Frank Solich was satisfied. His team hadn’t stopped scoring when it could have.
Ohio didn’t play a perfect game, but the game against Hampton on Saturday was as close as it could get.
The Bobcats defeated the Pirates 59-0 to open the season at Peden Stadium.
Ohio scored eight touchdowns, the most it's scored in a game since the Gardner-Webb game last season. The win against the Pirates also marked the Bobcats’ first shutout since a win over Kent State in November 2015.
The improvement on offense had materialized.
“Things can get a little sloppy sometimes in this kind of game, and we played a ton of guys,” Solich said. “It’s difficult sometimes to keep scoring and not having some turnovers, and then all of a sudden the game becomes a mess from your perspective as a coach.”
What Solich means is that the Bobcats could have still won the game while still not having played their best game. They could have not looked as polished on offense or defense, not continuing the production the starters began with.
But that wasn’t the case. When the young players entered the game, players such as freshman running back Julian Ross and sophomore quarterback Nathan Rourke, the production remained the same.
“We just knew we wanted to put up more points (after the half),” redshirt freshman wide receiver Cameron Odom said. “We’re a young offense, but we wanted to prove that we can put up a lot of points this year.”
Even though the Bobcats had this level of domination against an FCS school, it’s still hard to ignore the performance.
This wouldn’t have happened last year. The most points the Bobcats scored last season was 54, against Texas State in the season opener. Ohio lost in triple overtime.
On the Bobcats’ second drive of the game against the Pirates, Maxwell threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to redshirt junior receiver Papi White.
And then the touchdowns began to roll into Peden.
The Bobcats had already scored 20 unanswered points before halftime, but then they scored some more. Rourke scored three total rushing touchdowns. Dorian Brown had a rushing touchdown. Ross had two rushing touchdowns, and Dylan Wears added one as well.
And then the Bobcats were done.
The Bobcats’ offense was like a monsoon — it just wouldn’t stop.
The last time Ohio rushed for seven touchdowns was 2002 against Kent State.
Solich has been adamant about his confidence in the offensive line, and with this performance, that’s for good reason. The holes the line created were spacious and the Bobcats’ running backs simply had to find a spot and burst through it.
“Our backs, I thought they all ran hard, showed some explosiveness at times,” Solich said.
With how the Bobcats finished this first game, Solich should be satisfied because, well, there isn’t much to be dissatisfied about.
His team kept scoring, even when they could have stopped.
“This one (game), I thought there was enough guys that did enough good things throughout the course of the game,” Solich said.
