By Greg Chandler
D3sports.com

It was a simple 1-yard run over the right side of the Grove City offensive line, but it was enough to put R.J. Bowers in the college football history book last Saturday.

Bowers became the all-time rushing leader in NCAA history for all divisions in the second quarter of Grove City's game with Bethany, breaking the previous career record of 6,958 yards held by Emporia State's Brian Shay.

"I had a lot of different scenarios in my head as to how I would do it, but that wasn't one of them," said Bowers during his postgame news conference. "But it was still very special to me." 

After the record, there was still a game to be played, and Bowers came up big, scoring all three Grove City touchdowns, including the game-winning 11-yard run in overtime as the Wolverines edged the Bison, 20-14.

Bowers finished with 128 yards on 26 carries. He also has 88 career rushing touchdowns, which is tied with Shay for the all-time record. It was the third overtime game this season for Grove City, now 3-1 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference and 4-4 overall. Bethany, which slipped to 1-3 and 5-4, got a 169-yard rushing performance from Brandon Isbell, as he became just the second back in school history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.

Bowers is expected to become the first college football back in history to top the 7,000-yard mark in career rushing yardage on Saturday as Grove City wraps up its season against Carnegie Mellon.

While Bowers etched his place in history, Mount Union continued to add to its amazing streak, as the No. 1-ranked Purple Raiders crushed Muskingum 62-7. Chuck Moore rushed for 114 yards on just 10 carries, marking his 13th straight 100-yard game on the ground, and scored a touchdown in his NCAA-record 31st straight game.

Mount Union, winners of 56 Ohio Athletic Conference games in a row and 62 consecutive regular season contests, can clinch at least a share of the OAC title this weekend at Baldwin-Wallace.

Elsewhere in the OAC Saturday, Ohio Northern kept its postseason hopes alive, storming back from a 20-point deficit to defeat Wilmington, 38-30. The homestanding Quakers (5-2 OAC, 5-3 overall) scored on each of their first five possessions in building up a 30-10 lead late in the first half, but ONU (6-1, 6-2) struck for a pair of touchdowns in the final two minutes of the half to cut the lead to 30-24.

Then early in the fourth quarter, Jamal Robertson broke loose for a 71-yard touchdown run to put the Polar Bears ahead to stay. Robertson finished with a career-high 265 yards on 35 carries, putting him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season. He has gone over the 100-yard mark 18 times in his career, and his two touchdowns give him 46 for his career, an ONU record.

"We had a flurry at the end of the first half that got us back into the ball game," Ohio Northern coach Tom Kaczkowski said. "Our defense posted a shutout in the second half and that was big. We showed a lot of heart to hang in there and come away with the win." 

Adam Ryan completed 25 of 47 passes for 335 yards and two scores for Wilmington. Ryan's favorite target, Jonathan Cain, had 10 catches for 144 yards.

In the North Coast Athletic Conference, No. 4 Wittenberg nailed down at least a share of its fourth straight conference title by clobbering Hiram, 66-0. Quarterback Anthony Crane threw an 83-yard touchdown pass to Michael Aljancic on the Tigers' first offensive play, and Witt was on its way.

Crane threw three touchdown passes for the game and went over the 4,000-yard passing mark for his career. He now has thrown 19 TD passes this season in just 201 passing attempts.

Wittenberg (9-0), winners of 21 straight NCAC contests, can tie the record for the longest conference winning streak ever on Saturday against surprising Earlham (5-3). Allegheny holds the NCAC record for most consecutive conference wins at 22, between 1992-95.

Elsewhere, Washington and Jefferson nailed down its 14th PAC title in 15 years with a 58-3 blowout of Thiel. Joey Nichols rushed for 115 yards on 16 carries and scored three touchdowns for the Presidents, while Ryan Silvis caught three touchdown passes, covering 65, 27 and 81 yards. Silvis, who could be Division III's answer to Cris Carter ("all he does is catch touchdowns"), has 18 touchdown receptions for the year among his 55 catches.

In the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Hope maintains a one-game lead over Albion and Kalamazoo after the Flying Dutchmen trounced Adrian 33-6. J.D. Graves threw two touchdown passes and John Sloothaak ran for two more as the Flying Dutchmen (3-0, 6-1) won their sixth in a row, their longest winning streak since 1986.

Hot quarterbacks: Saturday's games were peppered with high-powered passing performances. Wabash's Jake Knott threw six touchdown passes, matching the NCAC single-game record he just set a week earlier, but it wasn't enough as the Little Giants fell to Allegheny, 54-45. Knott set another conference record with 68 passing attempts and tied another with 40 completions. Kurt Casper had 16 receptions in the game for Wabash, good for 250 yards and four touchdowns.

Knott's heroics were offset by Allegheny's Shane Ream, who rushed for 187 yards and scored four touchdowns in a game for the third time this season. Ream leads all NCAA divisions with 25 touchdowns, and has rushed for 1,263 yards this season, 22 yards ahead of Wittenberg's Casey Donaldson for the NCAC lead.

Albion's Travis Rundle completed only 10 passes in 15 attempts, but six of his completions went for touchdowns as the Britons annihilated Olivet, 80-7, in the 100th meeting between the two schools. Rundle, the son of Albion coach Craig Rundle, has thrown 10 TD passes the last two weeks.

John Carroll's Tom Arth threw five TD passes in a game for the second time this season as the Blue Streaks crunched Capital 48-7. Arth went 15-for-24 through the air for 337 yards, and now holds the school single-season record for passing yards (2,749) and touchdown passes (27).

These guys can score too
Several teams can find ways to reach the end zone on defense. Wittenberg and John Carroll got two touchdowns each from their defense last week.
A pair of Wittenberg linemen -- Juan Howard and Nic Black -- scored in the Tigers' win against Hiram. Howard had a 10-yard interception return while Black returned a fumble 35 yards for a score.

Meanwhile, John Carroll got an 82-yard fumble return by Scott Parker and a 73-yard interception return by Ben Wasson for touchdowns against Capital.

Heidelberg continued to remain winless after a heartbreaking 16-14 loss to Otterbein, but the 'Berg got a terrific performance from nose tackle Brad Bryant. Bryant had 10 tackles, including two for losses, returned an interception 82 yards for a touchdown, recovered a fumble and blocked an extra point.

Other outstanding defensive performances for the week include Wittenberg's Tim Daoust, who had four tackles for loss and two sacks, giving him nine sacks for the year and 18 for his career. Ohio Wesleyan linebacker Rob Woodward had 18 tackles, and defensive back Steve Siefert returned an interception 89 yards for a touchdown late in the game to preserve the Battling Bishops' 35-27 win over Kenyon. Siefert's return was the longest return with an interception by an OWU player in 73 years. Wooster's Seth Duerr went over the 400-tackle mark for his career with 13 stops in the Fighting Scots' 34-0 win over Oberlin.

Grove City's Jonathan Forbes had 11 tackles, including a pair for losses, against Bethany. More importantly, he blocked a field goal try in the fourth quarter to help send the game into overtime and set up the Wolverines' win. Forbes has blocked three field goal tries in the last three weeks.

This is why they call it FOOTball
Kudos to a pair of kickers who set or tied records in the past week. Albion's Keith Debbaudt kicked a 45-yarder against Olivet, his 11th field goal of the season, tying his own school record for one season set last year. Westminster's Jon McCartney was definitely "fab," breaking the Titans' school record for field goals in a season with his 10th successful kick of the season, a 42-yarder against Gannon.

Congrats, Coach
Congratulations to Baldwin-Wallace coach Bob Packard, who posted his 150th career coaching win Saturday with a 34-14 win over Marietta. Kaili Hunt rushed for a career-high 172 yards on 32 carries and scored four touchdowns for the Yellowjackets (5-2, 6-2), who assured themselves of their 34th consecutive winning season -- the third-longest streak in Division III and fourth-longest in all NCAA divisions.

Packard, who is in his 20th season at Baldwin-Wallace, needs five wins to surpass his mentor, former B-W coach Lee Tressel, who had 154 coaching victories from 1958-80, and move into second place on the all-time OAC career coaching victory list behind Mount Union's Larry Kehres, who has 158 wins and counting.