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| After the Tigers were nearly silenced with 58 seconds left, they marched down the field and scored with 0:13 to play on this touchdown catch by Carter Self to beat Birmingham-Southern. Trinity (Texas) athletics photo |
Three big games came down to the finish nearly simultaneously on Saturday, and when the rubber particles had settled, No. 5 Trinity (Texas) had survived at home against Birmingham-Southern, No. 17 UW-River Falls had edged No. 16 UW-Oshkosh and No. 20 Wartburg had held off No. 24 Central. Carnegie Mellon needed a late pick to escape Waynesburg, and the battle of the Tigers did not go No. 25 DePauw's way.
Things looked bleak for Trinity after Birmingham-Southern scored with 1:07 left to take a 20-17 lead. It was the second scoring drive for the Panthers in the fourth quarter, which saw B-SC rally from a 17-10 deficit. Matt McClary hit a big strike downfield, finding Branden Rew between two defenders down to the 1-yard line. Jon Lewis waltzed into the end zone one play later to give B-SC the lead.
But BJ Stewart got a big kickoff return, out to the 38-yard line. A couple of short passes got the Tigers into Panther territory, but a couple of incomplete passes also left Trinity with a fourth-and-5 from the Birmingham-Southern 43 with 21 seconds left. After a timeout, Trinity came out and went for the deep ball over the middle, where Tucker Horn found Carter Self behind the defense. His fingertip catch and run gave the Tigers a touchdown and a 23-20 lead.
It was just Self's third target and second catch of the day, but both completions were long ones, as he finished with two catches for 74 yards. Ryan Merrifield and Caleb Crawford caught TD passes for Trinity as well, as Horn went 23-for-32 for 322 yards on the afternoon.
At the same time, Central was scoring and recovering an onside kick, and UW-Oshkosh was driving on UW-River Falls.
Central took a 14-13 lead on the first play of the fourth quarter, as Cooper Down finished a 75-yard drive with a 6-yard TD pass to Ryan Neu. The touchdown put Wartburg on the trailing side of the scoreboard for the first time all season. But Wartburg's Nile McLaughlin drove his Knights straight down the field, including a 22-yard touchdown pass to Thor Maakestad. The two-point conversion gave Wartburg a 21-14 lead. Central was forced to punt, and Wartburg went on another long drive, this time with Hunter Clasen rushing for 43 yards on the drive to go up 28-14 with 7:35 to play. After another Central punt, the Dutch got a gift when Ben Bryant fumbled at the end of a long run. Brady Ketchum came back in at quarterback and piloted a touchdown drive, and Central recovered an onside kick, leading to a 49-yard touchdown pass from Ketchum to Carson Cummer to tie the game with 2:04 left.
However, that was more than enough time for McLaughlin to lead his team back down the field, and for 11 plays and 75 yards, that's exactly what he did. Once inside the 5, a Central offsides penalty gave Wartburg a first-and-goal from the 2, then another offside made it first down from the 1, from which Clasen ran it in for the win with 21 seconds left.
UW-River Falls took a 17-3 lead late in the second half before the Titans scored a TD on fourth-and-3 from the Falcon 17, then added a two-point conversion to make it 17-11 at the half. The Titans then added TDs on their first two possessions of the second half to take a 24-17 lead. But Kaleb Blaha led the Falcons back down the field, capping it off with a 3-yard TD run to tie the game at 24. Another bruising, 18-play drive, resulted in a 23-yard field goal by Justin Scheberl midway through the fourth quarter, giving the Falcons the lead at 27-24. Oshkosh quarterback Kobe Berghammer got picked off, Blaha fumbled, and Oshkosh got the ball back at its own 10. Eleven plays later, the Titans faced a fourth-and-15 at the River Falls 43 when Michael Brown intercepted Berghammer for the second time in the quarter, allowing River Falls to assume the victory formation.
Carnegie Mellon managed to get out of Waynesburg with a win and improved to 6-0. The Yellowjackets (3-2) tied the game in the third quarter when Tyler Raines hit Dakota Romantino for their second long TD of the day, this one a 73-yarder to even the score at 20. The Tartans didn't answer until just 69 seconds were left in the game, when CMU quarterback Ben Mills found Dominic Voiland in the back of the end zone for a TD. The game remained in doubt until Adrian Williams made a tip-toeing interception along the CMU sidelines at the Tartan 22-yard line with 19 seconds left, sealing the win.
No. 25 DePauw lost its starting quarterback to injury early on, and ended up losing its unbeaten start to the season as well. After Wally Renie went out with his Tigers ahead 7-0, the subsequent DePauw quarterbacks completed just seven of 19 passes and threw four interceptions, allowing the Tigers of Wittenberg to run away with a 30-7 victory. Garrett Gross ran for 123 yards and Bryce Anderson ran for two TDs in the win, as Wittenberg improved to 3-2, 3-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference.
No. 9 UW-La Crosse defeated UW-Stout for the 10th consecutive time, defeating the Blue Devils 42-21. Cade Garcia went 8-of-13 passing for 103 yards with three touchdowns and one interception while Keyser Helterbrand finished 3-for-5 for 33 yards. Helterbrand had a game-high 182 yards rushing on 14 carries and two touchdowns.
Jaden Alfanostjohn ran for 119 yards and three scores and Joshua Cordero and Rashad Tucker registered a touchdown each on defense and special teams, respectively, as No. 13 Cortland defeated host Brockport, 42-24. The Red Dragons, 5-0 and 2-0 in Empire 8 play, have won 15 consecutive regular season games. Cortland scored on the second play of the game, a pick-six by Cordero, and Cortland picked off Brockport on the Golden Eagles' second possession as well.
In front of a crowd of 4,561 on Homecoming weekend at Sprankle-Sprandle Stadium, No. 22 Albion handily defeated rival and MIAA preseason favorite Hope, 30-10. The Britons hauled in three interceptions and improved to 6-0, 2-0. Mark Tocco brought down nine passes for 169 yards and three TDs. "I've said it every week … Mark Tocco is Mark Tocco and he's going to do Mark Tocco things," said head coach Dustin Beurer. "He's dependable, he's reliable and good luck trying to tackle him with the first guy."
No. 15 Delaware Valley held Lycoming to 121 yards and two-for-12 on third down conversion attempts in a 21-0 home win over the Warriors. Blaine Netterman set the Aggies up to break the scoreless tie when he intercepted a pass and returned it to the Lycoming 20. Two plays later Louie Barrios IV connected with Dez Austin for the only score the Aggies would need. Del Val improves to 5-0 and runs its MAC winning streak to 40 consecutive games