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Wells leads Ohio State over Wisconsin

Nov 3, 2007 - 9:05 PM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Top-ranked Ohio State set a Big Ten Conference record and continued its march toward the BCS championship game on Saturday.

Chris Wells scored three second-half touchdowns and ran for 169 yards as Ohio State overcame a challenge from Wisconsin to nail down a 38-17 victory.

Todd Boeckman threw a pair of touchdown passes to Brian Robiskie as Ohio State established a new Big Ten record with its 20th consecutive conference win.

Breaking a record that had been held by bitter-rivel Michigan from 1990-92, the Buckeyes (10-0, 6-0 Big Ten), have not lost a game in the Big Ten since falling to Penn State on October 8, 2005.

"Something we can take out of this game is the fact that there was a lot of adversity, there was a big momentum shift there in the third quarter," said Ohio State middle linebacker James Laurinaitis, who had a career-high 19 tackles. "I think our team was poised and just kept going and that's something you can take out of it."

Ohio State found itself trailing the Badgers (7-3, 3-3) by a 17-10 count midway through the third quarter, but touchdowns runs of 31, 30 and 23 by Wells spoiled the upset bid.

The sophomore, called "Beanie" by his teammates, surpassed 1,000 yards rushing for the season and has rushed rushed for 523 yards on 77 carries in his last three games.

"It starts up front and our guys did a good job up front and our quarterback did a good job getting us the right looks," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "And Beanie was breaking tackles at the second level.

"When you have all that going for you, you're going to seize back control of the game and I think that's what that did. When we began to be able to run a little bit more, we seized control of the game.

Ohio State came out of gate strong, as Boeckman connected with Robiskie for a 30-yard score less than three minutes into the game. The Buckeyes however, failed to get into the end zone, or the red zone, the remainder of the half and held just a 10-3 lead through two quarters.

The Badgers knotted the game at 10-10 with an impressive 92-yard drive to start the second half. After keeping the drive alive with a 50-yard pass play to Paul Hubbard on a 3rd-and-3, quarterback Tyler Donovan capped it with a 28-yard scoring strike to Travis Beckum.

It was the first offensive touchdown that Ohio State allowed at home this season and the second wasn't far behind.

After forcing a three-and-out, the Badgers' offense went back to work as Donovan, on a 3rd-and-16, found Beckum for a 46-yard gain to the Buckeyes four.

Moments later, Donovan floated a two-yard touchdown pass to Chris Pressley on third down to give the Badgers their first lead at 17-10.

Donovan finished 17-of-29 for 238 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions while Beckum hauled in nine passes for 140 yards.

On the ensuing drive, the Buckeyes woke up as Wells completed a 10-play, 80-yard drive with the first of his three scores. He put Ohio State ahead for good with a nearly identical looking touchdown in the opening moments of the fourth quarter.

"One play can define a season, so you just have to keep fighting and play your best," said Boeckman, who finished 17-of-28 for 166 yards with no interceptions. "When we got down in the third quarter, our whole offense looked at each other and we made some plays. We got the job done today."

Trailing 24-17 with just over 12 minutes to play in regulation, Wisconsin gambled with a fake punt. But Laurinaitis was not fooled and dragged down punter Ken DeBauche on his own 25.

The Badgers also faked a punt in the first quarter, picking up a first down when DeBauche completed a 31-yard pass to Paul Standring.

"The second one, I was surprised as well, but that's what fake punts do is they surprise you and hopefully you do your execution and can stop them," Tressel said.

Set up with prime field position, Ohio State scored moments later when Boeckman hooked up with Robiskie on an eight-yard touchdown.

"We barked at our guys all week to go into today's game with an attitude to win," Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said. "We practiced and prepared to not be intimidated by the atmosphere of this place. Our team played well overall but it was not enough ... Ohio State persevered."