Oct. 9, 2010

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NORFOLK, Va. -- The Old Dominion football team finished the night with 442 yards of offense and pulled to within seven points of #14/16 Cal Poly with 10 minutes remaining in the game, but the Mustangs outlasted the Monarchs, 50-37, Saturday night at Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium.

Cal Poly, ranked 14th in The Sports Network Poll and 16th in the FCS Coaches' Poll, were the second nationally-ranked squad the Monarchs have fallen to this season. ODU drops to 3-3 overall and heads into a bye-week. The Mustangs meanwhile improve to 4-2 on the year.

The high scoring affair saw David Mahr record 156 of Cal Poly's season-best 326 rushing yards and quarterback Andre Broadous pass for 212 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Thomas DeMarco (Palm Desert, Calif.) threw for 327 yards and tied his career mark with four touchdown, two of which dropped into the hands of Marquel Thomas (Va. Beach, Va.). Prentice Gill (Los Angeles, Calif.) collected 133 yards receiving on six catches.

Scoring open early and happened often. As is the trend with the Monarchs, the opening drive resulted in an ODU score. With the Monarchs opening the game kicking off, Lee Daniel (Balitmore, Md.) recovered the on-side kick and five plays later, ODU was up 7-0. Desmond Williams (Windsor, N.C.) found his way into the end zone on a 10-yard run, giving the Monarchs their earliest score of the year.

The Mustangs responded immediately going on to score 20 straight points. On their first drive of the night, Jake West connected on a 28-yard field goal to cut into the ODU lead. Unfortunately for the Monarchs, Cal Poly would produce a pair of touchdowns, including a 75-yard end zone reception for Dominique Johnson, to go up 17-7 at the end of the opening quarter of play.

West put up another field goal, this time from 21-yards out, to put his Mustang squad up 20-7 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the third stanza.

From that point, each team traded scores until the mid-point of the fourth quarter. After a scoreless third quarter, the Monarchs and Mustangs combined for a 40-point fourth quarter.

Colby Goodwyn (Hampton, Va.) got the Monarchs into the redzone with his 79-yard kick return to help set up Jarod Brown (Yorktown, Va.) for a 34-yard field goal attempt. After Brown's kick sailed through the uprights, the Monarchs trailed by just seven points, 37-30, with 9:04 remaining in the game.

Cal Poly, however, used back-to-back touchdowns to keep the game out of reach for the Monarchs. The Mustangs' Jake Romanelli rushed down field for 35-yards after the Monarchs fumbled on fourth and 10th to put Cal Poly up 50-30.

The Monarchs' Chris Lovitt (Stafford, Va.) caught a nine-yard pass from DeMarco to round out the night's scoring.

Defensively, Craig Wilkins (Washington, D.C.) led the way with 11 tackles, including a fumble recovery. Devon Simmons (Va. Beach, Va.) made 10 stops.

The Monarchs head into a bye-week and then wrap up their three game homestand at Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium on Saturday, October 23rd against newcomer Georgia State. That game will air on Cox Ch. 11 with kick at 3:30 p.m.

MONARCH MOMENTS:

OPENING WITH A BANG:
And no, we're not talking about the howitzer you hear being shot off before the Monarchs run onto Foreman Field. Old Dominion has scored on its opening drive in four of its games this season and 11 times in the 17 game history of the program.

ANOTHER FIRST:
Desmond Williams' opening touchdown was his first of 2010 and the fourth touchdown of his career.

KICKOFF RETURN RECORDS:Colby Goodwyn's 89-yard kickoff return that lead to Reid Evans' touchdown reception in the second quarter was the longest kick return by a Monarch to-date. Goodwyn would later have a 79-yard kick return that places his name again the record books, this time with the second-longest kick return in the brief history of ODU football. The previous high was a 76-yard return by Mario Crawford in ODU's historic opener against Chowan last year.

UP, UP, AND AWAY:
Leading FCS punter Jonathan Plisco made four appearances Saturday night. He averaged 51.5 yards, including a long of 59.