Conferences take shape, mostly new ones
Redlands has been nothing short of dominant in the SCIAC over the past 13 years claiming nine conference championships — including four of the past five. This year, they struggled out of the gate giving up 103 points in their first two games resulting in two losses. They bounced back to win close ones in their next three games but ran into a road block Saturday against Occidental losing 42-28. Occidental finished second to the Bulldogs last season and is the only team other than Redlands to win a SCIAC championship since 1999. They now have the inside track on the SCIAC crown which is surprising given where they were on Sept. 11.
After losing their opener in a nail biter, 31-28 to Chapman, Occidental was sitting at 0-1 and their big-name quarterback was about to quit. Justin Elway, cousin of the slightly more famous John Elway was 7-for-13 for 102 yards and a rushing touchdown but was replaced by Division I-AA transfer Andy Collins from Eastern Washington. Elway eventually did quit and while he went one way his team went the complete opposite. They’ve won five in a row by more than 22 points per game and while their three remaining opponents aren’t pushovers, they have as many wins combined as the Tigers have by themselves, five.
The leader of the IIAC isn’t undefeated in conference (at least not since Saturday), but like Occidental, Buena Vista is new to the highest perch in the conference. IIAC followers are more accustomed to seeing Wartburg or Central at the top of the conference but the Buena Vista Beavers have been able to win the close games in sitting alone at 4-1 atop the IIAC.
The Beavers knocked off defending champion Wartburg in the conference opener with a 43-yard field goal as time expired. They went on to win the next three by less than eight points each and were sitting happily undefeated at the top until Saturday when they ran into the Storm — literally and figuratively. Simpson sacked the Beavers 13 times and held them to negative rushing yards in a 17-7 defeat that narrowed the gap on first place to one game. Buena Vista will be looking in its rear view mirrors the rest of the way and unlike that notice on your mirror, the teams in Buena Vista’s mirror are as close as they appear.
Much like Redlands and Wartburg, St. John's is in an unusual position in the MIAC — second place. After turning what was supposed to be the game of the year against Bethel into a 37-0 laugher, St. John’s looked to be on a roll and far from the performance that resulted in a two point loss to UW-Eau Claire to open the season. However, an upstart Concordia-Moorhead team came to St. John’s and their self-nomination for game of the year won hands down. They wore the Johnnies down controlling the clock for over 40 minutes and won 21-20 on a 30-yard field goal with 24 seconds remaining. The Cobbers have yet to lose and are on track for their first conference championship since 1995 and first playoff appearance since 1997.
St. John’s, whose 2003 Stagg Bowl trophy barely has dust on it, is sitting with two regional losses and will have to wait and see how the rest of the season unfolds throughout the nation before they get a chance to try to repeat as national champs.
Unlike the three aforementioned conferences, the NWC is business as usual with Linfield staking claim to the top spot for the fifth straight year. They have already clinched their 49th consecutive winning season and have 17 straight conference wins. Transfer quarterback Brett Elliott from Utah has had his way with opposing defenses this year stuffing the stat sheet with yards and touchdown and most importantly — W’s. The Wildcats have already defeated rival Pacific Lutheran but will need to knock off a solid Willamette team to end the season to complete the third straight perfect conference record.
While some unlikely conference leaders cling to the top spots in their respective conferences, the others used to playing into November are scrapping at their heels. Regardless of who ends up in the playoffs, they’ll be solid representatives in the quest to keep the Stagg in the west.
Taking a knee is definitely safer
In Occidental’s 42-28 defeat of Redlands, the two teams committed turnovers on four consecutive plays in the third quarter. It all started when Occidental quarterback Collins threw an interception in the end zone to Redlands’ Bryan Ramirez. On the next play, Redlands running back Les Simon promptly gave the ball back when he fumbled on the Bulldogs’ first play. After Occidental regained possession, Collins dropped back and threw his second consecutive interception giving the ball back to Redlands on its own 5-yard line. Still in a generous mood, Redlands quarterback Nick Brown threw an interception giving the ball back to Occidental at the Redlands 7. Two plays later, Occidental punched it in the end zone to take a 34-14 lead en route to the eventual victory.
Defensive Storm
Simpson entered Saturday’s game with conference leading Buena Vista trailing by two games in the loss column. With the season quickly coming to an end the Storm decided to get defensive about it. They swarmed Buena Vista quarterback Craig Novacek like a cloud of bees totaling 13 sacks, the second-most in a game in school history (18 is the school record, set against Upper Iowa on Oct. 2, 1982). Jason Ripke, who led seven Simpson players with at least one sack, won IIAC Player of the Week honors for his four-sack performance. In addition, Simpson recorded three interceptions and forced three fumbles.
Simpson also held the Beavers to a school record minus-46 yards of rushing, breaking the old mark of minus-36 against Dubuque in 1993, and outgained the Beavers 254-168 in total offense. It is the 16th time in 17 years that the Storm has defeated Buena Vista. The Beavers still have a game lead in the IIAC.
Ridley’s Believe It or Not
In only his second career start, St. Thomas senior running back Peter Ridley set the MIAC single game rushing record as he notched 314 yards in a 38-7 victory over Carleton. His 314 yards broke the 35-year-old MIAC conference record of 311 yards set by Macalester’s Terry Graff against Augsburg in 1969. It also broke a 28-year-old UST record set by Dave Gervais with 279 yards vs. Macalester. Not to mention it was 360 yards more than Buena Vista had as a team on the afternoon — yup, you do the math.
Ridley totaled 244 yards on 18 carries in the first half alone including three touchdown runs of 1, 88 and 79 yards.
In his last two games (his only two career starts), Ridley has six touchdown runs and 470 rushing yards.
AbsoLUTEly nothing
Pacific Lutheran used 484 yards of total offense and an 11 man running attack to stymie the Lewis and Clark Pioneers and shut them out 42-0. It was the first shutout for the Pacific Lutheran defense since dropping Puget Sound 46-0 to end the 2002 season. It was time Lewis & Clark has been shut out since Whitworth won 35-0 to end the 2003 season.
One-man show
Luther running back Tyler Sherden had a busy day on Saturday when his Norse dropped Loras 28-17. He rushed 38 times for 165 yards and accounted for all four Norse touchdowns. It was their third straight win over Loras.
GET to the GAME!
Wartburg at Central, 1:00 p.m., Pella, Iowa: One of these two teams has claimed the IIAC conference crown every year since Simpson claimed in it 1997. While both teams are sitting with equally unimpressive (by their traditional standards) 3-2 records, this rivalry is one of the best in the IIAC. Wartburg is coming off the bye week while Central is coming off a 33-7 drubbing of Dubuque. Wartburg has the second best rusher in the league in Dan Hammes who averages 86 yards per game. Central quarterback Mark Isaacson is second in the IIAC with just over 200 yards passing per game. The Dutch lost last year 29-3 and haven’t beat Wartburg since 2000.
Willamette at Pacific Lutheran, 1:00 p.m., Tacoma, Wash.: PLU has moved into the top 25 with a 42-0 shutout of Lewis & Clark . Willamette is coming off a 21-10 defeat of Southern Oregon. These teams boast the top two scoring defenses in the NWC so the game likely won’t be a shootout. Willamette has won the last two meetings but since when has history ever won a football game.
Pomona-Pitzer at Occidental, 1:00 p.m., Los Angeles: Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental have been battling on the football field since 1895. They’ve battled so much that they claim to have the oldest college football rivalry west of the Mississippi. The winner gets possession of The Drum, which has the scores of each annual game written on it. Pomona-Pitzer currently holds the drum after the Sagehens’ 28-14 victory over Oxy in 2003. This year Occidental is the favorite sitting atop the SCIAC at 3-0 but Pomona-Pitzer has the ability to play spoiler like they did last year in upsetting Trinity (Texas).