ASHLAND — Larry Martin and his Ashland teammates completed their revenge tour on a sun-soaked Saturday afternoon.
Martin rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns as sixth-ranked AU held off Tiffin for a 28-20 Great Midwest Athletic Conference win on Homecoming at Jack Miller Stadium.
The Eagles (7-0, 5-0) took over sole possession of first place in the chase for the GMAC title and avenged another of their 2021 losses. Tiffin (4-3, 4-1) beat Ashland 27-21 last year.
“We beat everybody we lost to last year,” said Martin, whose 27-yard touchdown run with 9:26 remaining in the fourth quarter proved to be the game-winner. “This one was probably the best one so far.”
Martin’s first touchdown, a 6-yarder, gave the Eagles a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter. The Dragons responded with a 20-yard Nick Basile field goal to make it 7-3 midway through the second before AU quarterback Austin Brenner hooked up with Logan Bolin on a 17-yard scoring strike to make it 14-3 with 3:26 remaining in the half.
The Dragons flipped the script in the third quarter, scoring a touchdown on Devin Nelson’s 1-yard run with 12:58 remaining to make it 14-10. Basile booted a 25-yard field goal with 7:09 to play in the period to make it 14-13.
“When we came out in the second half momentum changed really quick,” AU coach Lee Owens said. “You’d think (the Eagles) might flinch at that point, as talented as Tiffin is and as quick as they score, but our guys don’t panic. They don’t flinch. They keep playing. They keep grinding.”
With its nationally-ranked defense staggered by a couple of Tiffin haymakers, Ashland needed the offense to land a few blows of its own. AU quarterback Austin Brenner came out swinging.
Brenner, who engineered a second-half comeback in last week’s 14-7 win over Ohio Dominican, orchestrated a 10-play, 65-yard drive and capped it with a 9-yard TD run on fourth-and-one.
“I have so much confidence in those guys around me, on my side of the ball and obviously the defense, to make big plays. And I think it’s reciprocated all the way around,” said Brenner, who completed 13-of-18 passes for 169 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 66 yards and a score on seven carries. “We just have confidence in each other. We know we’re going to make that play, whatever play needs to be made on either side of the ball.
“Obviously they had a lot of momentum. … On the sideline we knew we had to put together a drive and go put one in the end zone to kind of rein it in a little bit and that’s what we were fortunate enough to do.”
Martin’s second TD gave the Eagles a 28-13 lead with 9:26 remaining in the fourth, but the Dragons weren’t finished. Quarterback Christian Carter found Jack Stultz behind the AU defense for a 30-yard touchdown with 4:12 remaining to make it 28-20.
Ashland was unable to move the chains on its ensuing possession — a nifty 50-yard pass from Brenner to Patrick Blubaugh was nullified by penalty — and the Eagles punted the ball back to the Dragons. A short punt set up Tiffin near midfield, but the Dragons were unable to move the ball and turned it over on downs when Carter’s fourth-down pass for James Dean fell incomplete with 1:39 remaining.
“We just had to keep getting pressure on (Carter),” said AU defensive tackle and Ashland High School product Kristian Gehrisch, who combined with defensive end Chris Julian to sack Carter on Tiffin’s final possession. “We knew as log as we kept making plays and kept getting in his face, we could get this job done.
“We knew it was going to be a four-quarter dogfight.”
The win puts AU in the driver’s seat in the chase for the GMAC crown.
“If we don’t beat Tiffin, we can’t win the conference championship and that’s how we approached it,” Owens said. “We have to win the next three games, we know that, but we knew this is one we could not lose because I think they are so talented. I don’t see them losing another game in our league.
“I think it was good for our team. Our team grew. They’re confident and they continue to play hard and believe in themselves.”
