 48-yard drive, and it was 17-7 with 1:20 left in the opening stanza.
On its next possession, Northern went ahead 24-7 when Johnson scrambled in from 20 yards out, capping a 4-play, 68-yard drive.
Johnson scored on a 9-yard run with 42 seconds left in the half to give the Polar Bears a 31-14 lead at intermission.
Northern took the second half kickoff and drove 73 yards in 10 plays and went ahead 38-14 when Johnson hit Price on a 10-yard touchdown pass.
Johnson scored on a 20-yard run, then hit Price on a 28-yard score as the Polar Bears led 52-14 after three quarters.
DiMario made a 27-yard field goal with 5:26 left in the game to make it 55-21 and freshman Rodney Holmes scored on a 23-yard run with 3;36 left in the game to wrap up the scoring.
Northern out-gained MC 618-300 in total offense and had a 268-38 advantage in passing.
The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday with a 1:30 pm game at Wilmington.
