HARRISONBURG, VA (WTKR)- Old Dominion head coach Ricky Rahne doesn't believe in moral victories, but his team did plenty of good things on Saturday night, despite a loss.
ODU gave No. 25 James Madison all it could handle, but fell just short in a 30-27 loss at Bridgeforth Stadium.
"That one stings because we had them," Rahne said after the game.
The Monarchs came close to taking a fourth quarter lead. On third down and goal from the six yard line, Grant Wilson escaped pressure and found Javon Harvey in the endzone, but Harvey was ruled out of bounds on a score that would've put ODU in front. The silver and blue would settle for a field goal, their final points of the night.
"Yeah, I thought he was in," quarterback Grant Wilson said. "You can't look back on it, glad we got three points out of it."
James Madison took a 14-3 lead in the second quarter, but the Monarchs answered. Wilson hit Dominic Dutton on a 58 yard touchdown pass as the Monarchs would trail at the half, 14-10.
A pivotal sequence burned Old Dominion coming out of the break. After a fair catch on a kickoff return was muffed, the Monarchs began at the five yard line. Wilson would be taken down in the endzone for a safety on third down and JMU would score on its ensuing possession, scoring nine points in a span of less than five minutes to open the second half.
Rahne's team would respond, as Wilson led a third quarter charge. Down 23-10, he led a drive that would end with a touchdown pass to Harvey. JMU would score again, but again Wilson led his team down the field and Kadarius Calloway finished the drive with a 21-yard rushing score to trim the deficit to 30-24.
Wilson's performance caught the eye of his head coach, who had plenty of praise for his signal caller.
"I thought he played really, really well," Rahne said. "He just executed, he just ran the offense and allowed the play call to be right more often than not because he fixed some things. That's the sign of a really good quarterback."
Old Dominion gained 138 rushing yards, the most gained on JMU this season. It also marks just the third time a team has played the Dukes to a one-score game in 2023.
The Monarchs fall to 4-4, 3-2 in Sun Belt play, and return home to face Coastal Carolina next Saturday.
