The Ashland University football team dropped their season opener last Thursday (Aug. 30) against a number four nationally ranked Indiana University (Pa.) team 21-17. This week the 18th ranked Eagles (0-1) will travel an hour down Interstate 71 to take on the 17th ranked Ohio Dominican Panthers (1-0).

In their first game of the season, the Eagles struggled offensively only garnering 115 passing yards by senior quarterback Billy Bahl in his first start as an Eagle. However, that comes with a new offensive line that holds three true freshman in their first collegiate start.

“(The offensive line) Is really good on run blocking but really poor on pass blocking,” Ashland head coach Lee Owens said. “They got their eyes opened up a little bit about what a good pass rush looks like.”

Owens said that a glaring statistic that jumped out at him was that they had to protect their quarterback better after they gave up five sacks to IUP.

In their game against IUP a week ago, the Crimson Hawks got on the board first but the Eagles were able to kick a 19-yard field and score a six-yard touchdown by senior tailback Andrew Vaughn to go up 10-7 in the second quarter.

With four minutes left to go in the first half the Crimson Hawks scored a crucial touchdown to go up 14-7 with 30 seconds left in the half. Having a scoreless third quarter the Crimson Hawks scored early in the fourth quarter that proved to be too much of a lead for the Eagles to fight back from.

“They’re (IUP) a really good football team and you look at their offense and they have almost everybody back from last year and almost an entire team returned,” Owens said.

The Eagles offense however did find positives in their running game as Vaughn ran for 133 yards which became his 10th 100-yard rushing game. Backup tailback Luke Ogi also had seven carries for 48 yards.

“I really liked how Andrew ran the ball, I think he ran really hard, with good pad level and second effort,” Owens said. “I have to spell Andrew some early so that he has some gas left in the tank at the end, and he didn’t. That was part of the chaos at the end was not having him.”

On the defensive side of the ball for the Eagles senior defensive end James Prater Jr. recorded nine total tackles, a sack and three tackles for loss while junior inside linebacker Clay Shreve finished with a game-high ten tackles.

Owens said that the team looks really fast on defense and that they can really run to the football and because of that they do not keep gaps open for very long.

Looking ahead to ODU the Eagles are using the long Labor Day weekend and the week of practice to prepare for a Panthers team that has some confidence coming out of week one. The Panthers come off of week one after defeating California (Pa.) at home by a score of 28-23.

They are led by their redshirt- junior transfer quarterback Shane Bucenell who is in his first season with the Panthers after transferring from Charleston Southern, a Division I school that is a member of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

Bucenell threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns against Cal Pa. but was limited to one total yard of rushing. Bucenell is replacing a former four year starting quarterback for the Panthers in Grant Russell but seems to have the same type of style as Russell.

“We want to make sure that we have their quarterback contained so that he just doesn’t take it down and go,” Owens said.

In week one Bucenell had two main targets who caught for over 100 yards a piece in wide receivers Cory Contini (six receptions, 125 yards, one touchdown) and Devanaire Conliffe (three receptions, 116 yards, two touchdowns).

The Panthers run game was almost non existent in week one as tailback EJ Colson ran for 45 yards on 14 carries.

“It’s the same offense, same defense they have run down their forever, so there is nothing new there,” Owens said.

On the defensive side of the ball the Eagles will face redshirt-senior linebacker Ross Thompson who was named the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Defensive Player of the Week. Thompson had a game high 15 tackles while intercepting a pass and breaking up two others.

Also winning a G-MAC player of the week accolade for the Panthers in week one was sophomore punter Logen Neidhardt who had six total punts with an average of 47.7 yards per punt, three of those over 50 yards. Neidhardt was named the G-MAC Special Teams Player of the Year in 2017 as a freshman.

Owens said that his team has had good practices throughout the week and his team is ready for the environment the ODU holds on Saturday night.

“It’s their red letter game, it’s the game of the year for them,” Owens said. “They will be emotionally charged, it always is. It’s always a physical game, it’s always a hard hitting game.”

The matchup is set for the battle of I-71 and it will take place at Panther Stadium in Columbus, Oh. between the 18th ranked Eagles and the 17th ranked Panthers on Saturday (Sept. 7) at 7 p.m.