By Keith McMillan
D3sports.com
There were fourth-quarter comebacks, blocked kicks and goal-line stands. Think playoffs, and you think dramatic finishes. The first round of the 2003 Division III playoffs certainly obliged.
Toss out the North (Mount Union) bracket, and there were no blowouts in the opening round. Seven games were decided by a touchdown or less — two by a point, two in overtime — and four on the last or second-to-last play.
“Like I said to my wife, one point more than the other guy, that’s all you need,” said Montclair State head coach Rick Giancola, whose team made a 52-yard field goal and blocked another to hang on to a 20-19 victory against Allegheny. “But I’d rather it not be like that.”
Ditto for Bridgewater’s Michael Clark, whose team rallied from a 17-0 halftime deficit and stopped Waynesburg on four tries from inside the 10-yard line in the final minute in a 28-24 win.
“That’s not by design,” Clark said. “You’d like it a different way, but knowing the kids could go out there with things looking as bad as they were and pull out a victory says a lot about their character.”
There were gut-check moments across the country, as Linfield’s Ike Ellis knocked down a Redlands fourth quarter pass from the 21 in Oregon. Down South, East Texas Baptist’s Littleton Dean blocked a PAT in OT to help the Tigers outlast Trinity (Texas), which played in last year’s Stagg Bowl. And in upstate New York, Ithaca’s Seth Molisani intercepted a Brockport State fourth-down pass in the end zone with 5:14 left, and teammate Jon Edgcomb batted down another pass into the end zone on the last play of the game to preserve a 14-9 victory.
Though it would be absurd to suggest that there was a single best game on Saturday, it doesn’t get much better than St. Norbert’s come-from-behind 26-20 double-overtime win against Simpson.
“Ours was as close as anybody’s,” said Green Knights head coach Jim Purtill. “[My] emotions were on the biggest yo-yo they’ve ever been on.”
Purtill’s undefeated team hadn’t trailed all season, and fell behind 20-7 in the third quarter against the Storm. A Ryan Hartman-to-T.J. George pass narrowed it to 20-14 with 10:27 to play, and the Green Knights’ Casey Meehan scored on a 3-yard run with 37 seconds left to tie the score at 20.
The crowd at St. Norbert’s first-ever home playoff game likely figured the game-winning extra point was a formality, and started to celebrate.
“For a while it looked like we were going to lose,” said Purtill. “Then it looked like we were going to win.”
Then came the Storm and a blocked extra point.
St. Norbert was intercepted on the second play of overtime, but Simpson was stuffed on fourth-and-1 from the 16 to force a second OT. Simpson then had a 27-yard field goal attempt blocked.
Talk about a yo-yo.
George put an end to it all when he scored on a 25-yard run — diving across the goal line — to win it on the first play of the Green Knights’ possession.
Purtill said his view of the play was blocked, and the crowd’s reaction at first couldn’t tell him if his team had won.
“I think it took a while for everyone to realize that it was a touchdown, and that that was it,” Purtill said. But a wild celebration followed the delayed reaction.
“For the national people to say that St. Norbert deserves a home game in the playoffs was a great compliment,” Purtill said. “But the best part about it was that we proved them right.”
At Bridgewater, the Eagles added another chapter to their short-but-amazing playoff history. Even Waynesburg coach Jeff Hand knew a bit about Bridgewater’s playoff success, given that it started against one of his PAC rivals.
In the 2000 postseason, Bridgewater rallied from down 28-3 to win 59-42 against Washington & Jefferson. The Eagles’ success in close games has hardly stopped since.
Whether it’s skill, luck or some combination of both, the Eagles can run off a list of amazing finishes: They beat Trinity (Texas) 41-37 on a touchdown pass with 34 seconds left and beat Rowan 29-24 on the final play of the infamous clock game in 2001. Last year, the Eagles beat King’s 19-17 when a field goal attempt fell short, and won at Hampden-Sydney 31-28 in the final minute during this year’s regular season.
And those are just the ones they won.
“We don’t plan it that way,” said quarterback Brandon Wakefield, “but every game it’s always something.”
For the Eagles, a 55-yard reverse by Nicholas Lehto sparked the comeback.
Bridgewater and Waynesburg traded the lead in the fourth period, and it looked like the Yellow Jackets might strike last, as they drove to the Eagle 8 in the final minute. On fourth down, cornerback Steward White tipped away a pass intended for Paul D’Imperio in the end zone.
At Montclair State, the Red Hawks put together their second consecutive two-score fourth quarter comeback. Montclair State got a playoff-record 52-yard field goal from freshman Vin Doffont, then blocked a 36-yard Allegheny attempt with seven seconds left to preserve the 20-19 victory.
“It was certainly not a situation that you look forward to being in,” said Giancola of the up-and-down finish.
After the field goal put the Red Hawks ahead with 2:25 left, Giancola said the plan was to kickoff to a deep corner. Instead, the kick went straight ahead and hit a Gator front lineman. Allegheny recovered and started near midfield.
When John Lennox blocked the Allegheny field goal try, it was “relief, joy, numbness,” Giancola said. “A myriad of emotions.”
Giancola admitted that losing on a makeable field goal was a possibility, but his hope was buoyed because Montclair had blocked kicks in other games this season.
“We’ve won with the kicking game in different ways,” Giancola said.
Against Rowan, a Red Hawk punt went out of bounds on the 1-yard line and the Profs ran three quarterback sneaks and punted back. Montclair State’s Shaun Murray returned the kick 39 yards for a touchdown in the 21-20 win.
Now when Giancola speaks about how special teams can change a game, his players have reason to tune in.
“Boy, they should pay attention,” he said. “In the season we’re having, special teams are playing a major role in giving us a chance to be successful.”
With so many close games in the books, some of the winners of the opening round’s tightest finishes will face off in round two.
“If you get to the second round, the round of 16,” said St. Norbert’s Purtill, “there are no easy teams to play.”
“All the clubs are good, and everybody who gets [in the playoffs] had done something good to get there,” said Giancola. “All the little things you harp about all season are probably going to make the difference in the games; penalties, dropped balls, bad kicks.”
Purtill’s Green Knights travel to St. John’s in what he thinks was the playoff’s most difficult bracket. It did feature the teams who were ranked 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 19th and 25th. That didn’t include 7th-ranked UW-La Crosse, a West Region team moved to Mount Union’s bracket.
“If we’re in a close one this week,” said Purtill, “I’ll be delighted.”
