Sports

Ohio Northern senior linebacker Zach Schmerge (Wapakoneta) has been named the OAC Football Defensive Player of the Week for his effort's in ONU's 35-28 loss to Marietta on Saturday.

Schmerge had a season-high 19 tackles (four solo) and a tackle for loss to lead the ONU defense.

It is the first time this season and the fourth time in his career that Schmerge has received the honor.

The Polar Bears will return to action Saturday with a 1:30 pm contest at Wilmington.

Freshman Jenna Fuller (Countryside, Ill./Lyons Township) has been named the Women's Soccer Ohio Athletic Conference Player of the Week for the week of Oct. 22-29.

The freshman earns the honor for the first time in her career.

Fuller led the Polar Bears (16-1-1 overall, 9-0-0 OAC) to a 2-0-0 record last week.

In Northern's 7-2 victory over Baldwin Wallace, the freshman tallied two goals and added two assists for Northern.

During the Polar Bears' 5-0 victory over Marietta, Fuller added her league-leading 11th assist of the season.

ADA -- Freshman Zachary Yoder (Goshen, Ind./Northridge) scored with 1:53 left in regulation to rally the Ohio Northern men's soccer team to a 1-1 tie on Senior Night on Saturday night at Kerscher Stadium.

The Polar Bears wrap up their regular season with a 12-5-2 overall record and are 5-3-1 in Ohio Athletic Conference play, while the Pioneers move to 10-5-3, 4-3-2.

ONU will be the No. 4 seed and Marietta will be the No. 5 seed in next week's OAC Tournament.

The two teams will meet again in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 7 pm at Kerscher Stadium.

ADA -- Junior Will Freed (Carlsbad, Calif./San Marcos) threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns, but his final TD was called back due to a penalty and the Ohio Northern football team fell 35-28 to Marietta on a chilly Saturday afternoon at Dial-Roberson Stadium.

The Polar Bears fall to 5-3 overall and 4-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Pioneers improve to 5-3, 4-3.

Freed was 17-of-32 passing for 245 yards, but his 16-yard TD strike to sophomore Rodney Holmes (Miami, Fla./Hallandale) with 37 seconds left in the game appeared to pull ONU within 35-34, but it was called back on a hands to the face penalty on the home team.

TIFFIN — For the first time in school history, the Ohio Northern men's cross country team claimed its third consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference Championship as junior Ian McVey (Stow/Munroe Falls) claimed the OAC Individual title and senior Matt Molinaro(Sterling Heights, Mich./De La Salle) finished as the runner up to lead the Polar Bears.

The Polar Bears (80-17 overall) won the team title with 33 team points, while Mount Union was second with 61 points and John Carroll rounded out the top-3 with 64 points.

TIFFIN — Senior Emily Richards (Delware/Hayes) and junior Ashlie Baumann (Sterling Heights, Mich./Stevenson) each earned First Team All-OAC honors to lead the Ohio Northern women's cross country team to a fourth place finish at the OAC Championships on Saturday afternoon at the Clinton Heights Golf Course.

The Polar Bears move to 67-29 on the year.

Richards earned runners up honors after she finished second of 120 runners in 22:04.4, while Baumann finished sixth overall in 22:42.9.

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