HALFTIME: WKU 42, ODU 30

Herald Sports Staff

Western Kentucky currently leads Old Dominion 42-30 at halftime at Smith Stadium. 

Brandon Doughty now holds the school record for touchdown passes in a single season with five touchdowns in the first half while completing 16-of-19 passes for 250 yards.

Jared Dangerfield leads WKU with seven receptions for 72 yards and one touchdown. Antwane Grant has two touchdown catches on three catches for 53 yards.

Leon Allen leads the Hilltoppers in rushing with 93 yards on 16 carries. 

WKU’s offense has totaled 378 yards while ODU currently has 369. 

WKU went to work quickly on the opening drive with Doughty completing four passes for 54 yards. Leon Allen capped the drive with a one-yard dive over the goal line to give the Hilltoppers a 7-0 lead at the 12:16 mark of the first quarter.

Old Dominion responded on the ensuing drive with a  44-yard connection between Taylor Heinicke to Melvin Vaughn to the WKU 25. The Hilltopper defense held the Monarchs to a 41-yard field goal from Jarrett Cervi to make it 7-3 with 10:33 left in the quarter.

Senior cornerback Cam Thomas intercepted an underthrown Heinicke pass down the right sideline to give WKU the ball at the ODU 41.

Doughty connected with Antwane Grant seven plays later for a six-yard touchdown pass to put WKU up 14-3 with 5:24 left to play in the quarter.

Heinicke hooked up with Melvin Vaughn to convert on fourth down as a part of an 11 play, 83 yard scoring drive capped by a 12-yard touchdown run from Ray Lawry to make it 21-10 WKU.

Heinicke completed a pass to Lawry on fourth-and-9, who took it to the goal line where he scored two plays later to make it 21-16 with 12:23 left in the half.

Doughty tied the school record for touchdown passes in a season with his 16-yard pass to Antwane Grant to extend the lead to 28-16.

ODU responded less than two-minutes later. later with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Heinke to Antonio Vaughn, cutting the deficit to 28-23 with 8:52 remaining in the first half.

The Hilltoppers decided to raise ODU one with a 34-yard strike to Taylor less than a minute later, making it 35-23.

The score put Brandon Doughty as the single-season touchdown record holder with 23 TD passes.

Old Dominion scored once more before halftime with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Heinicke to Melvin Vaughn, pulling in within 35-30.

Doughty tossed his fifth touchdown pass of the game with a 19-yard pass to Jared Dangerfield to go into halftime leading 42-30.

Heinicke currently has 271 passing yards on 16-of-24 attempts. Ray Lawry leads the Monarchs in rushing with 75 yards on 14 attempts.