COLUMBUS, Ohio — Most of the crowd of 105,017 had filed out of Ohio Stadium before they encountered their only disappointment of the day.
Dane Sanzenbacher tied two school records by catching four touchdown passes from Terrelle Pryor, and No. 2 Ohio State poured it on to beat Eastern Michigan 73-20 on Saturday - the most points by the Buckeyes in 60 years.
The biggest cheers throughout the day came when it was announced that Arkansas was leading top-ranked Alabama. The Crimson Tide came from behind to win 24-20, the only damper on an otherwise glittering afternoon for the Buckeyes.
After all, there was certainly no drama at Ohio Stadium. The Buckeyes (4-0) scored on their first six possessions against the 44 1 /2-point underdogs, who lost their 16th game in a row.
Pryor completed 20 of 26 passes for 224 yards and the 4 scores, rushed seven times for 104 yards and a touchdown and also caught a 20-yard scoring pass from his former high school teammate, Jordan Hall, late in the third quarter. Sanzenbacher had nine catches for 108 yards.
Eastern Michigan (0-4) did put together three long scoring drives against an Ohio State defense that had surrendered just two touchdowns coming in. But the Eagles were overmatched at almost every position, and Jaamal Berry added a 67-yard touchdown run for Ohio State, the redshirt freshman’s first in his promising college career.
It took just three plays on each of Ohio State’s first two possessions to make it 14-0.
After Eastern Michigan began with a three-and-out, Pryor ran left and then cut back to the middle of the field on a 53-yard scramble to open the scoring. The Eagles punted again before Pryor hit passes of 9 yards to Brandon Saine and 25 yards to DeVier Poseyto set up a Sanzenbacher’s 31-yard catch on a crossing pattern for the score.
Dan Herron took a pitch around left end for a 7-yard score after Devin Barclay’s 42-yard field goal to put the Buckeyes ahead 24-0 after a quarter.
Pryor later hit Sanzenbacher on scoring tosses of 9, 7 and 8 yards.
In other games involving Big Ten teams, Kirk Cousins threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns, and No. 25 Michigan State (4-0) had no trouble without Coach Mark Dantonio, winning 45-7 over Northern Colorado (2-2). ... Quarterbacks Denard Robinson and Tate Forcier were injured in No. 21 Michigan’s 65-21 victory over Bowling Green (1-3) in Ann Arbor, Mich.Robinson twisted his left knee after a 47-yard run in the first quarter and didn’t return. Forcier left the game in the fourth quarter after also appearing to hurt his left knee. ... Dan Persa threw two touchdown passes, both to Jeremy Ebert, and Northwestern held off Central Michigan 30-25 in Evanston, Ill. Jacob Schmidt added two rushing scores to help the Wildcats (4-0) remain undefeated. ... Austin Dantin rushed for two touchdowns and passed for two more to lead Toledo past Purdue 31-20 in West Lafayette, Ind. The sophomore quarterback totaled 64 yards on the ground and completed 21 of 31 passesfor 209 yards for the Rockets (3-1). ... Freshman James White rushed for four touchdowns, Scott Tolzien threw for three more scores and No. 11 Wisconsin rolled over Austin Peay 70-3 in Madison, Wis. ... Ricky Stanzi threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns and No. 18 Iowa trounced Ball State 45-0 in Iowa City, Iowa. Adam Robinson added 115 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns for the Hawkeyes. ... Collin Wagner tied a school record with five field goals, Evan Royster ran for 187 yards and No. 23 Penn State’s defense dominated in the second half in a 22-13 victory in State College, Pa., to survive a scare from upstart Temple. ... Ben Chappell threw a career-high four touchdown passes to lead Indiana past Akron 35-20 in Bloomington, Ind. Chappell completed 23 of 33 passes for 342 yards. Terrance Turner caught 6 passes for 121 yards and 1 touchdown for the Hoosiers (3-0).Patrick Nicely was 15 of 27 for 175 yards with 2 touchdowns for the Zips (0-4), who have not beaten a Big Ten school since 1894. ... Chad Spann ran for a career-high 223 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead Northern Illinois past Minnesota 34-23 in Minneapolis. Chandler Harnish threw touchdown passes to Martel Moore and Connor Flahive for the Huskies (2-2). Adam Weber threw for a season-high 373 yards and a touchdown for Minnesota (1-3), which lost its third in a row at home. The inconsistent Gophers hung with No. 20 USC for three quarters last week before losing 32-21, and lost 41-38 to South Dakota, an FCS team, two weeks ago.
Sports, Pages 34 on 09/26/2010