The Ashland University football team had its work cut out for itself heading into their Oct. 22 matchup against the Tiffin Dragons.

Coming into the matchup both teams sat undefeated in conference play and atop the Great Midwest Athletic Conference standings, with one of the teams losing its streak.

To start the contest the Eagle offense looked strong until a big hit from the Tiffin defense forced an Eagle fumble to flip momentum.

While both offenses tried to flip the script and put the first points onto the board, neither could do so until the second quarter.

The Eagles, led by starting quarterback Austin Brenner, drove 94 yards down the field to hand off the ball six yards out securing the first points of the game to put them up 7-0.

That touchdown would come from junior tailback Larry Martin, his seventh rushing touchdown of the season.

Over the next two drives, both teams would get a shot at driving down the field, but a grand total of four minutes was wasted with just six plays and 15 yards to show for it.

With the Dragons taking over they finally found their first points of the contest with a 20-yard field goal from kicker Nick Basile.

Now with the score 7-3, the Eagles went into their bag of tricks. Brenner took the snap, faked a handoff to tailback Eli Potts and tossed the ball behind himself to wideout Logan Bolin who then threw it 48 yards downfield to wideout Garrett Turnbaugh.

That trick play set the offense up with a prime position to find the endzone. On the next play, Brenner found Bolin across the middle for a 17-yard touchdown to put them up 14-3 heading into halftime.

To start the second half, the Panthers started off strong scoring 10 straight points to make the score 14-13.

Now back peddling, Brenner led the offense back down the field and on fourth down he faked a handoff to Martin and then took off uncontested into the endzone from nine yards out pushing the lead to 21-13.

In the fourth quarter, the Eagle offense went 91 yards down the field in nine plays with Martin finding the endzone for the second time, pushing the lead once more out to a 15-point deficit.

Just two drives later the Dragons made one last push to bring the game closer and came out successful.

Quarterback Christian Carter led the Dragon offense 90 yards down the field. On fourth and six from the Eagle 30-yard line Carter dropped back and slung a 30-yard touchdown to wideout Jack Stultz to bring the game back 28-20.

After that touchdown, both squads continued to waste time with no other points being scored.

Brenner finished the contest with 169 yards passing, 66 rushing yards and one passing touchdown. When it comes to receiving, not many players got involved with Turnbaugh and Bolin leading the way with 165 total receiving yards.

Bolin also recorded 48 yards passing.

The running attack saw Martin lead the way with 124 yards and two touchdowns through 27 attempts.

On defense, linebacker Michael Ayers and cornerback Devin Prude stood out. Ayers recorded seven tackles and one tackle for a loss, while Prude recorded three tackles and one interception.

The Dragons saw backup running back Devin Nelson tack on 57 yards and one touchdown on the ground. On defense, they saw Sir Zion Dance record 13 tackles for a total of 58 this year.

He now sits at No. 4 in the GMAC in tackles on the season.

After downing a top opponent in the conference, the Eagles look to Saturday, Oct. 29, where they take on the 3-3 Hillsdale Chargers with kickoff set for 1 p.m.