/notables/2016/09/week4-top25-roundup

Top 25: Tommies' run continues; Witt tops Wabash

More news about: St. Thomas | UW-Whitewater | Wittenberg

Josh Parks, a freshman, ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns for the Tommies in the win.
Photo by Mark Brown, University of St. Thomas

Jarrod Ware led UW-Whitewater in rushing yards on Saturday.
Photo by Daryl Tessmann, d3photography.com

St. Thomas took advantage of five St. John's turnovers and the Tommies defeated their archrival 33-21 in front of another huge crowd in the Tommie-Johnnie game.

The fourth-ranked Tommies turned four early turnovers into three touchdowns and Michael Alada's second interception finished off the win vs. the sixth-ranked Johnnies in front of a crowd of 16,514, the second-largest recorded crowd in Division III football history

With All-American Jordan Roberts still out with injury, the Tommies went deeper on their depth chart at running back. No. 3 running back Josh Parks, a freshman, ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns on just 15 carries, while Tucker Trettel, the No. 2 back picked up 79 yards on 21 carries in the win. The Tommies defense sacked Jackson Erdmann four times, picked him off twice, and Anthony King-Foreman scooped up a fumble and ran it back 57 yards for a score. 

"It's something our coaches have been preaching all week, to get the ball on the ground and create turnovers," King-Foreman said after the game. "It's one of the No. 1 predictors of success for our team. I just happened to be in the right spot at the right time, picked it up, got a great block from Bennett Celichowski."

The No. 2 Warhawks overcame a combined 14-for-35 effort from two quarterbacks, thanks to a combined 176 yards from Jarrod Ware and Drew Patterson, in defeating Morningside 35-21. It's the second consecutive season that the Warhawks have defeated Morningside, and the second year in a row that the two teams have come in with the same ranking, UWW in Division III and Morningside in the NAIA. Marcus Hudson had four catches for 142 yards and a score in the win. The Warhawks improved to 3-0 despite getting outgained 610-498. 

Utica picked off Cortland five times and the Pioneers remain unbeaten with a 24-13 win. Cortland, which lost Steve Ferreira to an injury last week, had just 155 yards of total offense in the defeat. Dehstin Smart had two picks and nine tackles, three solo, as the Pioneers improved to 4-0.

Trailing 28-7 at the half, No. 16 St. John Fisher put up the largest comeback in program history and won 42-38 at Brockport, with quarterback Matt Naton scoring the winning touchdown with 17 seconds left. The Courage Bowl game was played in front of 8,452 fans at Brockport.

Jake Kennedy threw three touchdown passes and Wittenberg's defense limited Wabash to 84 yards on 38 rushing attempts as the Tigers knocked off the No. 13 Little Giants 24-14. Wabash racked up 140 yards of total offense on the first two series in jumping out to a 14-0 lead, but was limited 137 yards for the remainder of the game by the Wittenberg defense. "We got off to the good start with great execution on those early drives," Wabash coach Don Morel said. "After those series we just struggled to run the ball. Last week we ran for 513 yards. This week it was 84 yards. We also struggled in the passing game. Offensively we just didn't play well."

Malik Jackson caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Alec Vignola with 6.5 seconds left in the game, lifting Albright past No. 14 Delaware Valley 20-17. 

It was Andrew Bowers' turn in the two-man quarterback rotation for Wheaton, and the Thunder squeaked out a 10-6 win vs. Elmhurst. Bowers was 15-for-26 passing but at a clip of just 4.9 yards per attempt. The Thunder scored the go-ahead touchdown with 11:14 to play in the game after Kyle Fox's interception set Wheaton up on the Elmhurst 25.

B.J. Mitchell ran for a career-high 259 yards on 32 carries and Mount Union rolled past Baldwin Wallace, pulling away in the fourth quarter to a 49-7 win. D'Angelo Fulford was 5-for-11 passing and Luke Poorman was 6-for-11 for the top-ranked Purple Raiders, who threw for just 131 of its 505 total yards.

Ryan Breton and Zach Galindo each threw five touchdown passes, but Breton rushed for a score and a Hardin-Simmons teammate, Jaquan Hemphill, added another touchdown on the ground as the No. 12 Cowboys remained unbeaten, defeating Texas Lutheran 48-38. Reese Childress had three touchdown catches and Alex Bell had two in the win.

The Johns Hopkins defense pressured Nick Palladino into three interceptions and forced the No. 2 quarterback in Division III in completion percentage to throw as many incomplete passes on Saturday as he had all season as the Blue Jays defeated Muhlenberg 30-24. Palladino was 30-for-51 with a touchdown and three interceptions, two of them by Jack Toner. Ryan Cary had 26 carries for 100 yards and a touchdown for JHU, while Brett Caggiano and Bradley Munday each went over 100 yards receiving. 

No. 18 Thomas More held Sam Benger to just 55 yards on the ground and the Saints defeated Carnegie Mellon 20-16. Benger scored on a 10-yard touchdown pass early on but was held to just 2.5 yards per carry. The Saints also picked off Tartans quarterback Alex Cline four times, two of them by Austin Copeland.

Union took a 23-19 lead midway through the fourth quarter in its 100th meeting with Hobart. But Hobart returned an intercepted two-point conversion attempt for a defensive two-point conversion to cut the lead to two and Shane Sweeney found Brandon Shed for a 23-yard touchdown catch with 2:16 left to lift the No. 22 Statesmen to a 27-23 victory. Shed caught three touchdowns on the afternoon.

Sam Markham had a school-record 15 catches, totalling 201 yards as No. 25 Central outlasted Loras 42-34. A year ago at Loras, Markham had 13 catches for 206 yards, yet Central surrendered four fourth-quarter touchdowns. But this time the Dutch defense stiffened in the second half, thanks in part to picks by cornerback Trevor Smith and free safety Zach Matter. Central yielded just 169 second-half yards.

Bluffton scored with 38 seconds left to cut Franklin's lead to six, got the ball back after a three-and-out, but left a Hail Mary attempt short of the end zone and had it intercepted to end the game and No. 20 Franklin survived to win 44-38.

Dec. 15: All times Eastern
Final
Cortland 38, at North Central (Ill.) 37
@ Salem, Virginia
Video Box Score Recap Photos
Dec. 9: All times Eastern
Final
North Central (Ill.) 34, at Wartburg 27
Box Score Recap
Final
Cortland 49, at Randolph-Macon 14
Box Score Recap Recap Recap Photos
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