Linfield falls; Whitewater, UMHB survive

Dylan Jones ran for 166 yards and three touchdowns, including a 98-yarder early in the fourth quarter that gave Willamette a 31-14 lead at Linfield. d3photography.com file photo by Dan Harris

Willamette rolled out to a three-score lead in the fourth quarter and held on at archrival Linfield, No. 1 UW-Whitewater was pushed by No. 16 UW-Platteville and second-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor trailed rival Hardin-Simmons at halftime. But they both rallied, while No. 20 UW-Stevens Point and No. 22 Hampden-Sydney fell in Saturday's Week 9 Division III football action.

• Week 9 scoreboard
• Even more game stories
• Week 9 national roundup
• NCAA says no auto bid for SAA, MASCAC 

Dylan Jones ran for 166 yards and three touchdowns for Willamette, including a 98-yarder with 12 minutes left in the game that gave the Bearcats a 31-28 lead and seemed to seal the game. But the fifth-ranked Wildcats rallied, scoring two touchdowns in 16 seconds sandwiched around a Willamette fumbled kickoff, to cut the lead to three. However, Linfield missed a field goal short and Sam Riddle was intercepted to end two drives in the fourth quarter and Willamette held on to hand Linfield its first conference loss since 2008.

Riddle had only been intercepted once all season but threw three picks today for Linfield.

Brady Grayvold grabbed his 11th interception in the past 13 games, one of two turnovers UW-Platteville had in the red zone, as top-ranked UW-Whitewater held off the No. 16 Pioneers 17-7.

Without Jake Kumerow, who left early in last week's game vs. UW-Oshkosh, the Whitewater offense struggled, with Matt Behrendt completing 16 of 27 for 177 yards and two scores. Jordan Ratliffe and Dennis Moore combined for 182 yards on 29 carries for the Warhawks, who won their 25th consecutive game. Platteville falls to 6-2, having previously lost to North Central, and is on the ropes for a playoff at-large bid, even with the revelation this week that there would be six at-large bids, rather than five.

After trailing 14-10 at the half, second-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor blew up in the third quarter. The Cru scored 18 seconds into the second half on an 86-yard touchdown pass from Zach Anderson to Wykeyhe Walker and they scored twice in a span of 100 seconds later in the quarter, capped by a 28-yard interception return for a TD by Dana Taylor. Anderson finished with four TD passes in the 41-28 win.

No. 20 UW-Stevens Point turned the ball over three times and UW-Oshkosh continued to put the 0-3 start vs. scholarship foes behind it as the Titans defeated the Pointers 21-7. Oshkosh got all of that done with just 221 yards of total offense and had just six first downs on the afternoon.

Jacob Wright ran for 133 yards and a touchdown and the Bridgewater defense pounded Nash Nance and the Hampden-Sydney offense, upsetting the No. 22 Tigers 34-9. Bridgewater picked off Nance twice and held him to 15-for-34 passing and just 204 yards in the win. Bridgewater had 10 tackles for loss, five of them sacks, in the win. 

In the MIAC, St. Thomas knocked off No. 18 Concordia-Moorhead, No. 11 Bethel rallied past Gustavus Adolphus and No. 19 St. John's shut down Augsburg. That sets up a winner-take all game for the conference's automatic bid next week as Bethel travels to St. John's.

In a back-and-forth game, the Tommies' John Gould hit Charlie Dowdle for a 59-yard touchdown pass with 4:21 to play and Sean Hamlin intercepted Griffin Neal's pass in Tommie territory two minutes later to seal UST's 35-32 win. Bethel bounced back from a nine-point third-quarter deficit and scored the next three touchdowns, two of them with two-point conversions, and held on to defeat Gustavus 30-23. Sam Sura rushed for 170 yards and Josh Bungum added 101 as St. John's ran all over Augsburg, 24-7. The Johnnies held Auggie quarterback Ayrton Scott to 13-for-33 passing.

Tyler Fenti threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more scores as No. 15 St. John Fisher defeated Buffalo State 35-25. Fisher's win, along with Ithaca's win vs. Brockport State, means that St. John Fisher and Ithaca will meet for a winner-take-all game next week for the Empire 8 automatic bid.

There will be a winner-take-all match in the Liberty League next week as well, as No. 8 Hobart rolled over Union 30-6 and St. Lawrence defeated WPI. The Statesmen limited Hobart to 10 net rushing yards, racking up seven tackles for loss.

No. 17 Washington and Jefferson jumped out to a 37-0 lead at halftime to cruise to a 51-12 win vs. Geneva. It's the fifth time the Presidents have gone over 50 points and the sixth time they've gone over 500 yards of offense. W&J can clinch the Presidents' Athletic Conference automatic bid next week vs. Thiel.

Quinn Donaldson caught two long touchdown passes and ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins cruised past Ursinus 42-14. Ursinus was limited to just 4.2 yards per pass attempt. If Johns Hopkins wins one of its final two games or Muhlenberg loses one of its final two games, JHU will win the Centennial Conference automatic bid.

Widener and Delaware Valley remained on track for a season-ending showdown. No. 12 Widener eased past Stevenson and No. 21 Delaware Valley survived as King's attempt at a game-tying field goal fell short at the final gun. After stopping Delaware Valley on fourth-and-goal from the 2, King's had a chance to tie or win the game in the final minute. The Monarchs drove to the Aggies' 20 and attempted a 39-yard field goal against the wind that fell short as time expired. Delaware Valley survived 24-21. Meanwhile, Widener held Stevenson to minus-13 yards rushing on 30 carries.

Nolan Coulter ran for 186 yards and Maz Mazza caught 11 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown as No. 25 Centre held off Hendrix 35-26. Centre led 28-6 at the half before Hendrix scored on three quick drives in the third and fourth quarter, but Centre covered an onside kick and ran out the clock.

Wittenberg has been winning through the air this season, and did so again on Saturday as Zack Jenkins threw for 401 yards and Corey Stump and Zach Culvahouse combined for 313 receiving yards in a 42-6 win vs. Ohio Wesleyan.