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| Brandon Jordan was unstoppable in the second half for UMHB. Mary Hardin-Baylor athletics photo |
Mount Union won its fifth in a row against John Carroll, St. John's survived a relentless challenge from Bethel, while Washington & Lee, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Baldwin Wallace each scored upset wins in Saturday's early Division III football action among teams in the D3football.com Top 25. But it was the centerpiece of the night which grabbed the most attention, as No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor rallied from a 28-7 halftime deficit and went on to defeat No. 7 Hardin-Simmons, 34-28.
After fumbling twice and going three-and-out twice in the first half, No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor trailed No. 7 Hardin-Simmons 28-7. But the Cru came out fired up in the second half. It took just 12:03 of game time for the Cru to tie the game. UMHB responded with 21 unanswered points of their own in the third quarter, totaling 142 yards of offense. Brandon Jordan, Connor Mullins and Romello Cook all caught touchdown passes from Kyle King to even the game at 28. UMHB's defense held the Cowboys to just 11 total yards of offense and did not allow Hardin-Simmons a third down conversion..
Jordan, who had two catches for 8 yards at the half, had four catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns in the second half, including the game-winner with 6:06 left.
Washington & Lee got the ball on its own 1-yard line with 7:38 left in the game, down 24-17, and the Generals never relinquished possession. And at the end of an epic march, Washington & Lee punched in a touchdown with no time on the clock, and followed with a two-point conversion, handing No. 16 Randolph-Macon its first loss, 25-24.
W&L went 99 yards in 17 plays, reaching third down just twice on the drive as first Jack Pollard, then Stephen Murrin quarterbacked the Generals to the end zone. Murrin replaced Pollard, who was injured on the 10th play of the drive. Pollard had moved the chains with a 12-yard run on second-and-3 and Josh Breece ran for 13 on second-and-11, getting out of bounds inside the 10 to set the Generals up first-and goal. Facing fourth-and-goal from the 1, Murrin punched it in for the touchdown, then executed an option toss to the left side for Breece, who got into the end zone untouched for the two-point conversion and the victory.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps jumped out to a 15-0 lead and held on in the final 20 minutes to knock off No. 17 Chapman 29-21. Justin Edwards ran for 204 yards and four touchdowns on 32 carries for the Stags and the CMS defense held on, forcing three consecutive incomplete passes after a spike at the 15-yard line in the closing seconds. The Panthers had gotten the ball back at their own 27 with 2:07 left and Jonston MacIntyre threw two big passes to Spencer Corona, the second for 21 yards to get the ball into the red zone, but the Stags defense let Chapman get no further.
In its home opener, Baldwin Wallace scored twice in the fourth quarter and knocked off No. 22 Heidelberg, defeating the Student Princes 20-10. Tied at 10 entering the fourth quarter, Baldwin Wallace went 64 yards in 11 plays, with Keagan Armitage and Jack Gibbons combining at quarterback to get the Yellow Jackets in range for a Dean Sarris field goal to give BW a 13-10 advantage. Then the BW defense came up big, as Jake Hill intercepted Drew Sims and set the offense up at the Heidelberg 35. Four plays later, Armitage hit Darius Stokes on a fourth-down pass for 33 yards and a 20-10 score. Heidelberg went three-and-out and BW ran the final 6:55 off the clock to secure the win.
Armitage completed nine of 12 passes for 103 yards with one touchdown. Jon Murray, Jr. led the ground attack with a game-high 113 yards on 25 carries with one touchdown while Gibbons rushed for a career-high 103 yards on 21 carries.
No. 4 Mount Union mounted an epic drive of its own in the first quarter, holding the ball for an uncharacteristically long 8:16 as the Purple Raiders went up 7-0 late in the first on a TD pass from Braxton Plunk to Jaden Manley. Mount Union picked off a pass from No. 21 John Carroll on the Blue Streaks' next drive and converted it into another Plunk TD. Mount Union took a 21-7 lead into halftime and made it 28-7 early in the third before going on to a 28-14 finish. Nate Leopold helped keep the Purple Raiders in check, intercepting Plunk in the end zone on the first drive of the second half, and Jake Floriea hit Brennan Fugh for two big touchdown passes. Mount Union kneeled it out on goal-to-go from the 5 to close the game out.
Aaron Syverson threw for two touchdowns and Devin Vouk ran for 89 tough yards and two scores as No. 6 St. John's defeated No. 13 Bethel 31-25. The Royals did not go away, with two long scoring drives in the fourth quarter before SJU was able to run out the clock. Ravi Alston led the Johnnies with 11 catches for 159 yards and a touchdown, with Joey Kidder pulling down four catches for 129 and a score for Bethel.
The Little Brass Bell rivals had little hangover from last week's rivalry game, as No. 1 North Central defeated Augustana 58-6 and No. 5 Wheaton defeated North Park 58-27. It was the 15th consecutive win for North Central in the series, while Wheaton has beaten North Park 41 times in a row, dating to 1979.
No. 11 Washington & Jefferson broke open a tie game, scoring the last 23 points to win 37-14 at Case Western Reserve. Payton Skalos caught his second touchdown pass of the night with four seconds left in the first half to give the Presidents a 21-14 lead, and Joey Koroly ran for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put the game away. W&J limited Drew Saxton to 21-of-44 passing for 195 yards.
With Ike Irabor banged up, Union didn't seem to miss a beat as the No. 12 Dutchmen defeated Utica 30-9. The Dutchmen forced Utica into three turnovers and also denied the Pioneers on all five of their fourth-down attempts. Jonathan Anderson stepped up to steady the rushing attack, finishing with 13 carries for 73 yards, all in the second half.
Simpson gave up 80 points for the second time this season as Blaine Hawkins threw a school-record seven touchdown passes to lift No. 14 Central to an 84-16 win. The Dutch streaked to a 56-3 halftime lead, remarkably needing just 7:26 of possession time in the game's first 30 minutes to score eight touchdowns. These were Central's possessions in the first half: Four plays, 0:46. Five plays, 1:11, Three plays, 0:27. Five plays, 1:09. Two plays, 0:15. Six plays, 2:15. One play, 0:14. Three plays, 0:39.