ALLIANCE – Mount Union claimed the Ohio Athletic Conference football title with a dominating 64-14 win over Heidelberg Friday night at Mount Union Stadium.

It is a record 31st title for the Purple Raiders (4-0), who have won 31 of the last 36 titles since their first in 1985, but it was the first they won in a conference title game which the OAC has not held since 1983.

Mount Union's offense ran out to a 35-0 halftime lead scoring on five of its seven possessions in the half and finished the game with 609 yards.

Quarterback Braxton Plunk (Plant City, Fla.) threw for 431 yards and five touchdowns while also running for a score. Four different Raiders caught touchdown passes two by Wayne Ruby, Jr. (Miami, Fla. / Flanagan) and one each by Jaden Manley (Columbus / Bishop Hartley), Derek Harvey, Jr. (Akron / Buchtel) and Josh Petruccelli (Perry). Ruby and Manley had 136 and 111 yards receiving respectively while Peturccelli had 59 yards rushing and a touchdown on the ground. DeAndre Parker (Crystal River, Fla.) had a game-high 69 yards on 14 carries.

The defense then did its part holding Heidelberg (4-1), the team that led the OAC in total offense coming into the game, to 62 total yards in the first half and 289 yards for the game.

Quarterback Drew Sims was 17-for-36 for 180 yards with two interceptions and running back Montavious Yearby had 66 rushing yards with a touchdown.

The Mount Union defense was paced by Mason McMillen (Wadsworth), who had nine tackles, Marcus Saahir (Akron / Hoban) had 2.0 sacks while Josh Jones (Akron / St. Vincent-St. Mary) and Jesse Vail (Estero, Fla.) each had interceptions.

Plunk had three touchdown passes in the first quarter to get Mount Union out to a 21-0 lead. His first two touchdowns went to Ruby from 62 and 13 yards then after his first career interception the defense got him the ball back by picking off Sims on the very next play. Plunk then tossed a 94-yard touchdown pass to Manley. It was the second longest pass play in school history with the longest being a 95-yard pass by Larry Kehres to Bruce Cartwright in 1970.

The second quarter featured a pair of touchdown runs for the Raiders after a pair of long drives that gave them the ball for 13:15 of the period. Plunk plunged in from three yards out to cap a 19-play, 84-yard drive that took 8:03 then Petruccelli had three-yard TD run to finish off a 12-play, 80-yard drive in 5:12. Mount Union led 35-0 at the half.

Mount Union tacked on two more scores in third quarter – a 15-yard TD pass from Plunk to Harvey and a 20-yard scoring pass to Petruccelli. After the Petruccelli score, the extra point snap was bobbled, and kicker Thomas Piccirillo (Findlay / Van Buren) threw pass to linebacker Kaleb Detellem (Batavia) for the two-point conversion and a 50-0 lead.

Both teams finished the game with a pair of rushing touchdowns as Mount Union's two came from Parker and Lance Mitchell (Detroit, Mich. / South Lake) for the 64-14 final.