PHOTO GALLERY

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein football team dropped its home finale inside Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon, as four-straight scores from Marietta in the final quarter led to a 43-21 decision in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) action.

The Cardinals, 1-8 on the year, will conclude its season next weekend by traveling to Wilmington for kickoff at 1:30 p.m. Marietta, meanwhile, improves to 7-2 this fall and heads to top-ranked Mount Union next Saturday.

The Pioneers, coming off two recent defeats by a combined five points to John Carroll and Baldwin Wallace, grabbed early momentum by intercepting the game's first pass and returning it 40 yards for a touchdown.

Marietta later held a 14-0 lead until Otterbein scored near the end of the first quarter, when quarterback Bryce Hall found classmate Dom Ross on a 42-yard strike down into the red zone. Hall eventually finished off the 72-yard drive with a short rushing TD up the gut.

Both sides traded touchdowns in the third period, with Marietta extending the gap to 21-7 before the Cards answered on a nice fourth-and-goal strike from Hall to Reed Tucker near the pylon. Tucker tip-toed both feet in bounds for his first score as a Cardinal, making the contest 21-14 with just 39 seconds left in the quarter.

Marietta pulled away throughout the fourth, converting a 22-yard field goal and then rattling off three-straight touchdowns to expand the final margin. Otterbein never quit and engineered a last-minute scoring drive behind senior QB Steven Irwin, who guided the offense 84 yards in 90 seconds and found Casey Cook on a pair of long connections up the left sideline. The latter went for 30 yards and Cook's first-career score.

Hall, making his first start of the season behind center, completed 22 of 34 passes for 289 yards before giving way to Irwin late. Ross hauled in five catches for 103 yards while slot receiver George Redding had seven for 65.

Safety Niall Lewison led the defense with a career-high 15 tackles while Andre Douglas and Ryan Tuchow each contributed eight. Douglas also had two sacks in the final home game of his nice career.

Marietta's Darrien Fields was very efficient in completing 28 of 33 for 414 yards and three scoring strikes. He became the school's all-time leader for passing yards as the Pioneers held a 439-359 edge in total offense.

Tanner Clark, who entered the week ranked second nationally in all-purpose yardage, carried 23 times for 105 yards and a TD. Receivers Maguire Morris and Ryan Van Meter both went over the century mark.

Prior to the game, Otterbein recognized senior members of the football team, athletic training staff, cheerleading program and marching band for their contributions to the program. Among the players walking across the track were Jake Harper, Dakota Smith, Jacob Carney, Steven Irwin, Payton Vanderkooi, Dassan Jefferson, Andre Douglas, Hunter Adams, Brett Lucas, Blayne Voorhees, Dean Supelak, Rick Herbst, Evan Kennaley, Brett Schneider and Trey Playforth.