So, I'm a little behind. I get it. Why didn't you have this going earlier in the year, man? *facepalm* Well, here are my completely irrelevant thoughts on the week two UMAC opening weekend games.
Crown 34, Iowa Wesleyan 41 -- We had ourselves a barn-burner on our hands, with 7 lead changes and the final touchdown being scored with 2:19 remaining in the game. Both offenses were relatively efficient, having 100 yard rushers (Derek Chilcoate for Crown and Jacuqez Hall for Iowa Wesleyan) and multiple touchdowns through the air. The highlight for Crown was Sebastian Alvarado's 65-yard interception return for a TD in the second quarter. Crown tied it up near the beginning of the 4th quarter with Derek Chilcoate's second rushing touchdown, but were not able to take advantage of 2 possessions before Iowa Wesleyan's Alex Payne led a drive and eventually punched a 2-yard rushing touchdown in for the final score of the game. It's nice to see a game going down to the wire around here. Both teams will hope to continue in their offensive growth and bolster their defenses throughout the year. While it was a great game, both of these teams hope to avoid ending up in the bottom half of the conference and will need stellar play to rise from their current standing in the conference.
Minnesota Morris 7, Westminster 23 -- Morris had another subpar performance, losing their second game of the year after losing to (winless in 2016) Martin Luther in week one. It's still a little early to tell, but if I were making power rankings, Morris would be at the bottom so far. They did have a lead early in the 2nd quarter when Justin Masloski broke off a 57-yard TD run, but past that they weren't able to get much offense going. When one play makes up half of your offensive production, it's pretty safe to say that you had a rough day. If you can call it a bright spot, punter Drew Shipley was great again in week two, booting 8 times for an average of 37.9 and 3 inside the 20. He also led the team with 11 tackles, so there's that. Westminster had an okay day, with 290 yards offensively, but 2015 UMAC Offensive Player of the Year Latif Adams was stuffed, ending with 7 rushes for -9 yards. Yikes. Good thing they had a productive day from Chase Abbington who racked up 92 yards on 21 carries. Morris will have to scratch and claw their way out of the UMAC cellar this year, methinks. Westminster, while not looking terrible, did also not look super impressive. It might take me a few more weeks to get a read on them.
Eureka 13, Northwestern 19 -- The Crown/Iowa Wesleyan game was good, but this game takes the cake for game of the week. It's almost always thrilling to watch a college football overtime game. Northwestern looked like they were going to run away with this one, taking a 13-0 lead late in the 1st quarter from some big plays started by QB Taylor Lindahl - 92 and 50 yard TD passes. However, that was about all the offense Northwestern could muster, as Eureka held them to 23 yards rushing and 217 yards overall in the game, only 75 more than the two touchdown passes. Looking at the box score, it looks like a miracle that Northwestern won this game. While Eureka certainly didn't find the going easy on offense, they were able to put good field position to use and scrape together a few scores to bring it to overtime. Northwestern won the toss and elected to defend, which worked out for them as Nick Swore took home UMAC Defensive player of the week by intercepting a Drew Barth pass, and giving the ball to Northwestern to take home the victory. While it was a hard fought battle, Northwestern really needs to pick up the slack if they want to remain a top UMAC contender. They were lucky to eke out the win this week. Eureka has to be bummed about that one, as they outplayed Northwestern but weren't able to seal the deal. Eureka looks good and is still poised to be a top UMAC team if they can prove that they can finish.
Martin Luther 28, MacMurray 54 -- This game was closer than the score suggests. Martin Luther actually had a lead in the third quarter, 21-20, after an 18-yard TD pass from Zachary Bloomquist to Justin Rue. BUT - nobody can contain the Chazz. Chazz Middlebrook scored 4 rushing TDs en route to a subpar (by his standards) 171 yard performance, with MacMurray scoring 34 points in the last quarter and a half to cruise to a seemingly easy victory. Martin Luther actually put up a decent 450 yards of offense, but it paled in comparison to MacMurray's 679 yards. This game confirmed what I think a lot of us already knew: Martin Luther is only okay, and MacMurray is a force to be reckoned with. Heck, Martin Luther has already exceeded last years win total and have played some solid games this year, so they are looking pretty good too. The difference is that MacMurray will be fighting for the UMAC crown, and Martin Luther will not be.
St. Scholastica 47, Greenville 27 -- St. Scholastica was ticked that everyone on Twitter was making fun of their week one loss, so they took it out on Greenville. This one was never close, as St. Scholastica was up 28-0 at halftime. Zach Edwards threw for 298 yards and 3 TDs and ran for another, and Matthew Hinaus turned a 78-yard pick six on the way to a St. Scholastica rout. They were up 47-14 until a few late Greenville scores brought the margin down a bit. St. Scholastica showed that they are still the team to beat in the UMAC, and until someone accepts that challenge, they will remain at the top of the rankings. At this point, I wasn't thinking too highly of Greenville, but we know how week three turns out. While Greenville isn't out of the running for top dog in the UMAC, they've got a lot of work to do to get there; and that still may not be enough.
I didn't officially pick the results of the week two games, but if I had, I think I'd be 4-1 this week. I was thinking that Crown's defense would be able to handle Iowa Wesleyan and their offense would be effective enough to win. While their offense was certainly effective, Iowa Wesleyan was able to put a bunch of points on the board; and to use a John Madden-ism, "Usually, the team with the most points wins the game". While there weren't any crazy upsets, it was an exciting opening week for UMAC football. Stay tuned for week three review and week four picks!
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