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| UW-Platteville won in stunning fashion. Photo by Jim Lund for UW-Platteville athletics |
Platteville stared down UW-La Crosse in overtime, Hardin-Simmons held off Endicott and UW-Whitewater defeated UW-Oshkosh in front of a huge crowd among Top 25 teams in Division III football.
Priami to Stare to Doherty isn’t a double play combination, but it is the combination of Pioneers that touched the ball on the double pass touchdown that delivered a 30-27 overtime win for UW-Platteville at UW-La Crosse. No. 24 UW-Platteville scored two touchdowns in the final 6:12 of regulation to force overtime. After holding No. 3 UW-La Crosse to a Michael Stack field goal to open the overtime period, the Pioneers needed just one play to finish the comeback. Quarterback Michael Priami took the shotgun snap, took two steps up in the pocket before delivering a backward pass to Brandt Stare. The fake worked to perfection as Ryan Doherty was left alone in the corner of the end zone and Stare delivered a perfect pass for the win.
In addition to Stare’s game winning touchdown pass, he led all players in the game with seven receptions for 189 yards, and two receiving touchdowns. Priami delivered 358 yards through the air and three touchdowns.
Adam Goodfellow caught two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, the last with 1:29 remaining, but it wasn't enough as No. 7 Hardin-Simmons covered the onside kick and was able to kneel it out to defeat No. 12 Endicott 35-27 on Saturday afternoon in Abilene, Texas. Noah Garcia ran for 116 yards and a touchdown and Colton Marshall scored two TDs and ran for 50 yards on 12 carries as the Cowboys avenged a loss from September 2023 in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Goodfellow got loose for a 32-yard TD with 8:35 to play to cut the Gulls deficit to 27-21, but Hardin-Simmons had the answer, as Kyle Brown threaded the needle over the top, getting the ball into Dozie Ifeadi's hands despite incredible coverage, and his 34-yard TD made it 33-21. Brown completed a two-point pass to Garcia to make it 35-21. Endicott got as close as the HSU 6-yard line but could not convert on fourth down, but got the ball back on a Marshall fumble, and Clayton Marengi found Goodfellow two plays later. But the onside kick attempt did not travel the required 10 yards and Hardin-Simmons was able to kneel it out.
The Warhawks set the Division III record (for games played on a college campus) and WIAC attendance record for the third consecutive season with 21,233 visiting Perkins Stadium on Saturday, and that assembled throng saw the home team come away with a 21-14 win against No. 17 UW-Oshkosh. The mark breaks last year's record by more than 1,000 fans. Tamir Thomas ran for 123 yards on 16 carries for the No. 11 Warhawks (3-1, 1-0 WIAC). The Warhawk backs in Thomas and Brian Stanton took over with six consecutive carries to end the third quarter. Drake Martin was tabbed for the carry to open the fourth and burst up the middle for 5 yards. Thomas broke loose on the next play making Titan tacklers miss before leaping over a defender at the goal line for the 16-yard touchdown. Fox nailed the extra point to give UWW a 21-7 advantage. Oshkosh responded with a 32-yard TD catch by Justin Lovelace to cut it to 21-14, and Whitewater ran out the clock.
Luke Lehnen ran for 146 yards and three touchdowns and threw for 142 yards and two more scores as No. 1 North Central kept the Little Brass Bell and came away from No. 18 Wheaton with a 55-27 win. The Cardinals (4-0, 3-0 CCIW) scored on eight of its 10 offensive possessions and led by as many as 34 points late in the game as they posted their largest margin of victory over Wheaton since a 53-0 win in 1934. North Central has won its last 40 regular-season games.
Cortland outgained Morrisville 488-204 in total offensive yardage and recorded its second shutout of the season as the No. 2-ranked Red Dragons defeated visiting Morrisville, 41-0, in Empire 8 play. Cortland (4-0, 2-0 Empire 8) extended its school-record winning streak to 16 games and has now won 21 straight league games dating to 2019. Morrisville fell to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the conference. Zac Boyes completed 20 of 31 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns and rushed seven times for 41 yards and a TD. He extended his streak to 186 consecutive pass attempts without an interception, eight short of his own school record of 194 set last season.
Mount Union did not score its second touchdown until there was less than one minute left in the third quarter, but the defense got the job done as the No. 4 Purple Raiders shut out winless Otterbein 21-0. Rossy Moore had a team-high three tackles for loss and two sacks. Mount Union had two long drives in the first quarter, but turned the ball over on downs at the Otterbein 27 and the Otterbein 1.
Dylan Wheeler caught three touchdown passes and Caden Wheeler ran for 136 yards and a touchdown as St. John's won its second consecutive game by a 45-20 score, defeating Augsburg. The Auggies tied the game up early in the second quarter as Marcus Freeman found Devin Schelske for a 16-yard TD pass, but Dylan Wheeler had two of his TD catches, sandwiched around a touchdown run by Will Blakey, to put the No. 5 Johnnies up by three scores. St. John's got to Freeman for five sacks and forced two fumbles.
Ben Mills completed 21 of 24 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns and Carnegie Mellon held Waynesburg to 206 yards of total offense as the No. 15 Tartans defeated the Yellow Jackets 42-0. CMU (5-0, 5-0 PAC) were sparked by a Luke Wiedau blocked punt, which Ethan Ming picked up and ran into the end zone for a touchodown to give the Tartans a 7-0 lead with 0:55 remaining in the first. Mills threw a TD pass a few minutes later to not only put Carnegie Mellon up 14-0 but also set the school record for most career touchdown passes. It was the Tartans' 21st consecutive home win, the second-longest streak in Division III behind North Central. Waynesburg (1-4, 1-4) got as close as the CMU 25-yard line but Jackson Lajoie blocked a 42-yard field goal attempt to help preserve the shutout.
Grove City set up an unbeaten showdown with Carnegie Mellon for next week as the No. 8 Wolverines won 62-22 at Bethany. Nico Flati ran for four touchdowns in the win, while cornerback Boden Davidson returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown in the first half to give Grove City a 38-0 lead. The Wolverines' special teams units blocked a field goal, an extra point and a punt in the win.
No. 23 Hope continued its unbeaten start as the Fluing Dutchmen scored two touchdowns in the first three minutes of the game and defeated Trine 42-6. It was the 500th win in the program's history. Hope took the opening kickoff and struck quickly. Running back Chance Strickland busted loose for a 44-yard run on Hope's second play from scrimmage to put the ball at the Trine 2-yard line. Strickland, who entered the game leading all NCAA Division III players in rushing touchdowns, scored on a 1-yard plunge two plays later for the first of his three touchdowns on the game. After the Hope defense forced a three-and-out on Trine's first possession, the Flying Dutchmen needed just three plays to hit paydirt again. Senior running back Tyler Amos ripped off a 30-yard run to the Trine 23. Then on the next play, Amos dashed 23 yards to the end zone for a 14-0 Hope lead just 3:06 into the game.
Dante Casciola threw for 119 yards and rushed for 97, while the Yellow Jacket defense came up with three interceptions and a key stop on fourth down late in the third period, as No. 25 Randolph-Macon pulled out a 22-21 win at Shenandoah to kick off ODAC play. SU had the ball near midfield early in the fourth quarter when senior Coleton Payne grabbed an interception at the R-MC 38 with 12:32 remaining. Facing third-and-10 at the SU 40, Casciola hit Basit Qadri with a 38-yard pass to the SU 2, Qadri's first collegiate catch. Johnson would take the ball in from 1 yard out as RMC took a 22-21 edge with 6:10 left. Photo gallery