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| UW-Oshkosh bottled up the John Carroll in a 33-14 victory. Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com |
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| Chase Burton and Ty’Ronte Files celebrate one of the Grizzlies' fourth-quarter touchdowns in their comeback vs. Thomas More. Franklin athletics photo |
Thomas More gave up an 18-point second half lead at Franklin and Central went halfway across the country for a win in Saturday's Division III football Top 25 action.
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Franklin trailed the Saints 25-7 in the second quarter and 32-14 in the third before outscoring Thomas More 29-7 the rest of the way. The capper came with 32 seconds left, when Chase Burton found Tanner Wroblewski in the end zone for the touchdown and a 43-39 win. Burton, who was 51-for-67 on the day, threw five touchdowns, each to a different receiver.
The Central Dutch ended up in a shootout with the Pirates and came away with the win on a day in which each team was 38-for-56 passing and the teams combined for 1,197 yards of total offense. Riley Gray started at quarterback for Central, but Nate Boland relieved just before the start of the fourth quarter and went 17-for-21 passing for 149 yards and two touchdowns, one of them a 9-yard toss to Sam Markham in overtime. The Dutch capped it with a two-point conversion run by Kohle Helle to make their long trip home from Spokane, Wash., to Pella, Iowa, a happy occasion in a 50-49 win.
Steven Ferreira passed for 292 yards and two touchdowns and Cortland held off a late fourth-quarter charge by host Heidelberg as the No. 17 Red Dragons opened the season with a 30-28 win vs. the Student Princes. Cortland led 30-14 entering the fourth quarter, but Heidelberg scored twice in the next six minutes to make it a two-point game. The teams traded three punts, including one by Shane Cronin that pinned Heidelberg on its 1. The Student Princes' drive to win the game stalled at midfield.
The No. 6 Titans picked off Blue Streaks quarterback Anthony Moeglin twice and limited him to 199 yards passing on 47 attempts as UW-Oshkosh got its season started with a 33-14 win vs. No. 18 John Carroll. Brett Kasper was 22-for-31 for 270 yards and two scores for the Titans, while Devon Linzenmeyer rushed for 106 yards and two scores while also catching five passes for 68 yards.
After a bit of a slow start, Wheaton found some things in the second half as the No. 8 Thunder defeated Benedictine 26-7. The Eagles, coached by former Wheaton assistant coach Josiah Sears, trailed just 12-0 at the half. Andrew Bowers threw three TD passes for Wheaton.
UW-Whitewater, playing without No. 1 quarterback Chris Nelson or top wide receiver Marcus Hudson, who were held out of the Week 1 game, nonetheless had no issues with visiting TCNJ, taming the visiting Lions 51-3. Cole Wilber and Ryan Curran combined for an efficient 22-for-27 passing for the Warhawks, while the defense sacked Trevor Osler three times and held TCNJ to 186 yards of offense.
Thirteen players carried the ball for St. John's and Jackson Erdmann threw three touchdowns in his first game in D-III, helping the No. 9 Johnnies to a 49-7 win vs. St. Scholastica. Erdmann, a former walk-on at Penn State, was 14-for-22 for 210 yards while Leonard Gutierrez intercepted three passes for the Johnnies. St. Scholastica was just 13-for-33 passing.
Alex Fenske, the returning senior who beat out two Division I transfers to start at quarterback for St. Thomas, threw for 345 yards and three touchdowns on 17-for-28 passing as St. Thomas defeated UW-Eau Claire 42-6. The Tommies punted on their first two possessions and fumbled on their third, but scored touchdowns on their next three to go up 21-6 at the half.
Jourdan McNeill rushed for 138 yards on 28 carries and scored three times as East Texas Baptist roared out to a 30-0 lead and cruised to a 44-20 win vs. No. 21 Texas Lutheran. McNeill had TD runs of 5, 14 and 36 yards.