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| Springfield kept it on the ground, of course, and ended up running away with it at No. 2 Cortland. Photo by Ella Travaglino for Springfield athletics |
Springfield delivered the biggest win in program history as it knocked off the defending national champions in No. 2 Cortland, 40-28 in the third round of the NCAA playoffs, on a day in which road teams won five of the eight games played.
Arsen Shtefan carried the ball 29 times for 148 yards and two scores, while Blane Hart and Drew Heenan rushed for 87 yards and two scores apiece. Hart and Heenan each scored for Springfield in the second half, as the Pride (12-0) answered Cortland's third-quarter drive to take the lead by scoring the last 13 points to end the game. Springfield held the ball for 35:09 in the contest, including 10:49 in the final quarter, and went 4-for-5 on fourth down. The 40 points was the most allowed by Cortland since it surrendered 48 points to Ithaca in the 2017 Cortaca Jug game.
The win propels Springfield into the quarterfinals for the first time since 2000, where the Pride will travel to top-ranked North Central.
Freshman Rahshan La Mons ran for 176 yards and three touchdowns, including one where he kept his knee from touching the ground and hopped back up to score, and sophomore Dominic Bourgeois kicked two field goals, the final one from 37 yards out on the final play of the game as No. 6 Susquehanna knocked out No. 3-ranked St. John's 41-38. The Johnnies were the No. 1 seed in the bracket.
La Mons was brought downward, but not all the way to the ground, and rolled off a St. John's defender to just barely keep his knee off the turf, then got up and ran the rest of the way to the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown to tie the game at 24. That sparked a bit of a run for the River Hawks, who then went on to score the next two touchdowns to go up 38-24 with 9:15 left. St. John's bounced back to score the next two to tie the game at 38, as Aaron Syverson threw two TDs, the second one to Marselio Mendez with 3:31 remaining. But Susquehanna took the kickoff and drove 55 yards down to the 20, including two runs by Josh Ehrlich to get the ball down to the 20 to set up Bourgeois.
Host and unbeaten DePauw was set up with a first-and-goal with less than 30 seconds remaining and down just 14-9 against Johns Hopkins. At that point, the odds may have favored the Tigers, who entered the game averaging just over 52 points per game and were perhaps due. The Tigers spiked it on first and goal, or at least it seemed, but then the clock started rolling when it was set and DePauw spiked it again. Nathan McCahill slipped down as he tried to cut back against a pursuing Blue Jay defense on third down, then the Tigers were called for a false start in the final seconds, forcing a 10-second runoff that sealed the five-point win and a trip to the NCAA quarterfinals for Johns Hopkins. JHU had taken a 14-0 lead in the first half that held at 14-3 until early in the fourth, when McCahill found Robby Ballentine for a 32-yard score to make it 14-9. JHU stopped McCahill on a two-point conversion. And in the fourth quarter, Johns Hopkins went on a 17-play drive that took 8:54 off the clock, but the drive ended in a missed field goal.
Mary Hardin-Baylor’s mastery of Linfield continued as the Cru picked up a 28-18 victory in McMinnville, advancing to the quarterfinals behind a relentless defensive effort and timely plays. After falling behind early, the Cru surged to a 14-3 halftime lead, aided by a heads-up recovery on a punt that deflected off the back of a Linfield player. Linfield rallied in the second half with Luke McNabb running out of the wildcat, but Da’Marion Morris’ 71-yard interception return set up a late Jake Wright rushing touchdown to seal the game. Asa Osbourn led UMHB’s ground attack with 102 yards and a score, while James Wright recorded 3.5 of the Cru's six sacks. The next stop on the Cru's North American tour in these playoffs will be Homewood Field in Baltimore to take on Johns Hopkins.
SyRus McGowan threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as Salisbury advanced to the round of eight with a 35-14 win against Randolph-Macon. The Sea Gulls scored the first 28 points of the game. They held the Yellow Jackets to 14 yards rushing for the game and kept them off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter. After Randolph-Macon's second score, Salisbury recovered the onside kick and McGowan took the next snap and ran it in for a 44-yard touchdown run to put the game away for good.
Mount Union edged Carnegie Mellon 24-19 to advance to the quarterfinals, where they will face Salisbury. Tyler Echeverry once again led the Purple Raiders with 112 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. A 10-0 third quarter gave Mount Union enough cushion to withstand CMU's fourth-quarter rally. With less than two minutes to play and the Tartans driving, Rossy Moore delivered a game-sealing sack of Ben Mills on 4th down. Carnegie Mellon’s season concludes at 10-2.
Forcing three missed field goals, two interceptions and nine tackles for loss, No. 21 Bethel defeated No. 11 Wartburg, 24-14. The win improves Bethel to 11-2 on the year as the Royals reach the quarterfinals for the sixth time in program history and third time since 2018. Wartburg entered the fourth quarter on a drive and got into Bethel territory before Matt Jung picked off Knights quarterback Riley Richards and ran down the far sideline for 59 yards to the house. It was his fourth pick six of the season. It'd be the game's final score as BU's defense forced a punt, missed 30-yard field goal and then a game-sealing interception by Isaac Call in the Knights' final three possessions.
The No. 1-ranked Cardinals (12-0) and the 16th-ranked Flying Dutchmen (11-1) played to a scoreless standstill after the first quarter and were still tied at 7-7 late in the second. North Central scored twice in the final 3:26 of the first half to take control and wound up scoring on all four of its second-half possessions against a Hope team that was playing in the round of 16 for the first time. The Cardinals owned a nearly six-minute advantage in time of possession and outgained Hope, 486-334, holding the nation's third-ranked rushing offense more than 100 yards under its per-game average. Sacco broke the 100-yard barrier in rushing yards for the second straight week, gaining 120 yards on 19 carries to surpass the 1,000-yard barrier (1,017) for the second straight season. Luke Lehnen ran for 93 yards on 10 attempts while completing 13 of 18 passes for 234 yards, throwing to Thomas Skokna four times for 119 yards.