The state of Ohio is used to dominating college football rivalries lately. The Ohio State Buckeyes have won six straight over the Michigan Wolverines and now the Ashland Eagles have won four in a row over the Findlay Oilers, winning Saturday’s contest, 56-7 at Donnell Stadium. The Eagles have won the last four meetings by a combined score of 176-83 and improved their record to 6-3 on the year as Findlay fell to 1-8.

The 56 points scored are the most Ashland has ever scored against the Oilers; the previous record was 53 points back in 1929 and the 49-point victory is also the largest margin of victory over the Oilers in school history.

The Eagles started quickly on this record-setting day. The Eagles jumped out to an early 7-0 lead when senior Alan Dunson caught an eight-yard touchdown pass, his first touchdown catch of the year, with 11:39 left in the first quarter.

Joe Horn, who came into the game needing just 46 yards receiving to become Ashland’s all-time leader, had a game to remember, catching eight passes for 70 yards and three touchdowns. In his career, Horn has 2,531 yards receiving and 23 touchdowns.

“It means a lot to me to become the career leader,” Horn said of the yardage record. “To be able to have a record like that here at Ashland that has such a strong tradition and so many great players over the years is really special. I think the fact that I’ve had the opportunity to play with and learn from some great receivers over the past five years has really helped me get to this point.”

The Eagles’ next two first quarter scores came from Horn, who found the end zone from three yards and 19 yards out on passes from Taylor Housewright. Housewright threw for just 141 yards on the day, but had five touchdown passes and one rushing score in the Eagle rout. Housewright became the only Eagle quarterback not named Billy Cundiff to throw five touchdowns in a game.

Another star for the Eagles was “Mr. Consistency,” D.J. McCoy. McCoy rushed for a career-high 203 yards on 25 carries and also hauled in an 11-yard touchdown pass with 16 seconds left in the second quarter. Dunson also showed off his special talents on special teams.

Dunson came into the Findlay game with five career blocked kicks. He would leave Donnell Stadium with three blocked punts in the game, as he returned his second block 12 yards for a touchdown and the third block was recovered by Cody Bloom to conclude Ashland’s scoring. Dunson’s brilliant performance earned him the GLIAC special teams player of the week award for the second time in his career.

The Eagles outgained the Oilers 471-184 on the day and outside of an 11-play, 64-yard Oiler scoring drive, the defense played flawlessly. Matt Stoinoff led the Eagles with six tackles and Phil Galaska had five tackles and a sack.

The Eagles forced two turnovers on the day as Quenton Scott and Logan Kerr each recorded an interception against Oiler quarterback, John Soli. For Kerr, it was his third straight game with an interception and has five thefts on the season. He’s the first Eagle defender with more than four interceptions in a season since Toure Carter in 2003, who had nine interceptions.

The Eagles travel to Columbus this weekend to take on the Panthers of Ohio Dominican at noon before concluding their season against Lake Erie Nov. 13.