Week Nine Review

Well now, this UMAC is an interesting conference. That won't make a difference when the champ gets beat up in the first round of the NCAA DIII playoffs, but hey; better this than a boring end of the year, I guess. Three UMAC teams rack up over 400 yards rushing, Eureka bests St. Scholastica to hand them their first conference loss of the year, and Westminster pulls off the upset at home against MacMurray. This certainly bodes well for Eureka, but their job isn't done yet. Let's take a look at the chaos that was week nine.

St. Scholastica 34, Eureka 40 - Well hello, LeAnthony Reasnover. The Eureka Jr. RB carried the rock 53 times - yes, you read correctly, 53 times - for 355 yards and 5 TDs. He broke basically all the Eureka school records on his way, including rushing yards in a game (355), rushing yards in a season (1,582), and rushing yards in a career (3,556). He was basically the entire Eureka attack, carrying the ball on 70% of Eureka's offensive plays. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it, as he was able to dominate the St. Scholastica defense for the biggest UMAC individual rushing performance of the season; it was also good for the 2nd best rushing performance in the nation this year. Eureka only had 45 yards passing in the game, but they obviously were busy handing the ball to Reasnover, which still earned them the victory. St. Scholastica wasn't able to get anything going on the ground and took to the air, with QB Zach Edwards throwing for 267 yards and 4 TDs, and WR Hunter Thompson catching 3 of those TDs to add to his UMAC leading 9 receiving TDs on the year for a total of 12. It was a tightly contested game throughout, with CSS actually leading 21-20 with 4:52 remaining in the 3rd quarter until back-to-back scores by Reasnover gave Eureka an edge, and they were able to ride out the remaining minutes to eke out St. Scholastica. Keep reading for an update on the UMAC standings below. Eureka will travel north to take on Martin Luther, while St. Scholastica will host MacMurray in a still-important-but-not-as-important-as-we-thought-it-would-be matchup.

Greenville 48, Iowa Wesleyan 41 - The more I look at the stats for this game, the more I'm convinced that they didn't actually play it, and they just made it all up. Greenville doubled Iowa Wesleyan's total offensive yardage; and Iowa Wesleyan had 395 yards (Greenville had 811). There were 11 turnovers in the game, 8 of them by Greenville. Greenville fumbled the ball eight times, and lost seven of them; and yet, they still managed to win the game. Greenville QB George Harris tossed a TD pass to WR Derek Greifzu with twenty seconds left to break a 41-41 tie and bring home the W. Harris finished the game with 360 passing yards and 3 TDs and also rushed for 71 yards, the Panthers had 2 rushers break 100 yards (RBs Johnny Pruiett with 158 and 3 TDs and Damario Vanover with 140), and WR Gregoire Franchomme caught 11 passes for 232 yards and 2 TDs. Quite an impressive game for the Greenville offense. On the other side, Iowa Wesleyan QB DeMarcus Collins threw for 189 yards and 2 TDs while also tossing 3 picks and rushing for 90 yards, and WR Rodolfo Amezcua caught 4 passes for 106 yards and 2 TDs. This game must have been a wild one to be in attendance for. Greenville hosts Minnesota Morris in the last game of the year next week, while Iowa Wesleyan will trek to Missouri to take on Westminster.

Northwestern 21, Minnesota Morris 14 - Another close one. This one is understandable, as the two worst offenses in the UMAC matched up against one another, and it showed. The two teams combined for 412 offensive yards, good for the second lowest total in the conference on the year (First was Westminster/Minnesota-Morris with 406). Morris did show some spunk against a good defense though, as they were leading 6-0 heading into the fourth quarter. Northwestern was finally able to drum up some offense in the last quarter, as RB Payton Bowdry scored twice and RB Dom McDew recovered his own fumble in the end zone to boost Northwestern to victory. Nobody else on either team really had a day worth mentioning; the "leading" stat lines were less than impressive, as one could imagine. Northwestern will host Crown in their final contest, and Minnesota Morris will head to Greenville for theirs.

MacMurray 13, Westminster 21 - Westminster stayed undefeated at home in a great win over MacMurray, which bumped MacMurray from UMAC championship contention. Westminster stayed in control throughout the game by shutting down the MacMurray rushing attack, and held the Highlanders to their lowest offensive output of the year (227 total yards). RB Chazz Middlebrook was still limited, as he carried the ball 6 times for -11 yards, so MacMurray relied on QB Nathan Randall for production in the form of 190 passing yards and a TD. WR Devonta Preston caught 6 passes for 93 of those yards, but it wasn't enough to overcome a stout Westminster defense. For the Blue Jays, QB Trent White threw for 177 yards and a TD, RB Latif Adams rushed for 108 yards and 2 TDs, and WR Matt Quarles caught 4 balls for 93 yards in the UMAC-altering upset. With the win, I almost have to place Westminster in the top half of the UMAC, as they actually are in the standings. If they end up beating Iowa Wesleyan next week, they will have a 6-3 conference record, and they may even be able to sneak past MacMurray in the standings if Mac is unable to defeat St. Scholastica next week. I think we can call that a successful season for the Blue Jays.

Martin Luther 44, Crown 28 - I'll admit, I may have been slightly biased the past few weeks in picking Crown to win, but I really don't wan't them to go 0-10. I don't want anyone to go 0-10, but the fact is, their defense is terrible and can't stop anybody from scoring, so it may happen. Martin Luther got their running game going and racked up 509 yards with 414 coming on the ground. MLC had 4 runners score rushing TDs, including QB Ian Paulsen who rushed for 132 yards and a score, RB Nate Stein ran who for 110 yards and a score, RB Elliot Butler who went for 87 yards and 2 TDs, and Josh Wong who ran for 70 yards and a TD. Crown mounted a comeback in the 4th quarter with MLC leading 34-0, jumpstarted by a 59-yard rushing TD by Crown RB Chris Simpson. The Crown QB combo of Luke Lithander and Taylor Watkins led scoring drives to bring crown within 15 with 3:50 left to play, but another score by MLC put the game out of reach. Lithander finished with 188 passing yards and 2 TDs, with WR David MacIntosh catching 6 passes for 103 yards and Anthony Laureno catching 2 TD passes, but the comeback fell short as Crown suffered yet another defeat to remain winless in the 2017 campaign. Martin Luther will host powerhouse Eureka next week and Crown will head to Northwestern to finish off the 2017 season.

My picks fell by the wayside this week, with the upset of MacMurray and Crown being unable to get the job done, but it was fun to hear about the close games this week. Kudos to Westminster on taking down who we thought were the potential UMAC champions just a few short weeks ago. MacMurray is out, and Eureka just has one more hurdle to jump to become UMAC champions. Here are the possible scenarios for next week:

 - With a win, Eureka will lock down the championship regardless of the result of the St. Scholastica/MacMurray game.
 - With a Eureka loss, St. Scholastica will have a chance to take the championship by beating MacMurray.
 - If both Eureka and St. Scholastica lose next week, Eureka will win the UMAC title by having the head-to-head win.

It's always fun when it comes down to the last week of the year to decide who will represent one of the weakest conferences in DIII football in the NCAA playoffs. After this week, I'm 31-9 in my picks, and I'm on track to meet my goal of 35-10. Let's see if I can surpass it; stay tuned for my week ten picks later this week.