Senior running back Vante’ Hodges ran for over 300 yards and three touchdowns Saturday night to lead the Marietta College Pioneers to a 47-31 win over the Otterbein Cardinals at Don Drumm Stadium.

The win gave first-year Pioneer head coach Tom Kaufman his first home win and also got Marietta off to a great start in Ohio Athletic Conference play.

Hodges scored on touchdown runs of 64,65 and 66 yards in the game as the Pioneers overcame an early 10-0 deficit to improve to 2-0 on the season.

“He’s tremendous… a tough kid, a competitor who wants the football,” said Kaufman of Hodges. “Anytime you get a guy doing that it is pretty special and I’ve got to give a lot of credit to our offensive line and our tight ends because they blocked really well.”

The Pioneers came into the game heavy favorites after winning the last seven games between the two but early on Otterbein had all the momentum on their side as they quickly built a 10-point lead.

Otterbein took the opening drive and moved the ball deep into Pioneer territory before settling for a 24-yard field goal by Braylon Balandra to take the early lead.

After Marietta went three and out on their first possession, the Cardinals put together an impressive 76-yard, nine-play drive that ended with Cayden Lassiter recovering a fumble in the end zone for an Otterbein touchdown and a 10-point lead.

Hodges made his presence felt immediately on the next Pioneer possession as on the very first play he broke free for a 65-yard touchdown run to get the Pioneers on the board and break the Cardinals momentum.

Marietta had the extra-point blocked leaving the Cards with a 10-6 lead.

The Marietta defense came up with their first stop of the game as they forced Otterbein to punt and the offense quickly went back to work to take their first lead of the game.

Three consecutive runs by Hodges and Pioneer quarterback Antwon Johnson moved the ball deep into Cardinal territory before Johnson connected with John Sierputowski on a 29-yard touchdown pass to give the Pioneers a 13-10 lead.

The MC defense rose to the occasion once again led by linebacker Harley Hopkins who had his hand in 15 tackles in the game, when they forced Otterbein into a three-and-out.

This time it would take just three plays to reach the end zone and once again it was Hodges breaking free for a 66-yard touchdown to increase the lead to 20-10.

Both teams would get the ball back into the end zone one time before the end of the half.

A 36-yard touchdown pass from Otterbein quarterback Brayden Bayles to Zane Duning with 2:45 to play in the half cut the lead back to three but the Pioneers responded with a nine-play, 74-yard drive capped by a Johnson 22-yard touchdown run with just 22 seconds remaining in the half.

The two teams would trade early third quarter touchdown runs by their quarterbacks Bayles and Johnson but the Pioneers once again missed their extra point to leave them with a 33-24 lead midway through the third quarter.

Despite trailing for most of the game, Otterbein dominated the time of possession in the game as they had the football for nearly 40 minutes and ran 80 plays from scrimmage compared to just 45 by the Pioneers.

Kaufman felt like his defense has to do a better job at getting off the field.

“I’m pleased with our effort but we were on the field because we weren’t getting off the field on third down,” said Kaufman. “We’ve got to do a better job keeping the quarterback in the cage and we are just letting too many little things bleed out.”

Otterbein put together its most impressive drive of the game as they went 69-yards on 16 plays on a drive that took nearly nine minutes off the clock.

Matt Griffin finished the drive with an 11-yard touchdown run that cut the Pioneer lead to 33-31 with just under 10 minutes to play in the game.

It would take the Pioneers just one play to do the same amount of damage as Otterbein did in 16 and once again it would be the speed of Hodges that did the damage.

Hodges took the pitch from Johnson and quickly found an open hole created by his offensive line and then raced 64 yards for his third touchdown of the game.

“I just trusted our big boys up front and did what I had to do,” said Hodges, who became the First Pioneer to rush for 300 yards in a game since All-American Tanner Clark in 2018. “I’ve got a little bit of a track background so I’ve got to make those count.”

The Pioneer defense came up with a huge stop on the next Otterbein possession and then came up with an equally huge insurance score when Johnson connected on a 12-yard touchdown pass with Matthew Krutowskis with just two minutes left to play.

Overall Hodges, the Horn Lake, Mississippi native, rushed for 309 yards on just 16 carries, one week after rushing for 182 yards in the Pioneers season opening win over Westminster.

Kaufman didn’t feel like his team took Otterbein for credit despite dominating the series of late.

“Last week we were in a four quarter battle and we were prepared to be in another one this week,” said Kaufman. “I kept telling everyone that Otterbein was a much better football team than a lot of people gave them credit for.”

Kaufman feels like his team has a lot they can improve on but was pleased to get out of the gate with a pair of wins.

“I’m just excited for the guys and to start this season 1-0 at home and 2-0 overall is exactly where we want to be,” said Kaufman, whose team will get a week off before traveling to Capital on Sept. 27. “We thought we could have performed better today but a win is a win in the OAC and we are going to celebrate it.”