By Don Stoner
Augsburg Sports Information Director
MINNEAPOLIS -- Every year, you can count on a few things when the gales of November (to steal a phrase from Gordon Lightfoot) approach the Midwest.
The temperatures get colder. The fallen leaves crunch under your feet on your way to class. The first snowflakes of the season approach, and you swear that you saw the first Christmas ads on TV before Halloween.
And Central College and Wartburg College meet in the annual Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's annual showdown.
It's been that way the last two seasons, as the Dutch and Knights have met, late in the year, with the IIAC title on the line. Two years ago, Central claimed a 27-12 win on its home turf in Pella, Iowa. Last year, Wartburg was the winner, a 40-23 triumph on its home field in Waverly, Iowa.
This year's showdown between the 8-0 teams, slated for Saturday at 1 p.m., is back at Central, at Kuyper Field. Central has won its last 17 regular-season home games, dating back to the 1997 season, and has won 31 of its last 32 regular-season contests -- the only loss being last year's game at Wartburg. Meanwhile, Wartburg has a 19-game regular-season winning streak, which dates back to the 1998 loss to the Dutch. Both teams enter Saturday's game in the Top Five in the AFCA's Division III coaches poll -- Central is third (and received the lone non-Mount Union first-place vote in this week's poll), while Wartburg is fifth. And it's Saturday's D3football.com Game of the Week, one of two this weekend in this region (read on for the other).
"This is interesting because it has come down to this the last three years, so we're looking forward to Saturday," said Central coach Rick Kacmarynski. "I don't know how much the home-field advantage is worth, but I'm glad it is in Pella."
Throw in the automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs that will likely go to the winner as IIAC champion, and the game takes on even more importance. But while the only certainty -- in this age of reductions in NCAA Pool C bids -- is that the IIAC's champion will get an automatic bid, it appears that the loser of the game, finishing 9-1 like last season, should also get into the playoffs with one of the three nationwide Pool C bids.
The game will likely be a defensive battle -- Central has allowed just 221.4 yards of total offense and just seven points a game, while Wartburg has allowed just 276.9 yards of offense and 13 points a game -- and one where maybe one or two mistakes will be the difference in the contest. Central's opponents have only scored eight times (five touchdowns, three field goals) on 38 possessions that cross the 50-yard-line into Central territory this season, while Wartburg's defense has allowed just 14 touchdowns and three field goals this season.
Last week, in previewing the other big battle in the region this year -- Bethel's 43-36 victory over St. John's -- we said that the key theme for the game would be "opportunities." The same holds true for this week's Central-Wartburg game.
Against Coe last week, Central received its first big scare of the year, trailing 7-6 going into the fourth period. But opportunities presented themselves to the Dutch in a big way. Three drives, three touchdowns and five minutes into the fourth quarter, Central had a 28-7 lead, en route to a 31-7 win. Touchdowns by fullback Joe Ritzert and tailback Joey Liekweg bracketed a defensive touchdown -- a 20-yard return of an errant lateral by defensive end Justin Snyder. Central has outscored its opponents 96-0 in the fourth quarter this season.
Meanwhile, Wartburg notched its opportunities early in its 30-24 victory last week over Simpson. The Knights jumped out to a 17-0 second-quarter lead, taking advantage of two Jake Olsen-to-Ryan Rausch touchdowns. The Storm rallied to tie the game at 24-24 midway through the fourth quarter, but Olsen found Rausch again, this time on an 18-yard scoring strike with 6:55 remaining. Wartburg's defense then held firm, stopping two Simpson drives, including a fourth-down breakup of a pass by Bo Harris inside the Wartburg 15-yard-line in the closing minutes.
Rausch has set just about every receiving record at Wartburg, and is just 25 yards from the school's all-time receiving yardage record, 2,897 yards. Rausch already has the career marks for receptions (159) and touchdowns
(30).
Who will key the defenses? For Central, Snyder has been the team's leader, with a league-high 13½ sacks to go with his 21 tackles for loss, while linebacker Jeff Sanger leads the team with 59 tackles this year. Wartburg is paced by defensive back David Devine, who leads the team with 78 tackles and two interceptions. Defensive end Justin Schmidt has 16 tackles for loss and 7½ sacks.
"This is obviously a game the players have been looking forward to," Kacmarynski said, and he could probably speak for both teams in this one. "We tell our players that every game is a championship game, because if we lose, it's difficult to win a championship. But when they're 8-0, and we're 8-0, and everyone else in the league has three or more losses, this really does become a championship game. Our guys are just excited to have the opportunity to play in it."
Metrodome weekend in the MIAC
This weekend marks the annual Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Metrodome Showcase, when the 10 MIAC football teams take over the Metrodome for two days of football excitement.
Friday night will be keyed by the 8 p.m. game between league-leader Bethel (8-0) and St. Thomas (5-3). Should the Royals win over the Tommies for the second year in a row, they would clinch an NCAA playoff berth. Bethel will need to continue to keep the momentum of last week's huge home win against St. John's in order to claim a share of the MIAC championship -- its first ever -- in this week's game. St. Thomas will hope to continue the streak of sophomore running back Jake Barkley, who has seven straight 100-yard rushing games, against a Royal defense that has allowed just 121 rushing yards per contest this year. Meanwhile, Bethel QB Scott Kirchoff is making a strong bid for MIAC Player of the Year honors. The sophomore has thrown for nearly 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns this year.
Not that this is any incentive to stick around this website on Friday, but unless you buy a ticket to go to the Metrodome, D3football.com is the only place you'll find coverage of the game, with an exclusive cybercast. Of course, you'll have to put up with yours truly doing play-by-play and Neil Coleman helping me out with color commentary, but even with us two knuckleheads in the booth, it should still be a good football game to listen to.
Saturday's full day of football will feature two important matchups. St. John's (7-1) hopes to stay in the hunt for the Pool C berth with a contest against 1-7 Carleton in the 4 p.m. contest; and two improving teams -- 4-4 Gustavus Adolphus and surprising 6-2 St. Olaf -- tangle in the 8 p.m. game.
Lawrence and Ripon meet for 100th time
"The game was foul and rough from start to finish. Ripon repeatedly slugged, to which the umpire was blind -- Pugilism, kneeism and heelism, not football. Such playing will kill football. If Ripon or football must die, we are sorry, but it ought to be Ripon."
That passage, from the Lawrence newspaper's account of the 1896 game, vividly shows the level of animosity that Lawrence University and Ripon College have for each other in football. The teams meet for the 100th time this Saturday in Ripon (1 p.m.), and while the teams are at the opposite ends of the Midwest Conference standings (Ripon is 7-1 and Lawrence is 1-7), the game should still be an entertaining one.
Consider these facts. In the 99 previous games, the series is tied at 46-46-7. And the teams are incredibly close in scoring in the games -- Ripon has scored 1,463 points (14.7 points per meeting), while Lawrence has scored 1,399 (14.1 points per meeting).
The series is believed to be Wisconsin's oldest college football rivalry. The teams, just 45 miles apart in east-central Wisconsin, met for the first time in 1893. And though the series has experienced several stops and starts -- at least six breaks in the series between 1895 and 1915 -- it has still become a thrilling rivalry. Twenty-five games in the series have been decided by seven points or less, and three have been decided by just one point. Last year was one of the close ones, with Lawrence claiming a 25-22 upset at its Banta Bowl.
Another classy coach calling it quits
A couple of weeks ago, Concordia-Moorhead coach Jim Christopherson announced his retirement at the end of this season. This week, another MIAC coach has announced that he will retire. Carleton's Bob Sullivan is retiring after spending 22 years on the sidelines in Northfield, Minn. He has a 102-112 career record, the most wins in Carleton history.
"Overall, it's just time to go. I'm 63 and have been doing this for 42 years. It's been fun - I don't regret a minute of it," Sullivan said during a Tuesday press conference. "I loved the game and the kids, but it's time for someone else to get after it and bring it back again."
The high point of Sullivan's tenure in Northfield was 1992, when the Knights claimed the MIAC championship. I can still remember Carleton's league-clinching victory that year, a thrilling win over Gustavus in the Metrodome that wasn't decided until the Carleton defense stopped Gustavus on a two-point conversion attempt in the closing seconds (I was covering the Gusties for the St. Peter Heraldat the time).
Sullivan is another of those classy coaches, like Christopherson, that will be dearly missed in MIAC football circles. And it's probably ironic that Sullivan's football career will come to an end next week by playing at home for the "Goat Trophy," the traditional trophy game between crosstown rivals Carleton and St. Olaf. While Sullivan has an 11-9 record in Goat Trophy games, his Knights have lost their last three games with the Oles. While we're not going to pick sides next week, it would probably be nice for Sullivan to go out a winner, and claim the Goat Trophy besides.
Congrats to Wisconsin-Stout
After 35 seasons, the University of Wisconsin-Stout finally has a conference championship to call its own in football. The 8-0 Blue Devils clinched at least a share of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title -- and the automatic playoff berth that goes with it -- with a 37-21 home win over UW-Oshkosh last week, and the Blue Devils can claim the title outright with a win on Saturday at 1 p.m. at 5-4 UW-Whitewater. If the Blue Devils win, they would be the first WIAC team since 1997 to claim a league title going a perfect 7-0 through conference play.
"This is just an amazing group of players," said Stout coach Ed Meierkort after the win against the Titans. "I am so excited about the progress we made this year after everybody was picking us to finish last. It is just a tribute to the seniors and the coaching staff who brought us here."
Freshman running back Luke Bundgaard may be having one of the best freshman seasons of any player in the nation this year. He went over the 1,000-yard rushing mark in the win over the Titans (the first Stout rusher to do so since 1991), gaining 151 yards and rushing for two touchdowns. He has 189 carries for 1,024 yards this year, and has solid shots to bust the Blue Devils' single-season records (209 carries, 1,105 yards) in the game against Whitewater.
This column is drawn from a variety of sources, including the outstanding work and research of sports information directors from Division III schools all over the Midwest
