No. 10 Football wraps up regular season with with 9-1 record after 35-14 victory over Heidelberg on Senior Day
ADA — Seniors Kyle Simmons and Brent Donley each eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark as No. 10-ranked Ohio Northern wrapped up its regular season with a 35-14 victory over Heidelberg Saturday afternoon at Dial-Roberson Stadium.
The Polar Bears improve to 9-1 overall and are 8-1 in Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Student Princes fall to 5-5, 4-5.
Ohio Northern will now wait for the NCAA Division III Playoff field to be announced Sunday at 3 pm. The announcement will be shown live on television on ESPNNews. Check back to ONUSports.com for additional details on Sunday.
Donley finished the day with 157 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries and Simmons ran for a career-high 142 yards and a score on 14 rushing attempts.
Simmons also had an outstanding day through the air, completing 11 of 20 passes for 173 yards and three touchdowns.
His 142-yard effort makes Simmons ONU's all-time career rushing leader among quarterbacks with 1,167 yards in his four seasons as a Polar Bear. He surpassed the previous record of 1,089 yards, set by Shane Franzer from 1998-2000, on a season-long 51-yard third period run.
In 10 games this season, Donley has rushed for 1,242 yards, the third-best single-season total in ONU history - trailing only Jamal Robertson, who ran for 1,664 yards in 2000 and 1,544 yards in 1999.
The Polar Bears amassed 505 yards of total offense to 446 for the Student Princes.
Northern took control of the game with touchdowns on its first two possessions of the third period to take a 28-14 lead.
ONU took the third period kickoff and marched 74 yards in seven plays and scored on a 24-yard TD pass from Simmons to junior Jay Priest with 3:38 gone in the period.
A bad center exchange on Heidelberg's first play from scrimmage gave the Polar Bears the ball on the HU 29-yard line.
It took ONU seven plays to find paydirt as Simmons hit freshman T.J. Allen on a 6-yard scoring pass and it was 28-14 with 7:51 left in the third.
Northern put the game away on a 3-yard run by Donley with 2:51 left in the game.
Heidelberg had 305 of its yards in the first half as the two teams battled to a 14-14 tie at intermission.
HU scored first when the Student Princes took the opening kickoff and marched 74 yards in just five plays, scoring on a nifty 41-yard pass from wide receiver Mike Preston to fullback Josh Lynch to take a quick 7-0 lead just 2:06 into the game.
Simmons would tie the game at 7-7 on a 30-yard TD pass to junior Jared Oehler with 3:51 left in the opening period.
An interception by senior Marvin Mitchell would give ONU the ball at its 44-yard line.
Three running plays, a 23-yard run by Donley, an 18-yard run by junior Seadrick Marshall and a 15-yard scamper by Simmons would give ONU a 14-7 lead with 49 seconds left in the first half.
HU would tie the score on a 38-yard TD pass from Andrew Miller to Chance Ferrell with 3:41 left in the half.
Miller finished the day 16 of 32 passing for 219 yards and a two TDs. germany Woods ran 21 times for 115 yards for Heidelberg.
Mike Prokopovich had nine tackles and Chad Coward had eight tackles and an interception to lead the ONU defense.
