Liberty vs. Old Dominion Recap

By David Asbury

Rain Doused the Flames... and Monarchs a bit

On a very soggy Saturday, the Old Dominion Monarchs took care of business against the team from Lynchburg winning 21-7.  This score is a bit misleading though.  The game was never this close.  ODU routinely marched down the field against them but it kept mismanaging the ball, fumbling three times in the red zone as well as mishandling a snap causing a missed field goal.  One could blame the wet conditions for those missteps, though Coach Rahne did not. However, without those mistakes those drives could have have resulted in a score as high as 45-7.  But a win is a win.  The Monarchs move to 3-1 in the season, the best starting record since 2014 and notch their 100th victory since the Monarchs restarted football in 2009.

Colton Joseph had a great game throwing three touchdown passes and only one interception.  His multi-touchdown pass game was his third in a row and the sixth of his career.  Joseph was 18-of-26 passing for 271 passing yards. He connected with Ja'Cory Thomas twice for scores and once with TJ Johnson.  Joseph also ran for 76 yards and what should have been another touchdown, but as he reached the ball to score it was kicked out for one of the 3 red zone fumbles.  The refs took a very long time reviewing to determine whether the fumble should stand instead of a touchdown.  I personally believe they got that call wrong and should have overturned the fumble to make it a score, but I will admit it was really close.

Ja'Cory Thomas catches 1 of his 2 touchdown passes against Liberty. Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

Old Dominion played very well offensively, racking up 489 yards.  It maintained its strong running game rushing for 219 total yards.  Trequan Jones led the pack rushing with 89 yards.  He missed some serious playing time after his first red zone fumble but did re-enter the game.  Overall, the only notes for the offense is to just hold on to the ball.  Three lost fumbles caused this game to be way closer than it had any right to be.  Also, give the offensive line credit.  The boys upfront only allowed one sack this game, only the fourth sack of the season.  That is a huge improvement from recent years.  As Rahne put it himself, “we dominated the line of scrimmage.”

Zion Frink celebrates after forcing a fumble near the endzone. Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography

The defense also played very well and held the team from Lynchburg to only 203 total yards of offense. The opponent only scored once on a Julian Gray run.  Overall, the Flames offense was largely in-effective behind Michael Merdinger who started in-place of Ethan Vasko. They punted six times, turned the ball over on downs, lost 2 fumbles and threw an interception. It was Jeremy Mack's first career interception.  Mack is shaping up to be a star of this defense, he also forced the first fumble.  But give credit to the entire Monarchs' defense that got into the backfield often with three sacks and six tackles for a loss.

Kris Trinidad sacks M. Merdinger. Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

The team from Lynchburg has a lot of work to do.  They just dropped to 1-4 and are on a four game losing streak.  To be blunt, they have a weak defensive front and are allowing on average over 200 rushing yards per game.  The team may lose heart to continue the season at this rate.  The good news is they have a bye week to reassess and get healthy.  If they want to go to a bowl game they need to focus, fix their issues, and win five of their last seven games.  In C-USA that is possible, but unlikely with how they have played.  Unless Ethan Vasko can return soon, this team will continue to struggle in 2025.  It may be a year to forget for them. 

Meanwhile, the Monarchs are having a very good start to the season.  Getting the victory over this team was important.  “We hadn’t beaten them since 2013,” said senior defensive lineman Kris Trinidad. “So that’s definitely something we wanted to check off the list.”  This team was clearly a monkey on ODU's back that they can now take off bringing the series to 2-4.  The Monarchs will not see them again until 2033, so it is time to focus on other teams and rivalries.

At 3-1, Old Dominion is only three wins away from bowl eligibility.  With the Sun Belt having a down year and the talent on this ODU roster, the sky is the limit.  Can this year be the year?  A winning season?  A Sun Belt Championship?  Dare I say it... a playoff berth?  All of it is on the table.  This team has the talent and the schedule to do it.  The game against James Madison in three weeks could be humungous and decide the winner of the Sun Belt East.  But first, the Monarchs need to continue to take care of business. They open conference play next week against Coastal Carolina.  So, let's just take this one game at a time and go 1 and 0.  Reign on!

Skip to 13 minutes and 30 seconds for the start of the postgame presser.