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| Cayden Saxon is mobbed by teammates and fans after his game-clinching interception for St. John's. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com | More photos from this game |
St. John's trailed Trinity (Texas) by 17 points in the fourth quarter before rallying to win in overtime, UW-River Falls took it to Mary Hardin-Baylor, Johns Hopkins held off Ithaca, UW-Whitewater won in Ohio and Cortland rolled past Delaware Valley in Saturday's Top 25 head-to-head matchups.
Trinity, the No. 4 team in the country, looked unstoppable in the first three quarters, as Tucker Horn completed 25 of his first 30 passes and the Tigers converted on 10 of their first 11 third downs. The Tigers' Tyler Huettel kicked a short field goal with 12:47 to play in regulation to give Trinity a 31-14 lead. But St. John's rallied from there, as Aaron Syverson completed 11 of his final 16 passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns, both of them to Marselio Mendez, to cut the lead to three points with 4:21 left.
The Tigers fumbled on the ensuing possession, and Conor Murphy hit a 24-yard field goal to tie the game with 53 seconds left.
Trinity showed some life, as Horn went on a 27-yard jaunt up the middle to get into SJU territory, then hit Will Taylor for a 37-yard gain down to the 6. But on the next play, Horn tried to scramble for extra yardage, and linebacker Erik Bjork knocked the ball out of his hands for his teammate Zach Frank to recover. In the overtime, St. John's kicked a 35-yard field goal on its possession, and Cayden Saxon came up with the interception on the first play of Trinity's half, sealing the win.
UW-River Falls took advantage of multiple miscues to roll up a 35-3 lead in the first half, then held onto it in the second half, holding Mary Hardin-Baylor to negative rushing yards as the No. 22 Falcons cruised past the No. 3 Cru 45-22. River Falls got to the Cru quarterbacks for seven sacks, including two backups after starter Jackson Tingler was knocked out of the game in the first half.
Special teams issues were the order of the day for the Cru, who had a 10-yard punt and a bad-snap fumble on another punt to make it 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. It did not get better, as Tingler fumbled on his own 19-yard line immediately after another River Falls TD, and Landon Howell, his replacement, fumbled on his own 10 on the very next drive. One play later it was 35-3 and it was essentially all over with 40 minutes left to play.
Dylan Brown and Michael Brown (no relation) each broke up four passes for the Falcons, while seven players split the seven sacks, led by one and a half for Clement Harris.
Bay Harvey got his first start at quarterback for Johns Hopkins and the Switzerland native looked good for the No. 18 Blue Jays as he completed 19 of 28 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns, while running for 63 yards and a TD as well in a 27-17 win against No. 9 Ithaca. Harvey out-Wingfielded A.J. Wingfield, a two-way threat at quarterback for the Bombers who completed just 11 of 30 passes and accounted for 204 yards of total offense. Ithaca made things interesting with a Wingfield-to-Sam Kline 48-yard touchdown pass just over four minutes into the fourth quarter. After forcing a Blue Jay punt, the Bombers then moved to the Hopkins 33-yard line looking to make it a one-score game, but four consecutive Wingfield incompletions ended the drive and the Blue Jays were able to run out the final 5:29 of the game to seal the victory.
UW-Whitewater shook off a third-quarter deficit and scored 17 of the last 24 points as Jace Rindahl's Warhawks defeated Jeff Behrman's John Carroll Blue Streaks 27-23 in a season-opening showdown of ranked teams with new head coaches. Alec Ogden threw for 230 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score, while Ali Maher-Parr and Tamir Thomas combined for 174 yards on the ground in the win. Tyson Harvey led the Warhawks defense with a pair of pass breakups.
Hunter Clasen had himself a night in his 2023 Division III football season debut. The Wartburg running back ran for a school-record six touchdowns as the No. 5-ranked Knights pulled way from Monmouth 62-35. Monmouth scored two touchdowns in less than 90 seconds to get within 42-35, but Wartburg answered with three more touchdowns, including Clasen's sixth with 6:15 to play. Clasen had 247 yards on 23 carries.
The showdown between two conference champions from a year ago was no contest as No. 17 Cortland dominated No. 10 Delaware Valley, 42-13. Cortland scored three times in the first quarter and took a 21-0 lead before Delaware Valley tallied a first down. After an even second quarter, Corltand dominated the second half, running the ball for three more touchdowns. Cortland running back Jaden AlfanoSt.John ran for 169 yards on 27 carries and Cortland's rushing offense posted 279 yards overall. The 29-point loss is Delaware Valley's worst regular season defeat since a 44-14 loss to Widener in October 2002.
Alma squeaked past Ohio Northern last year en route to an 11-0 start, but this year it was no contest as Carter St. John threw for 288 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Scots past the Polar Bears 52-7. Alma racked up four sacks and two interceptions while holding ONU to 219 yards of total offense.
Four turnovers proved decisive as No. 25 Salisbury ran past Washington and Lee 28-7. The Generals went 58 yards on 17 plays on their first drive of the game but fumbled on the Sea Gulls' 17, after which Salisbury drove 83 yards the opposite direction for an early lead. The Generals also fumbled on their second drive, as Frank Giannetti knocked the ball out on the Sea Gull 21, and Salisbury drove the full 79 yrds the other direction once again to make it 14-0. Jaden Davis scampered 83 yards for a second on the second play of the third quarter to help put the game out of reach. Davis finished with 93 yards on four carries, while Ben Hutchins threw for 85 yards and ran for 61 more in the battle of option offenses who combined to throw 37 passes.
Last year's Stagg Bowl participants had an easy time of it in Week 1, as defending national champ and top-ranked North Central eased past Roosevelt, an NAIA program, 41-7; while No. 2 Mount Union cruised past Defiance 45-6. Joe Sacco ran for 111 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, while Luke Lehnen threw for five touchdowns for the Cardinals, while Deandre Parker ran for 167 yards and two scores on 14 carries for the Purple Raiders. Braxton Plunk was 25-for-31 passing for Mount Union for 231 yards and TD passes to Ray Williams and Edwin Reed.