NORFOLK, Va. – Middle Tennessee jumped out to a 24-0 lead with 7:01 to play in the second quarter as the Blue Raiders defeated the Old Dominion Monarchs 41-28 on Friday night at Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium.
This marked the first Friday night football game for the Monarchs and also the first Conference USA home game in school history. Full social media coverage can be found at www.odusports.com/storify.
Middle Tennessee jumped out to the 24-0 lead, but the Monarchs came back to cut the lead to 31-21 on Antonio Vaughan’s third touchdown catch of the day, a 4-yard score from Taylor Heinicke.
The Blue Raiders followed by pushing the lead to 38-21 by converting a third and 13 as Austin Grammer connected with Marcus Henry for a 53-yard touchdown pass.
ODU came back to cut it to a 10-point lead again as the Monarchs capped a seven play, 74-yard drive in under two minutes as Heinicke hit true freshman Marques Little for a four-yard touchdown pass, the first touchdown of Little’s career.
MT drove 37-yards for a 29-yard Cody Clark field goal to make the score 41-28 and the final score of the night.
Neither team scored in the first half, but MT tallied 24 unanswered points by the 7:01 mark. ODU scored for the first time at the 2:37 mark when Heinicke found Vaughan for a 27-yard touchdown to go into the intermission down 24-7.
The Monarchs scored first in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 10 when Heinicke found Vaughan for the second time at the 7:01 mark. Middle Tennessee answered with a score of it’s own to go up 31-14 with 4:55 left in the quarter.
Heinicke went 29-for-44 for 362-yards and four touchdowns while also running for 16-yards. Zach Pascal led ODU with eight receptions for 110-yards while Vaughan finished with seven catches for 105-yards and three touchdowns. Martez Simpson led the defense with 11 tackles while TJ Ricks had nine tackles, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble.
Austin Grammer threw for two touchdowns, going 25-for-30 on the night and rushed for 67 yards. Jordan Parker picked up 158 yards on the ground on 31 carries. Marcus Henry made four catches for 83 yards for MTSU. Chris Brown netted seven tackles and Shubert Bastien recorded 2.5 sacks.
Notes – The Friday night game was the first game in school history not played on a Saturday … It was also the first Conference USA home game in school history … Heinicke, Nick England and Andrew Everett were all high school teammates of Middle Tennessee running back Jordan Parker … Bumni Rotimi recorded his first career sack in the first quarter … Heinicke’s 362 passing yards vaulted him into 12th place on the FBS career passing yardage list, while his four TD passes puts him tied for ninth with USC’s Matt Barkley with 116 … Heinicke’s 378 total yards of offense puts him 10th all-time behind Kellen Moore of Boise State … With his fourth catch of the day, Antonio Vaughan became ODU’s leader in career receptions. He passed Nick Mayers who had 190; Vaughan now has 194 for his career … The three TD’s gave Vaughan the school’s career touchdown record as well, passing Thomas DeMarco and Mayers with 32 career scores … Martez Simpson led ODU with a career-best 11 tackles … True freshman punter Jarrett Cervi booted a career-long 51-yard punt … Redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Galen Evans started the first game of his career.