NORFOLK, VA (WTKR) — In a game that was up for grabs for a majority of two halves, Old Dominion suffered too many of what head coach Ricky Rahne called "self-inflicted wounds" to hold off Liberty.
The Flames scored right before the third quarter ended, then drove 99 yards at the beginning of the fourth quarter to pull away from the Monarchs, 38-24.
The Monarchs couldn't overcome an onslaught of penalty flags in the game. Old Dominion was hit with 14 penalties for 120 yards in the game, including two on the 99-yard drive.
"Against a good football team and a good football coach, that's going to come back to haunt you," Rahne said. "I cannot allow that to happen."
ODU quarterback Hayden Wolff completed 27 of his 46 passes for 297 yards and two touchdown passes, along with one interception. The 419 yards of total offense the most the Monarch's offense has tallied all season.
"That's why this loss hurts the most because we just killed ourselves with penalties and stuff like that," Wolff said. "No outside factors other than us. It has nothing to do with the officials, nothing to do with the other team. We made mistakes that cost us a bunch of penalty yards and we're going to look to fix that moving forward."
Liberty running back DaeDae Hunter amassed 121 yards on the ground and scored three times, including the final two touchdowns that ultimately gave Liberty the lead for good.
Old Dominion (2-3) now heads into the bye week before going to Coastal Carolina on October 15.
"We're right there," Rahne said "We've just got to keep working at it. There's nothing magical that's going to happen, it's only going to come from hard work."
"Our team's always going to fight. We've been through more than any other college football team in the country," Wolff said. "We have the underdog mentality at all times."
