Tiffin University (10-0, 8-0 G-MAC) locked up at least a share of the G-MAC Championship with a commanding 44-10 win at Ohio Dominican.
Combined with Ashland's 4-overtime 37-35 victory over Findlay, the Dragons now hold a one-game advantage over the Eagles with only a road trip to Findlay remaining. The victory also gave Head Coach Cris Reisert his 39th career victory (39-10), eclipsing Gary Goff for the most coaching wins in school history.
For the Dragons, it was a dominating first half that led to the victory. TU accounted for 41 of their 44 points in the opening 30 minutes.
After ODU got on the board first with a 38-yard field goal, the Dragons stopped another Panthers drive in dramatic fashion, as Justin Wimpye picked off a pass and returned it 77 yards for a touchdown that put TU ahead to stay 7-3.
The TU defense continued to make its presence felt, as they forced turnovers on each of ODU's next two possessions. The final turnover came on a sack by Patrick Tueimeh that was recovered by Zach McMinn on the ODU 1-yard line. Tyrese Banks-Dorn took it in from one yard out to make it 14-3 at the 2:39 mark of the first quarter.
The Dragons' offense got in on the action early in the second quarter, marching 91 yards with a mix of rushing and passing. Keegan Ray hit Josh Lewis on a 31-yard pass play to highlight the drive, and Devin Nelson subsequently rushed it in from 10 yards out to make it 21-3.
Ray continued the passing attack on TU's next drive, connecting with Javier Wills on a 58-yard TD strike with 9:00 left in the half that made it 28-3.
Ray drove TU's offense 68 yards on its next possession, connecting on 6 throws along the way culminating in a 2-yard pass to Conner Muldowney with 1:38 remaining to push the lead to 35-3.
After TU's defense forced another fumble with 8 seconds remaining on ODU's 37 yard line, the Dragons ended the first half in dramatic fashion with a 37-yard TD toss from Ray to Lewis as time expired to make it 41-3 at halftime.
Tiffin controlled the clock the rest of the way, with Grant Woodfin tacking on a 19-yard field goal for Tiffin's only points of the second half.
Overall Tiffin totaled 426 yards of offense including 260 through the air and no turnovers in the game. TU's defense only allowed 249 yards and allowed only 72 yards rushing to the Panthers.
Tiffin was 4-for-4 in red zone chances and converted 6 of 14 third-down conversions while holding ODU to just 3-for-14 on third downs. Tiffin also did not allow a sack and had 23 first downs to ODU's 13.
Ray had his best day yet at quarterback, connecting on 16 of 24 passes for 260 yards and 3 touchdowns with no interceptions and no sacks. Josh Lewis had 88 yards receiving while Wills had 71 and Jalen Thomas added 47 yards.
Devin Nelson rushed for 81 yards followed by Banks-Doron with 39 and Ronald Blackman with 31.
Barry Brown led the defense with 6 tackles and 2 for loss, while Zeke Brown had 5 stops. Wimpye and Tueimeh had interceptions, while Tueimeh also added 3 tackles, a sack, 2 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. Robert Holtz and Kris Artis also posted sacks while Antonio O'Berry and Jesse Connell had 4 tackles each.