Tyler Adkins, the backup quarterback for Aurora, battled his way in the Spartans' win against Coe. Photo by Doug Sasse, d3photography.com

The top left portion of the bracket featured two blowouts, a Texas showdown and last year's Cinderella against an at-large team, and the four home teams all won to advance to the second round.

Jhe'Quay Chretin ground out 70 yards and a touchdown on 32 carries and backup quarterback Tyler Adkins threw for 314 yards and a touchdown. It was enough to get Aurora past Coe, 20-7.

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Adkins started in place of Ian Luyando, who was out wtih an injury. The Spartans got it done on defense on Saturday, getting to Coe quarterbacks for three interceptions and two sacks, while limiting them to 15 completions in 41 attempts.

Aurora got two long touchdown drives to start things off and added a field goal to go up 17-0. Jack Shaw intercepted an Adkins pass and returned it for a touchdown to cut the lead to 17-7 but the Spartans (11-0) were able to hold on.

Trinity held Hardin-Simmons off the scoreboard for the first 59 minutes of the game, as the Tigers defeated the Cowboys 20-6. Trinity allowed a potential scoring drive to run out of time at the end of the first half, but it was hardly noticed as Tucker Horn completed 23 of 29 passes for 300 yards in the win. Hardin-Simmons, missing multiple starting offensive linemen, managed just 186 yards of total offense. Horn hit Ryan Merrifield for two first-half touchdowns and Tyler Huettel kicked two field goals in the second half.

North Central racked up 575 yards of total offense, 9.1 yards for every snap, and rolled to a 65-0 win against Belhaven in the first round. Joe Sacco ran for 141 yards and a touchdown, Luke Lehnen threw for 139 and three scores and ran for 82 and another touchdown, and Sean Allen and Jordan Chisum added 80 and 77 yards apiece as the Cardinals ran for 433 yards on the afternoon.

Lehnen got the hosts' offensive attack started with a 55-yard run on their second play from scrimmage before DeAngelo Hardy threw his second touchdown pass in as many weeks. Hardy's 3-yard toss to Charles Coleman gave North Central a lead it would not part with after less than four minutes of play.

Jack Janke returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown and UW-La Crosse went on to roll past Minnesota-Morris, 62-7. UW-La Crosse outgained the Cougars 528-200, while Eagles quarterbacks Keyser Helterbrand went 13-of-14 for 175 yards and four touchdowns and Riley Warzynski finished 13-of-17 for 121 yards and two touchdowns.