By Cort Reynolds
ADA - Coming off of its fist win, the Ada football team kicks off Northwest Conference play Friday with a key game at home vs. local rival Bluffton.
The Pirates are 2-1 after defeating winless Defiance Ayersville 35-14 in week three.
Bluffton (1-0 on road, 1-1 home) beat visiting Cory-Rawson 42-26 in its opener, but then lost to Pandora-Gilboa 27-9 in their first meeting since 1965.
The Pirates of head coach Jeff Richards boast an old-school, ground-oriented offensive attack.
By Cort Reynolds
GALION - The Ada cross country team competed in the Galion Cross Country Festival Invitational meet Saturday at the Amman's Park Course.
The Bulldog boys scored 664 points to finish 24th in the 24-team, Div. III race. Meanwhile, New London won the team title with 45 points. Fredericktown finished a distant second with 89 points, followed by Ashland Crestview in third (143).
Hardin Northern finished 19th with 484 points. Sophomore Aiden Gatchel of HN ended up 51st in 18:37.1 to become the top Polar Bear finisher. The average HN time was 20:27.
Senior Anthony McFadden (Chillicothe/Paint Valley) threw four touchdown passes to sophomore Austin Eick (Rossford) to lead the Ohio Northern football team to a 39-10 victory at Muskingum in the Ohio Athletic Conference opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon at McConagha Stadium.
The Polar Bears improve to 1-1 overall and 1-0 in the OAC, while the Muskies fall to 1-1, 0-1.
Northern trailed 10-3 late in the first half, but the duo connected for four touchdowns in a span of 12:16 as ONU grabbed a 32-10 lead with 3:25 left in the third period.
Men's cross country
The Ohio Northern men's cross country team placed five runners in the top-17 en route to winning the Ohio Wesleyan Invitational on Saturday morning at Liberty Park.
"This was a really good team race for the men. We executed the race plan really well," 11-year head coach Jason Maus said.
ONU (13-0) was first with 51 points, Denison—which took the first and second individual places—was second with 75 points, and Wilmington was third with 92 points.
Northern was paced by junior Travis Sutter (Fort Recovery), who crossed fourth overall in 26:26.
Ohio Northern University has joined the Great Lakes Esports Conference which will be starting its inaugural season this fall.
Ohio Northern joins nine other local schools in the conference: Aquinas (Mich.), Lourdes, Mount Union, Mount Vernon Nazarene, Muskingum, Northwood (Mich.), Tiffin, Trine (Ind.) and Marietta.
The Polar Bears will be playing League of Legends and Overwatch in the conference.
ONU's head esports Coach Troy Chiefari is excited to compete and to have a local conference to be a part of for Ohio Northern's first esports season.
By Cort Reynolds
MT. BLANCHARD - The Ada cross country team finished 12th at the 13-team Riverdale Invitational Saturday.
The Bulldog boys scored 294 points while Hopewell-Loudon won with just 25 points. Van Buren was a distant second with 78 points, followed by USV in third (141).
