The 2017 season is now on the downside. It's hard to believe over half the season is over, but here we are. We had a few surprising games this week, maybe not so much in the winners - but in the scores. A few blowouts and a few close ones this week, which made for an amusing week of football.
Greenville 59, Crown 6 - Oofda. This was a rough one. I admit I may have been biased in picking Crown to win, but I thought my reasoning was pretty solid. The Panthers must have been inspired by their road trip tour of Minnesota Viking's home in US Bank Stadium, because they kicked the snot out of the Storm. It was an offensive fireworks display put on by Greenville, as they lit it up with 558 yards of total offense. Greenville RB Isaih Ibarra led the way with 114 yards rushing, and QB George Harris threw for 220 yards and 3 TDs with WR Gregoire Franchomme catching all three and tacking on 123 receiving yards en route to the rout. There weren't many bright spots for Crown in this one; WR David McIntosh caught a TD pass to add to his UMAC-leading collection and now has 7, and LB Luke Edlund racked up 17 tackles which was only one short of the Crown school record. Other than that, it was pretty grim: Crown collaborated for only 238 yards of total offense including only 42 yards rushing and had five giveaways including 3 fumbles and 2 picks. Combine that with the 558 yards given up by the defense, and it's no wonder you don't win the game, let alone get throttled. Greenville and Crown both have tough matchups next week, with Crown voyaging to Westminster and Greenville doing battle with Eureka.
Westminster 6, Eureka 48 - Oofda #2. I definitely thought this one was going to be closer. Westminster could have saved themselves the 4 hour trip by calling Eureka up and forfeiting, and it may have been less embarrassing. Westminster had 79 total yards, and 45 of them came on their only scoring drive. Yikes. Westminster had only one player that had positive rushing yardage: RB Kalyn Davis, who finished with 45 yards. Eureka's defense was on point, recovering 4 fumbles and scoring on two of them, by LB Chris Friend and DL Ray Vogel. Eureka RB LeAnthony Reasnover had another good day, rushing for 108 yards and a TD. Eureka has looked really good over the past few weeks, which probably really makes them want that Northwestern game back. They have some big games on the schedule, with MacMurray in week eight and St. Scholastica in week nine. If they can defeat one or both of these teams, they could really throw a wrench into the UMAC standings. Eureka gets Greenville at home next week, while Westminster takes on Crown in Missouri.
Iowa Wesleyan 28, St. Scholastica 38 - I'm giving props to Iowa Wesleyan on this one. I didn't give them a chance at all, but they pulled within a field goal with 11 minutes left in the game on an 84-yard interception return by DB Craig Wrenn. Scholastica was able to put the game out of reach when RB Jeff Lemay scored his third TD of the day with 5:05 remaining in the contest. Lemay ended with 202 yards rushing, and QB Zach Edwards threw for 295 yards and 2 TDs. Nothing really stuck out on Iowa Wesleyan's side of things, as RB Jacquez Hall lead the team with 93 yards rushing, but they managed to stay close by playing opportunistic football. While Scholastica racked up 489 yards of total offense, Iowa Wesleyan's defense didn't break and was able to give them a chance at the end of the day. St. Scholastica takes on Martin Luther next week in Duluth, and Iowa Wesleyan travels to St. Paul to battle with Northwestern.
Northwestern 9, MacMurray 22 - With this loss, Northwestern was effectively eliminated from DIII playoff contention, as MacMurray and St. Scholastica would hold tie-breakers over Northwestern, and they have yet to play each other. Northwestern was yet again ineffective offensively, gaining only 157 total yards and throwing 3 interceptions. This was in part due to another monster day from MacMurray DL Javon Muhammad, who kept his torrent nation-leading pace by adding 4.5 TFL, 2 sacks, forcing a fumble, and intercepting a pass to boot. MacMurray RB Chazz Middlebrook had another modest outing with 150 rushing yards and 2 TDs, and QB Nathan Randall threw for 191 yards and a TD on their way to a convincing UMAC victory. After this one, MacMurray is 6-0 and is setting their gaze on perennial UMAC power, St. Scholastica, who they will face in the season finale. Northwestern is now 2-4 on the year, but will try to scrounge together a winning season in the final four games of the campaign. They start their quest by taking on Iowa Wesleyan at home next week, and MacMurray treks to Morris to take on the Cougars.
Minnesota Morris 7, Martin Luther 14 - Weirdly, this is the exact same result as the week one contest between these two teams. Morris only was able to put together another sub-par offensive effort, ending the game with only 181 total yards, and Martin Luther was able to overcome three first half fumbles to improve to 4-2 on the year. Martin Luther QB Ian Paulsen threw for 195 yards and a score and ran for 95 yards, and WR Josh Arndt caught 6 passes for 102 yards. Morris wasn't able to get much going offensively, but LB Drew Shipley led the defensive charge with 15 tackles, 1 TFL, a pass breakup, and a fumble recovery. I don't really know if the result of this game tells us much, especially as the results are the exact same as week one. What it does tell us is that Morris and Martin Luther need to look outside of the UMAC for a week one matchup. Morris will host MacMurray next week, while Martin Luther battles St. Scholastica.
Here are a few things we learned this week:
1. MacMurray @ St. Scholastica will be the game of the year. I've mentioned it a few times throughout the year, but now that Northwestern is officially out, the race is getting tighter. Eureka still technically has a chance, but will probably have to beat both of them to make it happen. I'm 95% sure that this game will determine the UMAC champion.
2. Eureka is on a serious hot streak. They have scored 44 points or more in each of their last 4 games. Granted this stretch has not been against the upper tier UMAC teams, but this last win against Westminster was certainly impressive. The most yards Eureka's defense has allowed to a UMAC opponent has been 271 vs. Crown, and with their dominating performance against Westminster they took over the title as the best defense in the UMAC, allowing only 16.3 points and 210.7 yards per game. It will be very interesting to see if they can keep up the stellar defense and productive offense against St. Scholastica and MacMurray. Don't count Eureka out of it yet.
3. Crown is on a serious cold streak. The last remaining winless team in the UMAC has some catching up to do. The good news is that they have played some of the better teams thus far; but the bad news is they have also played (and lost to) some of the worst teams in the UMAC as well. Crown had a winless season in 2011, and they will hope to snatch a win or two on their way out to avoid the same fate. Crown is the third-to-last offense in the UMAC and is arguably the worst defense in the UMAC. They have been competitive in at least half of their games, however, so let's all hope for their sake and the UMAC's sake that they can pull off a win this year. The positive thing is, that they have been in this position before, and were able to be at least mediocre in the years following the dreaded 0-10 season. And take a look at the most recent resurrection in Martin Luther, who went 0-10 last year, but are currently 4-2. All hope is not lost. But, a lot of it is.
It's getting real here in the upper Midwest. Northwestern has been eliminated, and can't play spoiler as they have played all the contenders already. It comes down to St. Scholastica, MacMurray, and Eureka. We don't have any particularly huge matchups next week, but as we all know, any team can play spoilers at any time, so...lets see those upsets! Looking forward to the happenings in the UMAC down the stretch.
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