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ATHENS, Ohio - Sieh Bangura rushed for 147 yards and three touchdowns and Duncan Brune rushed for 126 yards and two touchdowns to lead a dominant rushing effort for Ohio in a 48-21 win over Northern Illinois on Saturday.
Bangura scored two touchdowns by the 12:13 mark of the second quarter, with a Parker Navarro rushing touchdown sandwiched between them.
Navarro was 17-of-23 passing for 205 yards and an interception.
Brune got on the board with a 66-yard scamper early in the third quarter. His second came less than seven minutes later.
Ohio (4-3, 2-1 Mid-American Conference) outgained Northern Illinois 538-293, with the offense going 5-for-5 in the red zone.
Josh Holst was 21 of 29 with 161 yards and a couple of passing touchdowns for Northern Illinois (1-6, 0-3 MAC), but five of the Huskies' first seven drives ended in punts.
Their penultimate drive ended in a 91-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Jalen Thomeson with 2:52 remaining.
What they're saying:
"Obviously credit Ohio, they were better in all three phases," head coach Thomas Hammock said. "We’ve got to find a way to play better. I thought we did some good things offensively in the second half. We need to play faster to get more plays off. Ohio had a really good plan offensively and ran downhill."
"We played faster and with more urgency in the second half," Hammock said. "We called plays at the line of scrimmage which is what we need to do to pick up the tempo and let our guys play."