By Tim Glon
BEREA — Senior Patrick Angle hit junior Devon Price on a 10-yard TD pass with nine seconds left to lift Ohio Northern to a 37-35 victory at Baldwin Wallace in an Ohio Athletic Conference football opener for both schools Saturday afternoon at Finnie Stadium.
The Polar Bears improve to 2-0, 1-0 OAC, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 1-1, 0-1.
Angle led Ohio Northern with 384 yards of total offense, rushing for 115 yards and a score and throwing for 269 yards and four scores.
Price had 194 all-purpose yards for the Polar Bears and caught 10 passes for 123 yards and two scores.
Trailing 28-17 entering the fourth quarter, ONU scored three TDs in the final 15 minutes to rally for the victory.
With the win, ONU head coach Dean Paul becomes the only active coach to win a game at each of the 10 OAC schools.
"I am very proud of our guys," Paul said. "They just kept battling, hanging in there. It could have gotten away from us on a couple of occasions, but we kept playing hard and got the momentum back each time."
Northern got the ball on its own 25-yard line with 3:32 left in the game after BW regained a 35-31 lead.
ONU marched 75 yards in 16 plays for the winning score, converting two third downs and two fourth downs on the drive.
This marks the second time this season that Ohio Northern has rallied from a large early deficit, as ONU came from 17-0 behind to win at Washington (Mo.) 31-24 on Sept. 6.
Twice the Polar Bears found themselves down by 14 points in the first half. Both times ONU battled back.
The Yellow Jackets got on top early 7-0 when Isaac Reed scored on a 2-yard run just 4:14 into the contest.
BW made it 14-0 on an 11-yard run by Tyler Moeglin with 4:36 left in the opening quarter.
Northern got on the board on the first play of the second quarter when Angle hit senior Shaile Chamberlain on a 7-yard score to pull with 14-7.
The Polar Bears tied the game at 14-all when Angle hit Price on a 30-yard TD strike with 9:03 left in the first half.
Just when ONU had momentum, the Yellow Jackets again went out to a 14-point lead.
The hosts grabbed a 21-14 lead on a 37-yard TD pass from Moeglin to Michael Slack with 7:34 left in the half.
Moeglin hit Kyle Dunne on a 16-yard TD pass with 19 seconds left in the half to give BW a 28-14 lead at intermission.
Northern took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched to the BW 8-yard line, where junior Andrew DiMario nailed a 25-yard field goal and it was 28-17 with 11:06 left in the third period.
Angle raced in from 56 yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter to pull ONU within 28-24 with 14:49 left in the game.
Angle hit sophomore Reed Allen on a 25-yard TD pass with 10:41 left in the game to give Northern its first lead of the game at 31-28.
BW regained the lead at 35-31 on a 1-yard sneak by Moeglin with 3:32 to go, marching 66 yards and taking 7:04 off the clock in the process.
Moeglin completed 15-of-21 passes for 176 yards and two TDs and ran for 87 yards and two scores for BW.
Defensively, senior Dillon Kwiat had 10 tackles to lead Ohio Northern.
The Polar Bears will continue their early season road trip next Saturday with a 2 pm contest at No. 16-ranked Heidelberg in Tiffin.