Chippewas mauled by Ohio, 52-3

Jerry Hoffman

ATHENS,
Ohio – Central was part of a record setting day in its 52-3 loss to Ohio
Saturday.
However, it wasn’t the Chippewas who were the ones setting those records.
Rather, it was the Bobcats who rushed for 444 yards and more importantly
seven touchdowns.
“That’s what we do,” Ohio Head Coach Jim Grobe said. “We run the football.”

The seven touchdowns ties an Ohio school record set back in 1953 against
Western Michigan.
The margin of victory (49) also set a record for the worse loss by either
team in the series, which started in 1972. The previous mark was held
by Central in a 52-7 win at home in 1990.
“They (Ohio) have a hard offense to adjust to,” CMU Head Coach Mike DeBord
said. “We had some people in places today, that were there to make tackles
and we didn’t make them.”
Central started the game on a positive note taking the opening kickoff
down the field on the arms and legs of quarterback Derrick Vickers. Vickers
was started in place of the injured Pete Shepherd.
Vickers hooked up with his favorite target David Hannah for passes of
16, 9 and 5 to march the Chippewas down the field.
With a first down on the Ohio 28-yard line Vickers through a pass that
was intercepted but a roughing the passer penalty over turned the call.
The penalty set up a first down on the Bobcat 14-yard line.
The Chippewas could do nothing with the excellent field position and had
to settle for a 28-yard field goal by Paul Savich. The drive took Central
69 yards on 15 plays and took 5:24 off the clock.
The good start quickly turned into disaster when the Bobcat offense finally
touched the ball.
Ohio quarterback Dontrell Jackson led his team down the field on the strength
of his legs rather than his arm. In the first drive Jackson had runs of
26 and 9 yards to set up a Chad Brinker seven-yard touchdown run.
The touchdown for Brinker was his first of three on the day.
After each team shut the others offense down Central found itself with
the ball again. This time in the final minute of the first quarter. On first down Vickers pass was intercepted by Chris London and returned 17 yards. The pick was Vickers first of two on the day.
Jackson wasted little time finding pay dirt when he called his own number for a 27-yard scamper to the end zone.
Ohio scored another touchdown and a field goal in the second making the score 24-3 at halftime.
The Bobcats put the game away in the third scoring on all but one of their possessions.
For the game Jackson had 141-yards on just 10 carries while Brinker had 81-yards on 14 touches and three touchdown.
Vickers ended the game completing just 12-of-28 and had the two interception. He was replaced late in the game by Shepherd who went 6 of 9 for 37 yards.
“Derrick came in the game and was playing very well he just made a couple of bad decisions,” DeBord said. “He did some things out there he has to learn from.”
Vince Webber was the leading rusher for a Central running game which only gained 111 yards on 32 carries. Webber had 58-yards on 11 touches.
Up next for Central is a 1 p.m. home game Saturday against Ball State.
“We have a lot of young kids playing right now,” DeBord said. “They’re obviously not as old as what they’re playing against. We’ll get better.”