Ohio beat Southeastern Louisiana 35-14 on Saturday.
Derrius Vick said the team didn’t do anything during the lightning delay.
Quentin Poling said the two rain delays reminded him of his senior year of high school.
Coach Frank Solich used the additional time as way to cement a win, addressing anything from the weather to the play calling to guys in the weight room.
However anyone utilized the rain delay, the hour-long pause prolonged the inevitable, a 35-14 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday at Peden Stadium.
“It gives you time to get around and talk to people, your players and your coaches,” Solich said. “And that’s good because there are a lot of things you want to correct that you can’t do in the huddle necessarily when they’re coming off the field.”
Leading 28-14 with 8:05 remaining, consecutive weather delays forced Ohio and Southeastern Louisiana to return to the locker room for 30 minutes.
The teams came back out for warm ups, but another lightning strike meant another delay, forcing play to resume at 5:59 p.m. Kickoff was at 2:04 p.m.
“It’s definitely a bummer,” Poling said. “Especially when you come out to an almost empty crowd, so it’s a different feel there … then that second delay came, which was an even bigger bummer.”
When play finally resumed, it took Ohio three plays to go 75 yards for a touchdown, thanks to a 67-yard pass from Vick to Brendan Cope.
The pass from Vick, who left the Marshall game early last week with an injury, gave the quarterback his first 300-yard passing game in his career. He finished Saturday with 327 yards and two touchdowns.
“I thought he played really, really well,” Solich said. “I don’t know what his throwing percentage was, but it had to be pretty good. He had one turnover, the interception, but he had touchdown passes. I thought he showed calmness."
That 75-yard drive, which lasted 1:44, perfectly aligned with the pattern the Bobcats are consistently falling into: a fast start, allowing the opponent to slightly creep back into the game and then pulling ahead late to secure the win.
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The Bobcats took a 21-0 lead to start the game, but the Lions retaliated, scoring 14 points unanswered.
Ohio then scored two more touchdowns to seal the win and keep the undefeated season alive, improving the Bobcats to 3-0 for the first time since 2012. The program went 9-4 that year.
“(Saturday’s game) could’ve been better,” Vick said of the win. “But at the end of the day, you have to go week by week and get a W. And that’s what happened this week.”
