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| C.T. Tarrant helped drive the Thomas More offense in its win vs. W&J. Thomas More athletics file photo |
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| With Charlie Nelson running the offense, Washington & Lee looks to go 5-0 for the first time since 1961. Washington & Lee athletics photo |
Thomas More put two years of frustration behind it, UW-Whitewater won a defensive battle in front of a huge crowd and John Carroll's tightrope walk through the early 2015 season finally got them in Saturday's Top 25 action.
C.T. Tarrant, who has stepped up at running back for Thomas More all season, ran for 193 yards and two touchdowns as the No. 12 Saints defeated No. 13 Washington & Jefferson 38-20. Thomas More had 220 yards on the ground and 219 through the air, and picked off W&J quarterback Pete Coughlin four times en route to the win. The Presidents had won the previous two meetings in the season, both of them at home.
The Saints defense held late in the second quarter when W&J was forced to settle for a 23-yard field goal at the end of a 17-play drive. Thomas More answered with a touchdown to take a 21-13 lead into the locker room at halftime. In the third quarter, Brenan Kuntz came in to replace Jensen Gebhardt at quarterback for Thomas More and the offense clicked from there, getting 150 of its 439 yards on the final three drives of the game to keep the Presidents' offense off the field.
Ohio Northern scored three times in the final 15:05 as the Polar Bears rallied from a 24-7 deficit to defeat No. 11 John Carroll 30-27. The Blue Streaks, who have won by narrower-than-expected margins all season, went three-and-out with 3:15 left and never got the ball back as the Polar Bears ran out the clock. Will Freed hit Justin McCray for a 35-yard touchdown with 4:22 left, just his second TD against three interceptions, to give the Polar Bears (3-1) the lead. Justin Schaefer was just 21-for-47 passing for the Blue Streaks (3-1), throwing for just 211 yards. This marks the fourth time in as many games this year that ONU had faced a double-digit second half deficit and come back to tie or take the lead.
The prolific running game of Washington & Lee claimed its biggest victim of the season so far as the Generals marched for 381 yards on the ground to get past No. 24 Guilford 20-17. Charlie Nelson ran for 154 yards and threw for another 104 in the win. Guilford standout quarterback Matt Pawlowski was knocked out of the game midway through the second quarter in the loss.
Top-ranked UW-Whitewater held off No. 14 UW-Platteville in front of 15,287 fans on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Pioneers 17-7. Ryan Winske had eight tackles and an interception from the secondary for the Warhawks (4-0), while Zach Franz had a pair of sacks as the defense carried the day while the offense struggled. Chris Nelson, victimized by several drops from his receivers, was just 9-for-20 for 149 yards and a touchdown and Jordan Ratliffe was limited to 72 yards on 33 carries. Platteville quarterback Tom Kelly was knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter and his backup, Jack Eddy, was 7-for-15 passing in the final 12 minutes. Kelly finished the afternoon on crutches on the sidelines.
Trey Anderson led Bethel on a 13-play drive to score a touchdown in the final minute but Concordia-Moorhead was able to recover the onside kick and kneel out the clock to give the Cobbers a 23-21 win vs. the No. 20 Royals. Concordia held Bethel to just 3-for-11 on third down and controlled the clock to the tune of 37:04 in time of possession.
It looked like just another day in the Empire 8 meatgrinder, as Utica took down No. 19 Ithaca in overtime and Cortland State needed the extra session to defeat Hartwick. Max Rottenecker kicked a 35-yard field goal with 4:03 left for Ithaca to force the extra session and added a 30-yarder in overtime, but Utica answered right away with a 25-yard touchdown pass on the first play from Teddy Vangalen to Jerred Beniquez for the win. Utica picked off Ithaca's Wolfgang Shafer four times, returning one of them for a touchdown, and sacked him eight times. No. 22 Cortland followed a similar path to victory. Hartwick scored a touchdown with 4:02 left to tie the game and took a lead on an overtime field goal, but Steven Ferreira threw his fourth TD of the game, this one an 11-yard pass to Jake Smith, for the game-winner. The win overshadowed another prolific passing day for Hartwick as Tanner Williams and Brad Garcia alone combined to catch 21 passes for 387 yards from John Garcia.
When you sell all-out to throw the ball, you might get sacked a few times. And if you're facing a tough defensive teams, you might get sacked a lot, like, a record number of times. That's what Belhaven did against No. 4 Mary Hardin-Baylor, as the Cru crushed Blazers quarterbacks a Division III-record 15 times, resulting in Belhaven rushing for minus-87 yards. Haston Adams led the way with four and a half sackes, while Teidrick Smith added three sacks and a forced fumble.
Hardin-Simmons and Trinity (Texas) didn't exactly inspire rememberances of 2000 as it was all Cowboys in a 31-7 win at Trinity. Weston Garner was an efficient 20-for-25 passing for 196 yards for No. 18 Hardin-Simmons on offense and the Tigers scored their lone TD with 22 seconds remaining.
No. 9 St. Thomas and No. 16 St. John's each had relatively easy wins the week after their archrivaly showdown. The Tommies allowed just 47 total yards in shutting out St. Olaf 54-0, using nearly 120 players in the process. Meanwhile, the Johnnies didn't have quite as easy a team at Hamline, winning 41-21, but Sam Sura did get back on track with 175 rushing yards and four touchdowns in 31 carries.
Because of Hurricane Joaquin, Wesley's game vs. Southern Virginia was postponed until Monday afternoon at 4 p.m.