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| Jeffrey Isotalo-McGuire did not start the season as the go-to guy for UW-Whitewater, but he got the job done in the closing seconds on Saturday. Photo by Doug Sasse, d3photography.com | More photos from this game |
A freshman got a second chance in a huge game, a small bell remained in place, Ithaca continued dominance of Hobart and Delaware Valley prevailed in a battle of unbeatens in Saturday's action among D3football.com Top 25 teams.
This is an early recap and will be updated.
Jeffery Isotalo-McGuire missed a short field goal with 1:53 to play, but Egon Hein intercepted a pass over the middle and the freshman got another shot as he booted through the game-winner from 39 yards with three seconds left. The kick, high and straight down the middle, gave No. 3 UW-Whitewater a thrilling 34-31 win at No. 9 UW-La Crosse.
The kick ended a tightly contested game in which UW-La Crosse got a touchdown on its opening drive and neither team led by more than four points the rest of the way. Whitewater tied the game on its first possession, La Crosse took a lead with a field goal, and the teams traded touchdowns into the fourth quarter before the Eagles forced Whitewater to settle for two field goals, and the three-point win.
La Crosse had a huge performance late in the second quarter, as the Eagles' Josh Dorschner blocked a 25-yard field goal attempt by the Warhawks. Tate Pitcher returned it 16 yards, then pitched it to Cade Osborn, who took it the rest of the way for an 81-yard touchdown. Jaylon Edmonson returned the kickoff all the way down to the UWL 16, but Elijah Alt came up with an interception in the end zone to keep the Warhawks off the scoreboard.
Tommy Coates' third touchdown catch of the day gave Whitewater a lead coming out of the locker room and the teams traded scores until Keyser Helterbrand's 4-yard TD run gave UW-L a 31-28 lead with 11:45. But the Warhawks marched right back down and Isotalo-McGuire tied it with a 29-yard field goal. La Crosse fumbled the ball away at its own 35 to give Whitewater a shot. Isotalo-McGuire missed a short field goal, but Hein got the ball back and Isotalo-McGuire connected to win the game.
The Little Brass Bell went to North Central for the second season in a row, as the top-ranked Cardinals jumped out to a 20-0 halftime lead and went on to defeat No. 11 Wheaton 33-20. The Thunder scored twice to cut the lead to 20-13, and got within a touchdown again when Ben Bonga caught a 14-yard touchdown pass with 5:37 left. But North Central (4-0, 3-0 CCIW) took the kickoff and drove 70 yards on seven plays and Ethan Greenfield scored his third touchdown of the day to extend the lead back to 33-20. Greenfield ran for 189 yards and DeAngelo Hardy caught eight passes for 157 yards and a score.
Jaden Alfanostjohn rushed for 247 yards and a touchdown and Cole Burgess caught two touchdown passes as Cortland (4-0) defeated visiting Morrisville, 28-7, in the teams' Empire 8 opener. It was Morrisville's first loss after four wins. Boyes completed 16 of 23 passes for 158 yards and the two TD passes to Burgess. Cortland finished the game with 461 yards of total offense, including 303 rushing yards.
St. John's jumped out to a 35-7 lead and held on as Concordia-Moorhead scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns before St. John's recovered an onside kick and preserved a 35-28 victory. Aaron Syverson threw five touchdown passes for the No. 6 Johnnies, including two to Zach Jungels and a 60-yarder to Jimmy Buck. Michael Wozniak registered two and a half tackles for loss and two sakcs, en route to 10 total tackles.
After jumping out to a 24-6 halftime lead, No. 12 Bethel held off a second half comeback from Gustavus Adolphus. The Gusties three second-half touchdowns forced the defense to make one final stop with 2:26 to go. BU forced four straight incompletions allowing the offense to go in victory formation for a 30-27 win. Senior quarterback Jaran Roste had a career day throwing for 359 yards. His 28-of-43 passing included a pair of touchdowns in the first half. Sophomore receiver Micah Niewald tied the program single-game record with 15 receptions while gaining 192 receiving yards.
No. 13 Ithaca put up 21 second-quarter points and never looked back, winning 31-7 on the road at Hobart. The Bombers are now 30-4 all-time against the Statesmen. On the first snap of the second quarter, Ithaca's Jalen Hines scored from 2 yards out to give the Bombers a 7-0 lead, capping off a 15-play, 87-yard drive, and Ithaca put up 14 more points in the matter of 15 seconds to expand that lead.
No. 14 Delaware Valley stifled Stevenson and extended its MAC winning streak to 39 games with a 26-7 win against the Mustangs. The Aggies defense set the tone early when Anthony Nobile intercepted a Stevenson pass and returned it to the 1-yard line on the Mustangs' first possession of the game. DelVal quarterback Louie Barrios scored on the next play and then extended the lead to 12-0 when he connected with Tahmir Barksdale for a 29-yard score. DelVal kept Stevenson off the board until the fourth quarter and put the game away with a 90-yard drive capped by Barrios' second rushing touchdown.
Barrios finished with two scores on the ground and two through the air, while Barksdale had seven catches for 139 yards. Aggie defensive end Yusuf Aladinov finished with eight tackles, three for loss including a sack.
Carnegie Mellon picked off four passes and recovered a fumble as the Tartans held off Westminster (Pa.) 10-0, on a day in which the hosts managed no offensive touchdowns. Nolan Pitsenberger turned one of the interceptions into a 64-yard touchdown to give CMU a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter. The teams combined for just 317 yards of total offense for the game on a day in which the first half was played in a constant downpour. CMU improved to 5-0, while Westminster fell to 2-2.
Johns Hopkins pulled away with the final 16 points of the game, as the No. 8 Blue Jays won at Franklin & Marshall, 43-26. John Krill drilled three field goals, including a career-best 43-yarder, while Ryan Stevens threw three touchdown passes and Danny Wolf ran for two more in the win. Defensive end Luke Schuermann racked up six sacks and a forced fumble, including back-to-back sacks in Blue Jay territory late in the first half and a strip-sack in the fourth quarter of the win.
Two weeks after Loras shocked Central at the final horn to win in Pella, Wartburg crusehd the Duhawks, winning 42-3. Drake George, Thor Maakestad and Darius Whaley each caught touchdown passes from Nil McLaughlin, who completed 27 of his 41 passes for 307 yards. The No. 21 Knights travel to No. 23 Central next weekend.
Making just his second appearance in a Central uniform, the team's third quarterback of the day, Cooper Downs, put on an attention-grabbing display with a Division III record-tying five touchdown passes in the third quarter of a 58-0 victory at Nebraska Wesleyan. Meanwhile, a Dutch defense that had lived for two weeks with the sour taste of a 38-35 loss to Loras on Sept. 17, needed just three hours for a palate-cleansing effort in posting the program's first shutout since a 33-0 whitewashing of Buena Vista from Sept. 17, 2016. Downs' only previous game experience after transferring to Central last winter was in the season opener against St. Olaf in Week 1, when he was 2-of-3 for 39 yards with an interception.
DePauw racked up nine sacks as the No. 25 Tigers kept Denison in check in a 17-13 win. Brevon Gude had four of those sacks as DePauw held the Big Red to 246 total yards. Wally Renie threw for 127 yards and ran for 115 in the win.