ATHENS – With the offense struggling, defense carried Ohio to a 21-6 victory against FCS Morgan State on Saturday at Peden Stadium.

Quarterback Parker Navarro was benched after throwing three first-half interceptions, but the Bobcats (2-1) were able to prevail by allowing only a pair of field goals and only 211 yards on the day to the Bears (1-2).

“We had some big stops,” Ohio coach Tim Albin said. “I just thought that going in the game we had an advantage with our with our defensive line versus their offensive line. I thought we had an advantage in the special teams, and that that's how it played out.”

Things started well enough for Ohio. Navarro led a touchdown drive on the Bobcats’ opening possession, throwing a 19-yard scoring pass to Anthony Tyus III to make it 7-0.

After Morgan State answered back with a 30-yard Beckett Leary field goal, Navarro hit Coleman Owen in stride on a deep pass that netted 53 yards. That set up a 10-yard Navarro touchdown run on the last play of the first quarter, making it 14-3, and it appeared Ohio might roll.

“We rep things like that through all week in practice,” Tyus said. “We watch film, and we just saw that from film, that it could be there when we get into that red zone area. We got in there first drive, and after watching film and just being in sync with the office coordinator, we had to play call. I knew what I had to do, and we executed high level and ended up with a six in the end zone.”

Instead, Navarro and the Bobcats sputtered in the second quarter. Gianni Spetic recovered his own onside kick, only to have Navarro throw an interception to Bryan Stukes on the first play after.

Ohio went three-and-out on their next possession, and then gained just one first down before punting the next time with the ball.

Navarro was picked off by Jadon Carter to set up a Leary 33-yard field goal, putting the score at 14-6 with 54 seconds left. Navarro was intercepted again, this time by Ja’son Prevard, but Marcel Walker-Burgess returned the favor for Ohio by picking off Morgan State’s Tahj Smith.

Junior college transfer Nick Poulos replaced Navarro at quarterback in the second half and immediately led a touchdown drive, though he threw incomplete on his only pass attempt on the drive. He did have runs of 12, 17 and 9 yards that eventually led to Tyus scoring on a 13-yard run to make it 21-6.

“We just needed a new spark,” Alban said. He did not say how he would handle the quarterback situation going forward.

There were no points the final 25 minutes of the game. Bradley Weaver blocked a Leary 22-yard field goal try on the Bears’ first possession of the second half, and then Morgan State turned the ball over on downs when Weaver and Jay Crable combined on a tackle for loss on fourth-and-goal from the Ohio 2 early in the fourth quarter.

Poulos made a mistake of his own with a bad pitch on an option play. Adrian Littleton recovered the fumble with 4:03 left to play, but one more Morgan State drive ended on downs.

Navarro did not have a pass hit the ground. He completed all 12 of his pass attempts that were not intercepted, good for 162 yards. Poulos was 2-of-4 passing for 25 yards and ran eight times for 37 yards despite losing 37 yards on the fumble and two sacks.

Tyus carried 16 times for 90 yards, while Owen had six catches for 112 yards.

Smith went 15-for-30 for 136 yards, completing six passes for 65 yards to Andre Crawley. Jason Collins had nine carries for 35 yards, with 28 of those coming on one run.

Linebacker Blake Leake led the Ohio defense with 12 tackles, including one for loss. Kadin Schmitz had 1.5 sacks.

Ohio closes out nonconference play with a trip to face Kentucky at 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky.