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| The Tigers head home victorious after a second half which erased the first-half doubt at Berry. Trinity (Texas) athletics file photo |
Trinity found a way to keep Berry off the scoreboard in the second half, North Central kept the Little Brass Bell with authority, Wartburg survived at home against Coe, St. John's held on at Augsburg and much more in action among teams in the D3football.com Top 25 poll.
Trinity (Texas) survived a wild, back-and-forth first half and held Berry to just eight points after halftime as the No. 5 Tigers went on to win 46-37. The Tigers trailed 29-13 midway through the second quarter, after sputtering twice inside the 5 and Berry responding with long touchdowns. In fact, the Vikings built that lead with TDs of 53, 35, 53 and 88 yards, the last a one-play drive by Brandon Cade, who took a handoff and was gone.
Trinity did respond with a Tucker Horn TD pass to Cole Monago before halftime, and then got two more TD passes to Ryan Merrifield, the last for 81 yards to give the Tigers the lead for the first time since the first five minutes of the game. Blake Hembree and the Vikings did bust out one more long TD, as Blake Hembree hit Khamari Smith for a 58-yard TD pas to retake the lead, 37-34. Tyler Huettel tied the game with a 52-yard field goal, and Horn fit Legendy Grigsby for a 25-yard TD to give the Tigers a 44-37 lead with 6:41 left. The Tigers elected to punt and pin the Vikings deep on their last possession, leaving Berry on its own 4 with 1:45 left, and on the first play of the drive, Berry was called for holding in its own end zone, resulting in a safety.
Hembree threw for 319 yards on 18-for-27 passing and four touchdowns, two of them to Smith. Cade ran for 156 yards on just eight attempts. Meanwhile, Horn went 25-of-33 for 363 yards and four scores, two of them to Merrifield (five catches, 120 yards).
Coe and Wartburg traded pick-sixes, as Parker Rochford responded after Coe's Jack Shaw ended the first quarter with an 87-yard interception return for a TD by taking a pass 37 yards for a score himself. Coe took a 21-14 lead into halftime after Ray Seidel capped a 58-yard drive with a 1-yard run, but the Knights got a little help from their defense in the second half. Coe had a long Jacob Brecht run to the end zone called back because of holding and on the very next play, Carter Maske's attempted screen pass slipped out of his hands and was picked off by Jordan Downing at the 6. Four plays later, Hunter Clasen ran it off left tackle from about two and a half yards out to tie the game up on the first play of the fourth quarter. Early in the fourth, Wartburg got a 53-yard punt from Jaxson Hoopes to pin Coe back on its own 3, and Coe went three-and-out, with a short punt setting Wartburg up at the Coe 32. Three plays later, Clasen was back in the end zone to give Wartburg a 27-21 lead, and Coe never got any closer than the Wartburg 49 the rest of the way.
North Central struck early and often, scoring four times on plays of 40 yards or longer in the first 18 minutes and rolling up 613 total yards on just 51 offensive snaps as the No. 1 Cardinals defeated No. 10 Wheaton 54-35. It was the most points North Central has scored against its rival since 1917. The scoring opened on the second play from scrimmage, as Joe Sacco took the ball around left end for a 73-yard touchdown run, giving the visitors a 7-0 edge after just 44 seconds had elapsed, and Sacco put the Cardinals back in the end zone on the fourth play of the ensuing possession, running off right tackle for a 43-yard score with 7:28 still on the first-quarter clock.
Luke Lehnen ran 13 times for a career-high 170 yards and was 5-for-8 passing for 166 yards in the win. North Central's 447 yards are the second most in Division III football in a game so far this season.
No. 7 St. John's did just enough to hold off Augsburg, defeating the Auggies 27-24 in Minneapolis. Augsburg quarterback Cade Sheehan led his team on a touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, finding Tyrique Givance for a 13-yard touchdown with 3:39 to play. But Augsburg could not cover the onside kick, and St. John's never gave the ball back as the Johnnies were able to run out the clock. Augsburg sored its four touchdowns on drives of 12, 12, 15 and 15 plays, the last two drives coming immediately after Johnnie scores. Aaron Syverson threw four touchdown passes on a day in which the Johnnies only attempted 13 running plays (plus two sacks that count as runs in college, plus two kneeldowns).
Kaleb Blaha needed a season-high 32 carries to get to 88 yards on the ground, but the UW-River Falls quarterback threw four touchdown passes as the No. 6 Falcons got past UW-Platteville 27-16. The Pioneers (2-2, 0-1 WIAC) got on the board first when Andrew Schweigert connected on a 44-yard field goal on the first play of the second quarter. But River Falls (4-0, 1-0) answered with three consecutive touchdowns, two of them passes from Blaha to Mason Van Zeeland. Platteville scored twice on Michael Priami touchdown passes in the third quarter to cut the lead to 21-16- but River Falls answered with an early fourth-quarter drive and Michael Brown picke off the Pioneers to help preserve the victory.
Keyser Helterbrand accounted for six total touchdowns and 425 yards of total offense as No. 13 UW-La Crosse defeated UW-Stout 45-40 in the WIAC opener for both teams. Michael Stack kicked a 22-yard field goal with 10:36 left which gave UWL a 45-20 lead. Stout quarterback Mitch Waechter hit Will Knutson on a 19-yard touchdown pass with 8:51 left to cut the margin to 45-27 with 8:51 remaining. UWL punted on its next drive and UW-Stout went 80 yards in 11 plays to cut the lead to 45-34 with 2:28 left on a Waechter 22-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Corcoran. The Blue Devils recovered the ensuing onside kick and two plays later, Knutson caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Waechter with 2:08 remaining. A two-point conversion attempt failed. UWL recovered UW-Stout's onside kick and took over with 2:07 left. Helterbrand ran for a first down on second-and-9 and UWL was able to run out the clock.
There was a lot of heated discussion over the offseason when Ithaca announced it would be replacing the grass at Butterfield Stadium with turf, but the first game on the newly rechristened Bertino Field at Butterfield Stadium still sent the Bombers faithful home happy as No. 17 Ithaca defeated Hobart 24-14. The Bombers are 18-0 all-time at home against the Statesmen. Jalen Leonard-Osbourne ran for 155 yards and a touchdown in the victory.
Noah Garcia and Colton Marshall carried big loads for Hardin-Simmons as the No. 18 Cowboys got past Howard Payne 40-33. Without quarterback Gaylon Glynn, who left last week's loss at Endicott early in the game with an apparent knee injury, Garcia got 112 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries from Garcia, and 75 yards and three scores on 18 carries from Colton Marshall. A.J. Hawkins completed 14 of 24 passes for 168 yards and a score. Landon McKinney hit Gus Charles for a 70-yard TD pass midway through the third quarter to give Howard Payne a 24-21 lead, but K.J. People answered immediately with an 81-yard kickoff return for a TD and Marshall scored one of his TDs on the next drive to keep Howard Payne at bay.
UW-Whitewater rolled out to a 23-0 lead, holding Oshkosh under 50 total yards in the first half, and the No. 4 Warhawks went on to cruise past the No. 20 Titans 37-21 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Alex Ogden made his return at quarterback after getting hurt in Week 2 against St. John's, and completed 18 of 28 passes for 262 yards and a touchdown, while Tamir Thomas ran for 117 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. Whitewater picked off Oshkosh quarterback Kobe Berghammer three times.