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| Ethan Gallagher gets his hands on UW-River Falls quarterback Kaleb Blaha, dropping him for a key 4-yard loss midway through the fourth quarter of UW-Whitewater's win. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com | More photos from this game |
No. 7 UW-Whitewater, No. 6 UW-La Crosse, No. 15 Ithaca, No. 18 Endicott and No. 20 Hardin-Simmons all survived at the end in close-fought games on Saturday, while No. 3 Wartburg pulled away from Dubuque and No. 22 Mary Hardin-Baylor cruised in action Saturday around the D3football.com Top 25.
The Warhawks played keep-away from No. 4 UW-River Falls, keeping the ball out of Kaleb Blaha's hands and picking him off twice as No. 7 UW-Whitewater held on to win 21-14 at River Falls' Ramer Field. Whitewater held the ball for 38 minutes, 14 seconds, thanks to the Warhawks grinding it out on the ground. Quarterback Alec Ogden and running backs Tamir Thomas and Alijah Maher-Parr combined for 46 carries for 193 yards for the Warhawks.
UW-Whitewater took a 15-0 lead early in the second quarter on an Ogden keeper, an Ogden touchdown pass over the middle to Tommy Coates, and a 44-yard field goal by Jeff Isotalo-McGuire, but the Warhawks left points on the board with a missed PAT and a failed two-point conversion attempt. Blaha answered with 2:25 in the half as he found Mason Van Zeeland in the corner of the end zone for a TD to cut the lead to 15-7.
The Falcons (5-1) caught a break when Ogden fumbled the ball near midfield, and Blaha immediately found Van Zeeland over the top for a big chunk of yards, then capped the scoring drive himself with a 7-yard run with 13:04 left to play. After a Whitewater missed field goal, the teams traded punts, with River Falls getting the ball back out of timeouts on its own 20 with 2:45 to play. That's when Hawk Heffner sacked Blaha for a loss of 6, and the fourth-and-16 pass sailed out of bounds, allowing Whitewater (5-1) to kneel it out.
Meanwhile, a couple hours downriver, sixth-ranked UW-La Crosse rallied from two third-quarter deficits to defeat UW-Platteville 21-17. The Pioneers contained Keyser Helterbrand to 19 yards rushing and a touchdown on eight carries, and it was Zach Weir who hit Jack Studer for a 16-yard touchdown pass with 1:13 left in the third for the lead. From there, Henry Walsh picked off Platteville quarterback Michael Priami in Eagle territory, Nate Hietpas intercepted him again, and the Pioneers punted it away with 3:01 to play. Platteville got the ball back with 1:24 to play, and managed to complete a couple of laterals, but ran out of room at its own 32-yard line.
It was another close game in the Liberty League, as No. 15 Ithaca held off Union 17-9, handing the Garnet Chargers their first loss of the season. Jake Connolly, who had two interceptions last week against RPI, punched the ball loose from Union running back Jonathan Anderson, but Ithaca was unable to convert. Union got on the scoreboard with a field goal on the final play of the first half to cut the Ithaca lead to 10-3. Union scored on a Donovan Pacatte run after a fumble by Ithaca quarterback A.J. Wingfield, but the extra point failed. Jalen Leonard-Osbourne ran for a TD to make it 17-9 and Ithaca held on as Derek Slywka intercepted a pass at the Bomber 37 with just over 2 minutes to go.
In its first challenge since defeating Hardin-Simmons, No. 18 Endicott struggled to pull away from Western New England, defeating the Golden Bears 24-21. Anthony Caggianelli, Markys Bridgewater and Yavier Cosme-Diaz each ran for a touchdown as WNEU held the Gulls' passing game off the scoreboard. Clayton Marengi completed 10 of 19 passes for 188 yards and ran for 47 yards as the Gulls improved to 5-1.
Hardin-Simmons escaped at home against Texas Lutheran as well, as HSU quarterback Gaylon Glynn returned, but the Cowboys defense needed to come up with a strip-sack in the fourth quarter and then held on in the closing moments. TLU got the ball back at its own 10 with 3:41 left and methodically drove all the way down to the HSU 12-yard line before the Cowboys forced consecutive incompletions from Caden Bosanko as time expired. Glynn completed 22 of 29 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns, but was not a threat in the running game.
Mary Hardin-Baylor broke up seven passes and blocked four kicks as the No. 22 Cru turned a 16-13 halftime lead into a 37-13 victory over Sul Ross State. Johnny Smith-Rider had a 41-yard pick-six in the second half and Solomon Hopkins scored on a blocked punt to help secure the win. UMHB (3-3) ran for just 146 yards on 35 carries on the afternoon. Third-ranked Wartburg turned a 10-0 second quarter deficit into a 31-10 win, scoring the final 31 unanswered, including 24 in the second half. Nile McLaughlin threw for three touchdowns and Hunter Clasen ran for one in the win.
Linfield defeated George Fox 41-13 to extend their record streak for consecutive winning seasons to 67 in a row, but the Wildcats did it without Joe Smith, who served a one-game suspension for conduct toward an official in the Oct. 7 game against Lewis & Clark. Blake Eaton threw for 302 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.
No. 8 St. John's ended Carleton's unbeaten run to start the season, and did it in emphatic fashion, crushing the Knights by a 63-7 score in front of 10,447 fans in Collegeville, Minnesota. Alex Larson (seven catches, 98 yards, one touchdown) won the battle of standout tight ends against Carleton's Ntense Obono (8-59-1), part of a day in which Aaron Syverson threw six TD passes. Three of them went to Dylan Wheeler, who caught 14 balls for 205 yards. The Johnnies improved to 5-1, while Carleton fell to 5-1.
Millikin did something nobody else has done to North Central all year, holding the top-ranked Cardinals out of the end zone on their opening drive of a game, but the No. 1 team in the country was hardly stopped thereafter and cruised to an easy 75-3 win. As is the Cardinals' way this season, they scored on plays of 65, 72, 66 and 67 yards, including DeAngelo Hardy taking a shovel pass 67 yards from Luke Lehnen on the sole play of the Cardinals' final drive of the first half. Lehnen threw four TDs on his 10 completions in 14 attempts, while Hardy caught three of them.
No. 2 Mount Union defeated Capital 76-0 to set a record the program's largest margin of victory in the history of the program, while senior wide receiver Wayne Ruby broke the school record for career receiving touchdowns. The Purple Raiders had previously defeated Capital 77-3 in 2018. Mount Union (6-0, 5-0 OAC) scored a touchdown on its first six drives and orchestrated scoring drives 11 of its 12 drives, not including kneeldowns on the game's final drive. Ruby caught just two passes on the day but they went for 45 yards, including a 39-yard TD from Braxton Plunk early in the second quarter.
Linebacker Tony Skinner had a pair of interceptions and a fumble recovery that led to 17 points as No. 11 Randolph-Macon posted a 38-3 ODAC victory at Bridgewater. It was the first time Randolph-Macon was held under 50 points all season, but it didn't stop the Yellow Jackets from leading 17-0 before 17 minutes had been played. R-MC held Bridgewater to 105 yards of total offense.
No. 10 Johns Hopkins used a 21-point second-half run to turn a 20-13 deficit into a 34-20 lead and the Blue Jays held off host Franklin & Marshall, 34-27. After spotting the Blue Jays an early 6-0 lead, Tremba's touchdown pass to Lewis polished off a 20-7 spurt for the Diplomats. The seven point lead didn't last long as EJ Talarico returned the ensuing kickoff a school-record 98 yards for a touchdown and Joe Zahner added the extra-point to pull the Blue Jays even at 20. After forcing a quick F&M punt after Talarico's kickoff return, the Blue Jays pieced together their second lengthy touchdown drive of the game to take the lead for good. Quarterback Bay Harvey took the final play of the drive 3 yards for a touchdown to polish off the 16-play, 83-yard drive that took 7:21 off the clock; Johns Hopkins converted a pair of third downs and one fourth down to keep the drive alive.
Nico Flati ran for a career-high 186 yards and two touchdowns while the Grove City defense held host Allegheny to 16 net rushing yards as the No. 23 Wolverines rolled to a 31-7 win. The Wolverines also limited Declan O'Brien to 89 yards receiving. Flati ran for two touchdowns, while Clayton Parrish had 12 carries for 40 yards and two additional touchdowns for Grove City (7-0).
No. 19 Alma scored twice in the first six minutes of the third quarter to break open its game at Hope and defeat the Flying Dutchmen 35-17. The Scots, who entered the game as the second-highest scoring offense in Division III at nearly 60 points per game, asserted themselves at the start of the third quarter. Alma drove 70 yards in nine plays to take a 21-10 lead. Then after forcing a three-and-out, the Scots struck quickly on its next possession, driving 61 yards in 48 seconds to score again.