Grove City’s final heroics never would have been possible without Clayton Parrish, who ran for 122 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries Saturday in the Wolverines’ 21-20 victory at Susquehanna. He became the first back to rush for 100 yards against the River Hawks this season. Susquehanna athletics photo by Lexi Coon

Grove City won in a thrilling finish at Susquehanna, while Cortland got a late field goal for insurance and held on at Endicott, Alma eased past DePauw and Mount Union shook off a slow start to win its opener against Alfred State.

The game of the first round was in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, where Grove City quarterback Logan Pfeuffer found Ryan Lenhart in the closing seconds for a 13-yard touchdown pass, and Caleb Kuechly's extra point gave the Wolverines a 21-20 win in their first-ever Division III football playoff appearance.

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Grove City had trailed 17-7 for a large portion of the third quarter, thanks in large part to a blocked field goal which Susquehanna returned for a touchdown. But Clayton Parrish ran for one of his two touchdowns with 5:36 to play in the third, cutting it to 17-14. After a field goal by Christian Colasurdo made it 20-14 with 1:55 to play, Grove City went to work. Pfeuffer went 5-for-7 passing to get down to the 13 with 40 seconds to play. From there, he missed on the first three downs in looking for Ryan Heckathorn, but made a great throw and Lenhart made a heck of a play in the back of the end zone to come down with the catch.

"I had that look a couple of times where they're just trailing me and I knew if (Pfeuffer) just put it up over them that I could probably make the catch over the guy and I did, I guess," said Lenhart. "It was a good ball, a great ball."

Grove City advances to play Cortland, likely at Cortland, with sites to be announced later. The Red Dragons saw their 20-10 third-quarter lead cut to three as Clayton Marengi hit a 69-yard catch-and-run to his roommate, Shane Aylward. That made it 20-17 with 1:46 left in the third. The teams went toe-to-toe before Cortland took over at the Endicott 47 after a short punt, and Mike Baloga ended the drive with a 37-yard field goal to make it 23-17. Endicott and Cortland traded turnovers before the Gulls got the ball back at their own 42 with 1:53 left. Marengi drove his team all the way to the 11 before an incompletion ended the game.

Alma was up 8-0 before it ever ran a play from scrimmage, and the Scots went on to ease past DePauw 32-17 on an energetic day at Bahlke Field. Defensive end Jerome Roberson took a fumble back 21 yards for a touchdown on DePauw's first play from scrimmage, the Scots took a swinging gate conversion attempt into the end zone for two, and was up by eight before most other noon games had even kicked off. Nathan McCahill led DePauw (10-1) on a 16-play drive to cut the lead to one, but Alma answered with two more and later kicked a field goal on the final play of the half to take a 25-14 lead into the locker room. Carter St. John later hit a deep ball to Devon Frenchko for a 66-yard TD to cap the scoring.

Alfred State tied Mount Union midway through the first quarter, got an interception of Braxton Plunk in the end zone and trailed the Purple Raiders only 28-14 at the half before Mount Union went on to win going away, 56-14. Plunk finished 21-of-32 passing with 336 yards and four touchdowns for his second-straight game with four passing TDs and over 300 yards passing. Plunk now has 14,338 career passing yards, only behind Mount Union's Bill Borchert (1994-97) who has 14,482 for most all-time in NCAA Division III history.