ASHLAND – If the Ashland football team was trying to make a statement over the first two weeks of this season, the message is coming through like a wrecking ball through a wall.
Eight days after throttling Bay 43-10 in their season-opener, the Arrows blew the doors off visiting Marion Harding on Friday night at Community Stadium, 42-7.
Ashland quarterback Nathan Bernhard accounted for five touchdowns (three passing, two rushing) and the AHS defense stretched its streak of consecutive scoreless quarters to six before the Presidents (1-1) finally got on the board in the fourth quarter.
The victory helped the Arrows (2-0) maintain the Erie Bell – the prize that goes to the winner of a rivalry that now has reached 62 meetings (AHS trails 24-34-4 after winning the last four).
Harding and first-year head coach C.J. Westler left town with their heads ringing, managing just 26 yards and one first down before halftime while surrendering 274 yards and five touchdowns to Bernhard and Co. through two quarters.
“They’re probably the best team we’re gonna play all year – definitely in the top two or three teams,” Westler said. “… Once it gets into that high-scoring game, that’s just not a style we can play with our young quarterback.”
Presidents freshman signal-caller Dez Feliciano finished just 4-of-11 for 18 yards passing, with Arrows like Jeff Hickey (interception) and Jordan Ferguson breaking up passes while Greyson Blough, Gunner Lacey and Liam Hubacher helped bury the run game in the trenches.
Harding didn’t have a rushing first down until the fourth quarter, when running back Landen Keller got the visitors on the board with a 10-yard score.
“We’re all working as a team and I think our DBs are doing really well, flying around and getting picks,” Hickey said. “Our backers and defensive line are killing these teams in the run game, so that’s also a really great thing.”
From the second quarter in Week 1 through the third quarter Friday night, Ashland outscored Bay and Harding by a 75-0 count. The dominance helped force running clocks in both games as the Arrows stretched their regular-season win streak to 12 and their winning streak at Community Stadium to 10.
“I’ve told our guys, ‘You’re gonna get everybody’s best,’” said 20th-year Arrows head coach Scott Valentine, who improved to 80-25 in his career at Community Stadium.
“We better be able to raise our level of play to that level.”
Bernhard surely showed off his next-level talent with his right arm Friday night.
After taking a sack that forced a third-and-11 on the opening drive of the game, the 6-foot-6 Appalachian State commit rolled left to avoid pressure, then side-armed a pass around another defender to hit Grayson Baith near the goal-line on a 17-yard touchdown.
Carson O’Brien’s first of six PAT kicks made it 7-0 less than four minutes into the game and Ashland was off and running.
The Arrows forced the first of four first-half Presidents’ punts after that, then Bernhard converted a fourth-and-5 from the Harding 25.
On that highlight-reel play, he rolled left before throwing it back across the middle of the field to hit junior Killian O’Brien, who toe-tapped in the back of the end zone for the score.
“That was probably one of my favorite throws I’ve had in my entire career,” Bernhard said.
It was a fast-forward start on offense for the Arrows against a Harding team whose defense returned seven starters this season.
Bernhard, who also punched in 1- and 4-yard rushing scores in the game, capped off his big night through the air with another big strike to O’Brien midway through the second quarter.
This time, the senior rolled right to buy some time before lofting a deep ball off his back leg for a 37-yard touchdown in the back, right corner of the end zone.
O’Brien landed awkwardly on his back on the play while pulling down the pass, but said he felt fine not long after.
“I’m a pretty confident guy. … I watch my (opponents’ film), I see the matchups and I come into the game knowing I’m gonna beat them every single rep,” said O’Brien, who finished with three catches for 74 yards and two scores a week after pulling in seven passes for 63 yards and a TD.
“I just wait for Nathan to get me the ball and I make a play.”
Bernhard finished his night an efficient 9-of-10 for 125 yards and three scores through the air while adding 34 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.
He now has 83 total touchdowns for his career and has stretched his streak of games without an interception to eight, dating back to last season.
“As you play more football it comes more naturally and some of those throws tonight were some of the best throws of my career,” Bernhard said.
“When you play good players, they’re gonna make plays,” Westler said. “Some of those plays you can’t stop.”
Baith gave the Arrows their final touchdown of the first half when he broke off a 33-yard score with 3:43 left before halftime.
That touchdown highlighted a second week of big production for the junior running back, who ended Friday with 119 yards on 19 carries to go along with his receiving TD.
Harding’s Ray J Scott-Harbolt returned the kickoff following Baith’s rushing score 39 yards to near midfield, but that was easily the biggest play of the night for the Prexies.
Harding managed just 58 yards on 17 carries for the game, getting 50 of those on one drive in the fourth quarter from Keller.
“We were hitting on all cylinders on offense,” Bernhard said. “It was a good offensive game and a good defensive game all around.”
Things figure to get much tougher for the Arrows from here.
Ashland hits the road for the first time in Week 3 when it travels to Clyde. The Fliers lost Friday to Toledo Start, 30-13, to drop to 0-2 for the first time since 2011.
But the traditional powerhouse hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2012 and won a state title in 2019, so the Arrows are likely to get a heftier challenge before kicking off Ohio Cardinal Conference play at New Philadelphia (0-2) in Week 4.
“There’s a huge target on our back,” O’Brien said, “and as we keep winning, it’s just gonna get bigger and bigger and teams are gonna want to take us down.”
