COLUMBUS — Sometimes they were in harmony and sometimes they were off-key. No, that is not a critique of the Ohio State Buckeyes — a.k.a. choirboys — and the way they saluted the OSU band with their much-anticipated rendition of “Carmen Ohio.” It was an honest assessment by the players of their performance in Saturday's season-opening 28-14 victory over the Akron Zips before a record Ohio Stadium crowd of 102,602.

        Hitting all the right notes was senior tailback Jonathan Wells, whose 119 rushing yards and two touchdowns helped offset the flat performances of Ohio State quarterbacks Steve Bellisari and Scott McMullen.

        Junior-college transfer Chris Vance chimed in by turning a deflected pass into a 61-yard TD catch, saving Jim Tressel the ignominy of being the first OSU coach to lose his debut game since 1892.

        “We all made mistakes, coaches included, but I like the way we hung in there,” Tressel said. “We only gave them seven points defensively and offensively I saw some flashes of things we need to get good at.”

        Bellisari completed 15 of 24 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns, but the good vibes associated with his show ing were muted by his failure to hang on to the football.

        The senior co-captain and third-year starter fumbled four times, three times in the red zone and on his own 8. Fortunately, the Buckeyes recovered three of his drops and Akron didn't capitalize on his lone turnover.

        As further proof of the charmed life Bellisari was leading, his worst pass of the afternoon went off the hands of freshman cornerback John Fuller at the Akron 35 and into the grasp of Vance, who sprinted untouched to the end zone. That bumped OSU's lead to 28-7 in the third quarter, negating an 88-yard march Akron made to get back into game just before halftime.

        “Coach Tressel put it best when I came off the field after that (deflection),” Bellisari said. “He said he'd rather be lucky than good.”

        McMullen had his own problems, fumbling away a snap from center and pitching a fourth-quarter interception that cornerback Rickie Coble returned 87 yards to pull the Zips within 28-14 with 7:48 to play.

        “A lot of it was first-game nervousness, normal first-game mistakes,” McMullen said. “Hopefully we'll learn from those mistakes and won't make them again.”

        It got very interesting when Akron (1-1) recovered the onsides kick after Coble's TD and marched to a first down on the OSU 28. But the Buckeyes held on downs by forcing three incomplete passes and ran out the final 4:49.

        “I'm at a loss for words right now,” Akron coach Lee Owens said. “It's hard to send the message to your team that you're proud of them and at the same time not try to give them the message that close is good enough.

        “We didn't have to play perfect to win today. I told them I didn't expect them to play perfect. But sometimes the ball just doesn't quite bounce your way.”

        Had it not bounced away from Akron's Brandon Payne on his ill-conceived attempt to field a punt inside the 10, the Zips might not have faced such an uphill battle.

Team		1	2	3	4			SCORE
Akron		0	7	0	7			14
Ohio State		14	7	7	0			28

Scoring Summary
1st Quarter	Ohio State Touchdown - 14-yard run by Jonathan Wells. (Mike Nugent kick). 7:36 Remaining. Ohio State Touchdown - 10-yard pass from Steve Bellisari to Jamar Martin. (Mike Nugent kick). 3:30 Remaining.
2nd Quarter	Ohio State Touchdown - 1-yard run by Jonathan Wells. (Josh Huston kick). 9:14 Remaining. Akron Touchdown - 15-yard pass from Charlie Frye to Jake Schifino. (Zac Derr kick). 2:09 Remaining.
3rd Quarter	Ohio State Touchdown - 61-yard pass from Steve Bellisari to Chris Vance. (Josh Huston kick). 3:37 Remaining.
4th Quarter	Akron Touchdown - 87-yard interception return by Rickie Coble. (Zac Derr kick). 7:48 Remaining.

Attendance: 102,602

Final Team Statistics	Akron	Ohio State
First downs	14	27
Rushes-yards	33-114	56-236
Passing yards	134	289
Return yards	80	52
Passing (Att-Comp-Int)	32-15-0	29-17-1
Punts-Average	8-42.6	5-42.0
Fumbles-Lost	1-1	5-2
Penalties-Yards	1-5	3-30
Time of Possession	24:35	35:25

Rushing
Akron	- Payne 13-75, Hendry 11-39, Basch 3-11, team 1-(-2), Frye 5-(-9).
Ohio State	- Wells 24-119, Maldonado 14-68, Hall 3-30, Ross 4-16, Bellisari 9-2, McMullen 2-1.
Passing
Akron	- Frye 15-31-0, 134 yards and 1 touchdown. Faler 0-1-0, 0 yards.
Ohio State	- Bellisari 15-24-0, 246 yards and 2 touchdowns. McMullen 2-5-1, 43 yards.
Receiving
Akron	- Schifino 5-47, Payne 3-23, Zuercher 2-14, Szakos 2-10, Ritley 1-23, Barbee 1-9, Cherry 1-8.
Ohio State	- Jenkins 6-106, Bryant 4-46, Martin 3-23, Vance 1-61, Sanders 1-27, Hartsock 1-15, Gamble 1-11.

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