Ohio (6-2, 3-1 Mid-American Conference) was able to recover from one of its worst offensive performances of the season last week against Northern Illinois with a 20-17 victory over Mid-American Conference foe Western Michigan (2-6,1-3 MAC).
Leading the charge for Ohio was graduate student Sam Wiglusz, who had 155 yards receiving with a touchdown.
“With what we did last year, you would have hoped to have a hotter start to the year,” Wiglusz said. “We’re kind of trying to find our identity and what makes us tick.”
Despite the win and some big numbers out of Ohio’s skill position players, the offense struggled at times on Saturday, especially in the first half.
Going into halftime, Ohio had a 6-0 lead and had yet to find the end zone in 30 minutes of football. The offense was able to deliver some impressive drives but struggled to score touchdowns early on.
“It took a little bit to get into a rhythm but once we did, we were able to get up and down the field a little bit,” Wiglusz said. “We struggled to get in the endzone a bit but we showed progress with building some drives together.”
Ohio’s first touchdown of the game came midway through the third quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run from sophomore back Sieh Bangura. The short touchdown run was set up by some elite passing early in the half. On the first drive of the half, Wiglusz had 50 yards receiving.
“He’s a special player and he wants the ball,” Head Coach Tim Albin said. “He’s crafty, not the fastest, but you know, he’ll get behind people … He does it the right way. He’s such an intense competitor and I think that’s why he’s such a great player.”
After Western Michigan marched down the field for a responding touchdown of its own, Ohio got the ball back, needing a score.
With a slim 3-point lead to start the fourth quarter, Quarterback Kurtis Rourke proceeded to target Wiglusz as the team marched down the field. A 78-yard offensive drive ended in an impressive 7-yard, toe-tapping reception in the back corner of the end zone to put Ohio up by two scores with under 5 minutes to play.
“We needed seven; three wasn’t cutting it,” Wiglusz said. “The look panned out the way that we wanted it to. Kurtis put it up there in the back corner; that ball was floating and he put it right in the corner. I am glad that I was able to get a foot down there. It was a big one.”
The offense ended with 460 yards of total offense, its second-best game on offense in terms of yardage.
“It feels good, finally starting to get some rhythm with Kurtis (Rourke) and put some drives together,” Wiglusz said. “The defense kept stepping up; we kept getting the ball back in good situations and good field position.”
