The Oakland Football Club (6-0) defeated Ohio State (1-3) Saturday in a Great Lakes Eastern Conference matchup 48-3.

“This was a statement game to show we are the real deal,” Oakland running back Austin Heminger said.

The game was all Oakland. The Golden Grizzly defense forced three fumbles and two interceptions, giving Oakland’s offense many opportunities to score.

“The key to winning today’s game was teamwork. Everybody was doing their job; everybody did well,” Oakland head coach Chris Pickney said. “They were like a well-oiled machine on both sides of the ball. On offense we were hard to stop, and on defense, we were all over Ohio State.”

Because Ohio State had forfeited multiple games, their record was only 1-2 coming into the game. Their roster of 18 paled in comparison to Oakland’s roster about 35 players. Ohio State had the same players playing multiple positions.

It only took two series until Oakland’s Luke Dushaj forced a fumble and brought it back for a touchdown. In the next series, Oakland forced another fumble and scored a few plays later with a 5-yard run by Benny Sorrentino. Ohio State then went down the field and scored their only points of the game (a field goal) to end the first quarter.

The second quarter was much of the same. Ohio State couldn’t get anything going, while Oakland just kept piling on the points. Ohio State did recover one fumble, but it was deep in their zone. Oakland scored two touchdowns in the second. One touchdown was by Mitch Kuula on a 9-yard throw and another by Jared Wagester on a 70-yard pass.

Ohio State struggled in the third quarter. They recovered their own fumble and bad snap in back to back plays. Their punter got tackled hard by an OU lineman and was then out for the rest of the game. Oakland kept up the pressure with an interception by David Brosky, which set up a 23-yard touchdown for Wagester. In the next drive for Ohio State, OU intercepted it again, but then fumbled the next play.

In the fourth quarter, Oakland continued to exert their dominance by throwing a 10-yard pass to Brandon Tucker for a touchdown on the first play of the quarter. With the next series, Oakland came right down the field and ran in a 45-yard touchdown courtesy of Mathew Franklin.

“The defense made great stops when they needed to and got the offense the ball back in good positions,” Heminger said. 

The Golden Grizzlies play their final Great Lakes Eastern Conference game Nov. 1 at 2 p.m. against Wright State (4-1).

Corrections: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Ohio State had 38 players to Oakland’s 100 at the game. Oakland’s game program listed 50 players on the team roster but only about 35 were at the game, while Ohio State only had 18 present.