Recap: Hawks take back Wesley Cup

Sep 10, 2022

Just to the left of center, Huntingdon is holding the Wesley Cup.
Huntingdon athletics photo

Huntingdon won a back-and-forth game against its only in-state rival on Saturday, while Rowan beat Springfield, Buena Vista rallied at Lakeland, and the Hilbert program took the field for the first time.

A wild game between Alabama's two Division III schools had seven lead changes, the last one putting Huntingdon on top with 1:09 to go and giving the Hawks a 38-35 win against Birmingham-Southern. Landon Cotney threw for 317 yards and just one touchdown, but it was the game-winner to Kyler Chaney in the closing minutes to give the Hawks the Wesley Cup for the first time since 2017.

Huntingdon scored first on a Kahari McReynolds touchdown run, the first of his three on the day, and either held the lead or was tied until midway through the third quarter when Panthers running back Grayson Stacey broke off a 26-yard run for a score and B-SC took a 21-20 lead. Huntingdon answered with a 22-yard field goal to go up 23-21.

In the third quarter, quarterback Matt McClary ripped off a 78-yard touchdown run and hit on the two-point conversion to give Birmingham-Southern a 29-23 lead. McReynolds' third TD gave Huntingdon a 30-29 lead, Jon Lewis answered with a TD run, and Cotney's pass with 69 seconds left wrapped up the scoring. McReynolds ran for 210 yards on 24 carries in the win.

"I'm really proud of the way our guys continued to fight," Hawks coach Mike Turk said. "We made a ton of mistakes and it would have been easy for our guys to think that it wasn't going to be their night. They kept believing in each other though, and we found a way to win."

Mike Husni connected with John Maldonado for the go-ahead touchdown with 1:02 left and AJ Kirvin added an interception on the next defensive series to help Rowan seal up a big 38-35 win at Springfield. James Fara had two scores, one on the ground and the other was a 95-yard touchdown catch and run while CJ Barrett added a 44-yard TD reception early in the fourth quarter. The defense followed with a huge goal line stop and forced a turnover. A fourth-and-1 from the Rowan 6-yard line saw Aeneas Robinson knock the ball out where Springfield recovered 3 yards back and short of the line to gain, giving the ball back to the Profs.

Husni finished with 316 yards and five touchdowns for the Profs, who improved to 2-0. He completed 21 of 31 passes. Maldonado had nine catches for 115 yards and three scores in the win. Springfield fell to 1-1. Rowan is 2-0 for the first time since 2018.

Hope had six picks, including a pick-six, and needed every single one of them to get past Coe on the road, 33-24. Darion Nundley returned an interception 37 yards for a touchdown late in the third quarter to give Hope its first lead of the game, 24-17. The Flying Dutchmen added a field goal with 2:13 left to go up 10. Coe drove 83 yards to cut the lead to three, and covered the onside kick, but fumbled on the final snap and Adam Gill picked it up and returned it 41 yards for a 33-24 final. Three Coe quarterbacks combined to throw the six interceptions and complete 23 of 44 passes for 207 yards. Sam Cochran led Hope with two of the six picks.

"On Tuesday, we noticed our defense in practice – they were focused, they were lasered in. They had a great week of practice, I think partly because they didn't want to give up 34 points. That left a bad taste in their mouth. A credit to our guys for stepping up," Hope coach Pete Stuursma said.

Jatron Bevly ran for 343 yards and five touchdowns on 17 carries, including a 70-yard touchdown run with 5:42 left in the third quarter to give Lakeland a 34-10 lead against Buena Vista. But Bevly did not get another carry the rest of the day, and Buena Vista rallied, with Zach Herrera throwing four touchdown passes in the span of just over 10 minutes, lifting the Beavers to a 41-34 road win. Herrera got picked off three times for BVU (1-1) but he threw four touchdowns in the victory. Lakeland had 563 yards of total offense, while Buena Vista had 510.

On the flip side, Wilmington and Baldwin Wallace put up less than 500 yards of total offense combined. Baldwin Wallace won for the 13th consecutive time against Wilmington but it was hardly without drama as the Yellow Jackets got away with a 13-12 victory. After Wilmington jumped out to a 10-0 lead 20 minutes into the game, BW got its first touchdown on a 26-yard interception return for a score by Zach Zoul, and took the lead when Reese Warner finished an 84-yard drive with a 15-yard score. Wilmington (1-1, 0-1 OAC) cut that lead to one after a safety on a bad punt snap, but the Quakers' ensuing drive petered out at the BW 34, and the Yellow Jackets (1-1, 1-0) ran out the clock.

We kid you not, it's a donut trophy.
Photo by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com

The newest rivalry game took the field on Saturday night as two Milwaukee-area schools met on the football field for the first time, and the winner got donuts. That was Carroll, which rolled past host Wisconsin Lutheran 54-7 in a game dubbed the Glazers Bowl. The schools are 14 miles apart, and yes, sponsor Kwik Trip donated 20 boxes of yummy glazed donuts to the winner. (Can confirm, quite yummy.)

After trailing at halftime by the score of 23-3, Trine mounted a huge comeback to defeat host Rose-Hulman 24-23. RHIT led 23-3 at the half and picked off Trine quarterback Alex Price, but the Thunder defense held RHIT under 10 yards on each of the next four drives, allowing Trine time to rally. Down 23-17 in the closing minutes, Price connected with Connor Arthur for 31 yards to start the next drive and then scampered in for the final 17 yards to the end zone tying the game with 1:37 left. Anthony Hentz's extra point gave the team its first lead at 24-23. Jacob Jackson followed with a strip-sack and Tristan Kern recovered the fumble to seal the win.

Alvernia got new head coach Steve Azzanesi his first career win as a Division III head coach and snapped the program's 16-game losing streak as the Golden Wolves got past Oberlin 38-35. Alvernia last won on Oct. 12, 2019, against Lycoming. After trailing 31-14, Oberlin scored 21 fourth-quarter points but a 48-yard touchdown run by EJ Lee kept Alvernia in front.

Daniel Papantonis had a monster game for Rochester for the second time in two weeks, rolling for 278 yards on 30 carries as the Yellowjackets defeated Alfred State 30-17. Rochester (1-1) piled up five sacks, three interceptions and one fumble recovery. Papantonis has 587 yards and seven touchdowns through two weeks of the season.

Hilbert got its football program off the ground in less than 12 months, but the Hawks will have to wait a little longer for their first score as Denison came to town and rolled away with a 63-0 win. Trey Fabrocini ran for three touchdowns and seven Denison players got carries in the win. The Hawks (0-1) had 124 yards of total offense.

We'll leave you with a lasting look at the Glazers Bowl:

Who wouldn't be fired up to win free donuts?! Carroll rolls past Wisconsin Lutheran to win the Glazers Bowl. #d3fb pic.twitter.com/jXf0GFIMC9
— D3football.com (@d3football) September 11, 2022