Polar Bears Beat Pioneers




This is a revenge story. Two years ago, my freshmen year, the Ohio Northern Football team faced off with the Marietta College Pioneers near the end of the 2017 season. After a long game, it comes down to a final drive from ONU to win the game. We scored and the sideline exploded with celebration! Our hopes and dreams of a playoff berth were paused when we saw the yellow penalty flag fly onto the field. A hands to the face penalty cost us the touchdown. We had another opportunity to score. We take a shot at the end zone, but fall short. Marietta storms the field in victory while our heads hang in disbelief. This loss cost us a spot in the playoffs. What would have been an 8-2 season, drops us to 7-3 and ends our time on the field.

One year later, we face off against Marietta College with the sting of the past loss fresh on our minds. Coming back to ONU during fall camp, we heard the news that our offensive signaler had accepted a job at Marietta. He is now their offensive coordinator. We had to change up our offensive for this game because he was such a big part of our offense. This game came down to the wire. Marietta scored and got the two-point conversion to go up by one with 16 seconds left on the clock. With a glimpse of hope, we attempt a drive down the field to win the game. With 8 seconds on the clock, our quarterback is sacked and the ball pops loose. The Marietta sideline erupts into celebration. For the second year, Marietta takes the game and ends our undefeated 4-0 streak.

This year's Homecoming game against Marietta came with a vendetta. For two years we have come short against this team. The week of practice was centered around the theme "all of me." We are going to have to give our all, in order to achieve an outcome different from the past. With a big homecoming crown to support us, we run through Marietta all game long. However, they sparked a comeback late in the 4th quarter. Under a minute left, Marietta is on a potential game-winning drive. Our defense intercepts the pass in the end zone to finish the game. ONU wins! Not only did we get win, we ended their undefeated streak of 3-0 and beat a nationally ranked opponent. A storybook ending to cap off the homecoming weekend.


Until Next Time,
James


Comments

  1. Michael BernerOctober 10, 2019 at 10:55 AM

    This is always a great way to beat an opponent. I had a similar rival in my hometown area whom we lost to many consecutive times. Thus, when you finally win it makes it that much better. Congrats on the win and good luck for the remainder of the season.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alexandra GeslerOctober 10, 2019 at 11:17 AM

    I was on the sidelines at the homecoming game to take pictures for the yearbook! You could feel the competitiveness and tension in the air. I always love being on the sideline because it allows be to have an inside scoop on the game. I have a few friends on the team so its always cool to see them in there element.

    ReplyDelete
  3. McKenna NewmanOctober 10, 2019 at 11:51 AM

    After watching last year's game against Marietta I wanted to win so bad. I know I literally have zero effect on the game, I feel so close to the team because my boyfriend plays. I remember how disappointed everyone was last year and I wanted to win so they could turn it around. I loved the lead ONU had in the beginning, but started to worry towards the end of the game. But thankfully it was a great result and everyone was so happy. It definitely was a great game to watch.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Numbers in PR

Image
If you're like me, then you were a fan of math until the alphabet was thrown into the mix. From algebra to calculus, I was able to do the work well, but I never truly enjoyed doing it. In chapter 10 of Social Media for Strategic Communication, it talks about measurements, evaluation, budget, and calendars in public relations. We have talked about calendars before, but what stood out to me was the measurements and evaluation. In our class discussion, it was brought up that a common misconception with people working in PR is that they do not use numbers or analytics. I was one who believed PR was more about working with people or social media and not the analytical side of things. I chose marketing and communications to study because I thought that was an opportunity to put my creativity and people skills to use. I love working with a team or interacting with new people when I'm on the job. Hearing that even in social media and public relation that analytics still fol...
Read more

Types of Listening

Image
How many of you would consider yourselves a good listener? What is the difference between hearing and listening? Do you think you practice any bad listening habits? These are all questions we were asking in my interpersonal communications class when we started a new second on listening. Hearing is simply the process of sound waves hitting your eardrum, but listening is receiving and responding to the messages. when talking about listening, there is mindful and mindless. Mindful listening is paying careless attention and mindless is focusing on something else or reacting with the "okay" or "yeah" but not really knowing what is being said. You can't stop yourself from hearing, but you can stop listening. Here are five poor listening habits that can happen when we stop listening. 1. Pseudo-listening. This is where you try to trick the speaker into think you are paying careful attention. this form of listening gives the appearance that you are paying careful...
Read more

End of the Road

Image
When I first signed up for the class, it was just to get more credits and work towards a minor. I thought the class would be a breeze. In my mind, social media was a good tool to use in my field of study, but I assumed my knowledge of social media was advanced enough to where I could make it through this class without any problems. While that was not the case, I learned more than I ever thought I would about social media and how much goes into using it. I have three takeaways that I want to share from my experiences in this class. First, I can't run from the numbers anymore. I have said this before, but I was never a huge fan of analytics when I first came to college. I did well in the classes I took, but it was never a joy of mine. However, from this class I learned that it is everywhere even in social media. The longer I try to get away from it the harder time I am going to have when I must use it; so why not embrace right? Second, find your voice and stay true to you....
Read more