New opponents bring new challenges to a coaching staff and team. This week, the challenge for the Ashland University football team is the Panthers from Ohio Dominican. The Panthers, in their first year in the GLIAC, are 2-6 as Ashland comes in as the hottest team in the GLIAC, winning their last five games and are 6-3 overall and 5-3 in the GLIAC. The game kicks off at noon Saturday.

The Panthers have struggled this season when it comes to scoring points, as they have scored just over 17 points per contest and have been outscored on the year 220-139

The Panthers are led by their running back, Mike Noffsinger, who has rushed for 589 yards and three touchdowns on the season. Jeremy Fudge is the team’s second leading rusher and is also the quarterback. He has run for 424 yards and two scores. Fudge has passed for 622 yards and four touchdowns and seven interceptions.

Defensively, the Panthers are ninth in the conference in scoring defense, giving up nearly 28 points a game. Their leading tackler is Vincent Vasquez who has 82 tackles on the season and seven tackles for a loss. ODU has picked off 11 passes this season, four of which have come from James McCurdy, who also has 38 tackles and three pass breakups this season.

For the Eagles, they enter the contest scoring just over 31 points per game, which ranks them third in the conference. A big reason for this year’s offensive success has been the balanced attack of running the football with D.J. McCoy and the emergence and maturity of Taylor Housewright in the passing game.

McCoy is fourth in the GLIAC in rushing, with 1,050 yards and six touchdowns on the season. He is the first Eagle running back to go over the 1,000 yard plateau since Dawon Harvey in 2007. McCoy also has gone over the 100-yard mark in six consecutive games.

Housewright is fourth in the GLIAC in passing yards per game and second in the conference in pass efficiency. In just his first year as a starter, Housewright has gone 139-for-214 with 1,795 yards, 17 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. Housewright also has four rushing touchdowns on the season.

Defensively, Ashland is ranked second in points against, giving up only 18 per game, trailing only Northern Michigan. Carmon Wolfe has been a key contributor this season, leading the team with 58 tackles, six tackles for a loss, two sacks and an interception. The secondary is led by Logan Kerr, who has five interceptions on the season and 40.5 tackles, fourth on the team. Kerr still is one of the best in the conference at breaking up passes as he has broken up nine in 2010. Upfront for the Eagles, newcomer Jamie Meder is a nightmare for quarterbacks. Meder leads the team in sacks with five. Of his 26 tackles, eight of them have been for loss.

The Eagles, with a win against the Panthers, could keep their slim playoff hopes alive and enter the season finale against the Lake Erie Storm on a six-game winning streak. The last time the Eagles had a winning streak this long was back in 2008, when the Eagles won six in a row after starting the season 0-2.