The Ashland University Eagle football team is coming off of a dominant 31-14 Week One victory against the Notre Dame College Falcons. Lead running back Gei’vonni Washington rushed for 150 yards to go alongside a touchdown with just 11 touches throughout the contest.

This week, the Eagles will head to Findlay to take on the Oilers in what will be the opening in-conference matchup for them this season. The major question though is if the Eagles can build off their Week One success.

One of the major inconsistencies that Head Coach Lee Owens said the team needed to improve on was the offensive passing game.

“Austin (Brenner) showed a tremendous profile of courage. Just simply coming back and playing again.” said Owens, “I think he was a little bit off. I think he would tell you the same thing. It was the first time he played live in a little over a year. A couple of his throws weren’t where he needed to be. The kid is hard on himself and we know he will get better.”

At the end of the first game, Brenner finished with 128 passing yards on 14/26 passing. He finished with one interception, but the real impact he had was his leadership.

“He makes everybody around us better,” said Owens. “It’s exciting to have him back nonetheless.”

However, the running attack could not have been better for the Eagles.

As a whole, the team ran for 323 rushing yards with Gei’vonni Washington running for 150 yards and a touchdown as previously mentioned. Backup running back Larry Martin also got in on the action as he recorded 122 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

“What we try to do is keep Gei’vonni fresh. We try to keep him fresh for the fourth quarter. We’ve started to rotate in Larry to give him a rest,” said Owens. “We want to be a physical running team.”

The Oilers on the other hand fell to the Ohio Dominican Panthers in their opening conference contest, 14-28. With that loss, they start the year 0-1.

The offensive line for the Oilers was not kind to starting quarterback Jeremy Hunt who was sacked five times.

Hunt tried his best to keep the offense in the game passing for 281 yards and two touchdowns. The running attack however was non-existent with the final box score listing them with -2 rushing yards on the day.

The Oiler defense also struggled as they allowed 155 rushing yards and 273 passing yards to the Panther offense.

The rushing attack and defensive struggles will be something they have to improve on against the Eagles if they want to have a shot at giving them their first loss on the season.

With the Eagle team proving to be a force on the defensive side of the ball, and in the running attack, it seems that they have to just polish up their passing game and make small fixes.

“We have to clean up the offense. We need more balance with run and pass,” said Owens. “We need to be able to switch the field. Our defense played well from beginning to end, but our offense pinned them back a few times. We need to be able to help them out better.”

The Eagles vs. Oilers has been a rivalry dating back 49 games, with the coming one being the 50th all-time.

“This has always been a rivalry game for us. This is our Ohio rival team. This is the most important team to get a win against. We are going to put a lot into this game. They are going to play differently, we will have to as well.”

Where can you watch the game?
Place: JC Donnell Memorial Stadium, Findlay, Ohio

Time: 6:00pm

Tickets: https://athletics.findlay.edu/tickets

Watch Online: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/findlay/portal.htm?eventId=706715&streamType=video