Top 25: Oshkosh does it again

UW-Oshkosh has won four home games against ranked teams, each by a touchdown or less.
d3photography.com photo by Doug Sasse | More photos from this game
 

UW-Oshkosh came out with another narrow home win, W&J held off No. 7 Grove City, UW-River Falls rallied from 21 down, and Johns Hopkins held off F&M in the fourth quarter in Top 25 action.

UW-Oshkosh quarterback Brooks Blount went 8-for-11 with three touchdowns and the Titans held on as UW-Platteville tried a trick play in the red zone on fourth down in the final minute, helping No. 16 UW-Oshkosh defeat No. 6 UW-Platteville 24-17. It's the first loss of the season for the Pioneers.

Blount's string of three touchdown passes came in the second half, including a 68-yarder to Londyn Little and a 54-yarder to Trae Tetzlaff, the latter of which gave Oshkosh a 24-10 lead. Platteville rallied in the fourth quarter as Michael Priami hit Garrett Stare with a TD pass with 4:10 left. Oshkosh followed with a three-and-out, and a 4-yard punt went out of bounds at the Oshkosh 24. A Priami scramble on third-and-9 left the Pioneers (5-1) one yard short on fourth down, and after the 2-minute timeout, Platteville came out with a variation on the Philly Special, where Priami lined up behind star wide receiver Brandt Stare. Stare took the snap, tossed it to Priami, and Priami was chased out. He threw a desperation pass that Stare leapt and was barely able to get a hand on. After the turnover on downs, Oshkosh was able to kneel it out and win the game.

Jacob Pugh threw three touchdown passes and Washington & Jefferson limited Grove City to 282 total yards and defeated the No. 7 Wolverines 27-19. It was Grove City's first regular season and Presidents' Athletic Conference loss since 2022, also at W&J. The Presidents (6-1) got the defensive stop at their 19-yard line when Logan Pfeuffer was unable to complete a pass to Darviae Gray along the far sideline.

UW-Stout rolled up a 27-6 lead at the half at No. 10 UW-River Falls, as the Falcons struggled with a two-quarterback system following Kaleb Blaha's injury from last weekend. But the tradeoff worked well after halftime, as the Falcons scored three consecutive touchdowns to tie the game at 27 early in the fourth quarter, the last coming on a 24-yard pick-six by Andrew Schumacher. The teams traded touchdowns to go into the closing moments even at 34 as Luke Cool's 50-yard field goal attempt clanked off the right upright with one second left. In overtime, Cool connected form 27 to put Stout up 37-34, but Cade Fitzgerald had himself an overtime. He went 3-for-3 passing, including a play on which he threw a shot ball to the right that Michael Krueger turned into a larger gain. On third-and-4 from the 8, Fitzgerald snuck through for 6 yards to get to the 2, and from there, it was Fitzgerald again sliding through off left tackle for the TD and the 40-37 overtime victory. Fitzgerald ran for 150 yards and three touchdowns, while also completing 14 of 23 passes for 122 yards and a score. Riley Warzynski was 18-for-24 passing for 193 yards and a score. Photo gallery.

The Johns Hopkins defense forced three turnovers, collected three sacks and held visiting Franklin & Marshall to a pair of field goals as the Blue Jays slipped past the Diplomats, 13-6, at Homewood Field. F&M moved from its own 20 to the Blue Jay 18 on the drive following Brad Paxton's second field goal, but Ty Tremba's pass under heavy pressure on fourth down went out of the back of the end zone to kill the threat. After another Blue Jay punt, the Diplomats took over at their own 45 with 3:26 on the clock, but Tremba was intercepted by Jake Spivak on second-and-10 from the Blue Jay 41-yard line a short time later and the Blue Jays were able to run out the clock to seal the victory.

In addition to the two interceptions, the Blue Jays also got a first-quarter strip-sack from senior defensive end Matthew Konkol, two sacks from Konkol and one from Xavier Newell and held the Diplomats to just 284 yards of total offense, including just 55 on the ground. Photo gallery.

Luke Lehnen threw three touchdown passes and North Central rolled up five touchdowns on the ground as well as the top-ranked Cardinals rolled past North Park 69-0. North Central scored 31 points in the first 20 minutes and limited North Park to 84 yards of total offense. Ethan Gallo ran for 173 yards and four touchdowns and Zac Boyes completed 20 of 29 passes for 300 yards and four scores as No. 2 Cortland defeated host Alfred 59-17. Cortland (6-0, 4-0 E8) extended its school-record winning streak to 18 games and has won 23 consecutive league games dating back to 2019. Cortland finished with 581 yards of total offense -- 300 passing and 281 rushing -- and recorded 35 first downs. No. 5 Hardin-Simmons got past crosstown rival McMurry 17-12, getting a turnover on downs in HSU territory with under a minute remaining. Stats were not immediately available from the contest.

Denison's third game against teams ranked at the time in the D3football.com Top 25 ended the way the first two did, as No. 13 DePauw defeated the Big Red 53-34. DePauw, who entered the game as one of the top scoring offenses in Division III football, lived up to the billing as they scored touchdowns on their initial two possessions of the game. A 14-yard touchdown pass by Nathan McCahill to Robby Ballentine capped a four-play, 57-yard drive that made it 7-0 at the 10:53 mark of the first quarter. A little more than five minutes later, Caden Whitehead ran 3 yards into the end zone to extend the DePauw advantage to 14-0. The Tigers took advantage of a short field, needing to move just 39 yards to push into the end zone for a second time. DePauw made it 17-0 with a 25-yard field goal by Matthew Berry with 13:35 left in the second quarter.

After powering through the first half of its season behind an unstoppable ground game, Hope opened Saturday's game at Kalamazoo by going to the air. Ben Wellman faked the handoff to Chance Strickland, then unloaded a deep throw to wide receiver Grant Holtzer for a 65-yard touchdown strike 10 seconds into the game. The Wellman-to-Holtzer connection ignited a 28-point first quarter as the Flying Dutchmen retained the traditional Wooden Shoe trophy with a 49-18 win over Kalamazoo at Angell Field. Saturday was Hope's eighth consecutive win over the Hornets.