Eagles Come From Behind for 21-14 Win at Findlay
October 29, 2005

Complete Box Score

The Ashland University Eagles were breaking out in a cold sweat Saturday (Oct. 29) night at Findlay’s Donnell Stadium. That perspiration problem had nothing to do running around in short sleeves on the last Saturday night in October with the mercury doing a free-fall toward 35 degrees.

No, the cause of the Eagles’ malady was a Findlay Oilers team that stunned them with 14 points in the game’s first 17 minutes. The Oilers (3-7/2-7 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) had a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter. Ashland hadn’t been in this tight throat, sweaty palms position since six weeks ago at Michigan Tech.

“Today was a war of will and character,” is how AU head coach Lee Owens described the Eagles’ plight. “You’re down, 14-0 to your rival in a must-win situation. You don’t lose your composure, you fight back. It’s a credit to our guys.”

Not only did the Eagles not lose their cool, they didn’t lose the game either. Ashland scored 21 unanswered points to win its fifth consecutive game, 21-14. AU is 8-2, 7-2 in the GLIAC. This is the first Ashland team to win more than seven times in a season since the 1997 NCAA playoff team went 9-2. This was also AU’s second consecutive win over the Oilers.

AU’s playoff dreams were evaporating in the early going Saturday. Findlay took the opening kickoff and covered 72 yards in nine plays, scoring on a 2-yard run by quarterback Mike Leach. That was the first touchdown the AU defense had allowed in the first quarter this season and the first points a team scored in the opening quarter against AU since Michigan Tech got a field goal back in Week 5, on Sept. 24.

Leach found Robby Rouault with an 82-yard TD pass with 13:56 to play in the first half and Findlay was in front, 14-0. That marked the largest deficit seen by the Eagles in 2005.

“Early in the game, Findlay took it to us,” admitted Owens.

“There was no panic,” said sophomore linebacker Luke Busson. “I knew they were going to make mistakes, we just had to capitalize on those mistakes. We just had to play like we know how to play.”

The translation of that means getting the ball to tailback Jason Schwalm and wide receiver Dalorean White on offense and turning the defense loose to pressure the quarterback from the moment he leaves the locker room.

The Eagles started to do that when Schwalm capped a 16-play, 77-yard drive with a 4-yard scoring run with 51 seconds to play in the first half. That brought the Eagles to within, 14-7. Schwalm carried the ball 13 times in that drive and accounted for 75 yards. He would finish the game with 182 yards on 37 carries. Over the last two weeks, Schwalm has carried the ball 82 times for 474 yards (5.8 ypc.).

“It all started with that touchdown,” said senior offensive guard Justin Dorr. “Schwalm just took over. It used to be, he’d have 60 yards, then 120 yards, off and on. Now he’s just on. He was just determined. He just lowered his shoulder and ran. He almost didn’t need any blockers.”

Owens’ words at halftime were just as straight forward.

“No rah-rah stuff,” said the AU coach. “We said, ‘Let’s make our adjustments. We survived their best shot.”

Schwalm kept giving the Oilers body shots with his running. They became so concerned with keeping him in check that they forgot about White. He broke free, got 10 yards behind the defense and hauled in a 73-yard scoring pass form junior quarterback Nick Strance (10-of-19, 173 yards) with 2:36 remaining in the third quarter. Jared Karrasch’s extra point tied the game, 14-14.

“It was supposed to go to the tight end, to Brian Mong,” said White of his touchdown catch. “The safety jumped the shorter route and I was open on the second level.”

Throughout the second half it was Schwalm on the ground and White (6 catches, 146 yards) in the air assaulting the UF defense. Still, it took time for the Oilers to break. AU didn’t score the winning touchdown until there was 6:55 left in regulation, Schwalm reaching the end zone on an 11-yard run. That finished off a 9-play, 72-yard trip.

Findlay had one last gasp left. The Oilers got to their own 46 with no timeouts and just over a minute to play. Then senior linebacker Jeremy Crabtree intercepted a Leach pass at the AU46. That put an exclamation point on a productive night for Crabtree, he had seven tackles (five solo) and blocked a field goal. The interception was his team-high fourth of the season.

Findlay outgained the Eagles, 374-367. Leach was 17 of 27 passing for 220 yards and sophomore fullback Joel McDaniel, coming off a 200-yard game last week, rambled for 91 yards on 20 carries. But Ashland worked over the UF defense in other ways. In time of possession, it was AU in front, 34:58-25:02. The Eagles converted 3-of-4 fourth down tries. That countered those opening 17 minutes when Findlay could do no wrong.

“I think we were surprised,” Owens said of the opening salvo. “No one’s done that to us all year. We’re looking around and saying, ‘What’s this?’ But they ran out of energy. You can only play with that energy so long.”

“We just said, ‘No more points, we have to play Ashland University defense,” explained junior linebacker Allen Lattimore.

On this night, no one said, “No Sweat.” And even the most ardent AU fan would admit, that the old line, “Don’t ever let them see you sweat,” didn’t apply.