Football Falls To Ohio Dominican 35-24

OVERVIEW – OHIO DOMINICAN
SCORE: Ohio Dominican Panthers 35, Northwood Timberwolves 24
RECORDS: Northwood (2-8, 1-6 GMAC), Ohio Dominican (6-3, 5-2 GMAC)
LOCATION: Hantz Field – Midland, Mich.
RECAP: Northwood drops GMAC contest to Ohio Dominican at home 35-24 Saturday (November 5).

INSIDE THE GAME

• The Timberwolves began the game with a 13-play, drive to get to the ODU 12. Northwood would attempt a 29-yard field goal. The attempt was successful, but an illegal formation from the Timberwolves caused NU to attempt the field goal again. The following 34-yard field goal was no good, leaving the Timberwolves scoreless.
• Angelo Czarnecki used an athletic leaping catch to bring down the 35-yard pass from Nate Gomez to set NU up nicely in Ohio Dominican territory. The Timberwolves also used a handful of nice rushes from Brec Alward and Kentrell Ware to get closer to the endzone. Northwood found themselves on the Ohio Dominican two-yard line but were unable to find the endzone before an errant snap brought the Timberwolves back to the 17. Max Gonos nailed the 33-yard field goal for the first points of the contest for either team, as Northwood took the 3-0 late in the second quarter.
• Wasting no time, the Panthers reached the end zone with a deep 80-yard touchdown pass on the opening play of the following drive. Ohio Dominican would take the 7-3 lead with 4:19 to go in the half.
• Momentum stayed on Ohio Dominican's side on the beginning of Northwood's drive. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the Timberwolves back 15 yards. On the following play, the Panthers defense came up with the interception to regain possession on the Northwood 36. Just under a minute after their first touchdown, ODU took advantage of their field position to find the endzone again and extend their lead to 14-3.
• Mbaimba Tunkara and the Northwood defense came up huge right before the break to cut into the Ohio Dominican lead. Tunkara read the Ohio Dominican offense perfectly, grabbing the intended pass and returning it 35 yards for a touchdown. The successful extra point brought NU within 14-10, giving Northwood life with 1:16 to go before half.
• The Panthers marched right back down the field, pushing their lead back to eleven with 18 seconds remaining in the half. ODU traveled 71 yards in under one minute, completing the drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to make the score 21-10..
• Ohio Dominican added their first rushing touchdown of the contest to push their lead to 28-10 with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter. The Panthers traveled 80 yards in eight plays as Jordan Pantaleo rushed 15 yards down the middle to finish the drive.
• The beginning of the fourth quarter saw the Northwood offense getting it done with a 9-play, 77-yard drive. Connections between Kelbert and Ethan Bunch as well as solid rushing from Alward marched NU down the field. Alward would eventually punch the ball into the endzone with a one-yard run to get the Timberwolves within 28-17 with just over 13 minutes to go in the contest.
• ODU would respond with a touchdown 35-yard passing touchdown from Jake Byrd to Andrew Wolf, their fourth connection of the contest. With 9:18 to go in the game, this extended the Ohio Dominican lead to 35-17.
• Four straight deep passes from Kelbert on four plays brought NU from their own four-yard line to ODU's 27. A 17-yard rush from Kentrell Ware brought the Timberwolves into the redzone. Kelbert fired a pass to Grant Klepaldo, who would pull down the catch to score his first career touchdown. With a minute and a half remaining in the contest, Northwood would pull within 35-24, which proved to be the final score.

GAME STATS

• FIRST DOWNS: Northwood 26, Ohio Dominican 19
• RUSHES-YARDS: Northwood 43-142, Ohio Dominican 19-101
• PASSING YARDS: Northwood 263 (21-44, TD, 2 INT), Ohio Dominican 336 (26-40, 4 TD, INT)
• TOTAL OFFENSE, PLAYS-YARDS: Northwood 87-405, Ohio Dominican 59-437
• TIME OF POSSESSION: Northwood 38:03, Ohio Dominican 21:57

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

• Tunkara: INT, TD, 4 tackles, 2 TFL
• Alward: TD, 96 rushing yards
• Czarnecki: 90 receiving yards
• Klepadlo: TD
• Kelbert: 144 passing yards (12-27), TD
• Drew Carpenter: Nine tackles

UP NEXT

• The Timberwolves will play Walsh at home on Saturday for their final contest of the season (November 12). Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.