Ohio gets its first 5-0 MAC start since 1997 on Duncan Brune's 91-yard run

Ohio is 5-0 in the Mid-American Conference for the first time since 1997. The Bobcats beat Akron 28-20 on Tuesday night at InfoCision Stadium, per the AP recap on ESPN, and Duncan Brune's 91-yard touchdown run with 3:57 left settled it.

Ohio is 7-2 overall. Akron falls to 1-8 and 0-5, still the only MAC team without a conference win.

Akron had it for 13 seconds

The Zips did exactly what we said would tell you something about Ohio: they hung around into the fourth quarter. Jordan Gant ran in from a yard out with 9:35 left, and Cibastian Broughton hit Marcel Williams on the two-point try for a 17-14 Akron lead.

The lead lasted 13 seconds. On Ohio's next play, Nick Poulos found Dom Dorwart for a 60-yard touchdown.

Brune broke his 91-yarder about five minutes later. He finished with 111 yards on 10 carries. Akron kicked a 43-yard field goal with 1:56 left, its fourth of the night, but that was it.

The lines

Poulos went 12 of 20 for 197 yards and a touchdown and ran for 45 yards and another score. Dorwart caught four passes for 108 yards. Michael Molnar had 16 tackles and a sack. Ohio's first touchdown came from the defense, when DJ Walker returned a Broughton interception 45 yards with nine seconds left in the first quarter.

Gant ran for 112 yards and a touchdown, and Broughton threw for 232 yards. Akron had 26 first downs to Ohio's 12 and outgained the Bobcats 392 to 358, per the ESPN box score.

The take

This was closer than a 6-2 team should let a 1-7 team get, and Ohio's 88 penalty yards didn't help. The Bobcats still found two explosive plays when they had to, and a team that wins this way in November usually has something. Now they get the real test: a trip to Miami (OH) next Tuesday.

Watch whether Ohio can stay clean at Yager Stadium, because the MAC title race now runs through that game.