Week Ten Review

Ladies and gentlemen...your 2017 UMAC champions: the Eureka College Red Devils! They locked up the title with a commanding win over Martin Luther, while St. Scholastica saw the title slip through their fingers by losing to MacMurray in Duluth. The 2017 UMAC regular season is wrapped up, and Eureka will have to wait until November 12th to find out who they will play in the first round of the NCAA DIII playoffs. Let's take a look at what happened in the last week of the year.

Minnesota Morris 21, Greenville 49 - No real surprises here. Greenville's potent offense was able to work over Minnesota Morris' defense, and Morris' offense was once again ineffective in a rout for the home team. Morris QB Justin Masloski started the game off with a bang on a 55-yard TD run, and LB Drew Shipley added a 29-yard pick-six to pad UMM's lead, but it all went downhill from there. Greenville Sr. RB Johnny Pruiett had a career day rushing, racking up 217 yards on 38 carries and 2 TDs, and QB George Harris threw for 256 yards and 5 TDs, 4 of them to WR Gregoire Franchomme who also piled up 144 yards receiving with only 4 receptions. Greenville ends the year by improving to 4-6, while Minnesota Morris dropped to 1-9 to finish their season.

MacMurray 34, St. Scholastica 26 - MacMurray got back on the horse after two straight losses to foil St. Scholastica's hopes of taking back the conference title. This looked like an exciting one to be at, with six lead changes/ties and plenty of heart-stopping action. MacMurray's defense was able to hold Scholastica's offense at bay, and special teams ran rampant for both teams, as the game included a safety on a punt attempt, 2 blocked PATs, a blocked punt returned for a TD, a kick return for a TD, and 2 straight-up missed PATs. It was a back-and-forth contest until MacMurray DB Laquarius Davis returned a Jeff Lemay fumble 71 yards for a TD with 4:34 to play. On the ensuing kickoff, MacMurray recovered a fumble by kick returner Will Halloran and on the next two CSS drives, QB Zach Edwards threw interceptions, the last one to Davis to seal the victory for MacMurray. Sr. RB Chazz Middlebrook was able to end his career on a high note, rushing for 111 yards and a TD, and ending his time at MacMurray with 3,536 yards and 38 TDs. MacMurray ended their season by beating St. Scholastica for the first time in program history and improves to 8-2, while St. Scholastica misses the NCAA DIII playoffs for the second year in a row and ends their season at 7-3.

Crown 7, Northwestern 24 - Crown struck first in the second quarter on a 1-yard run by Chris Simpson, and held the lead until the third quarter, when Northwestern scored on their first drive of the second half. Crown then took the ball and drove to the Northwestern 2-yard line, when Northwestern LB Noah MacDonald picked off Crown QB Luke Lithander in the end zone and killed Crown's momentum for basically the rest of the game. It was all Northwestern from that point on, with RB Payton Bowdry rushing for 118 yards and RB Nate VanBeusekom rushing for 2 TDs. Northwestern kicker Ben Lyons nailed a school record 54-yard field goal, and Northwestern capped off the year by pushing their record to 6-4, their 7th straight winning season, all in the NCAA DIII playoff UMAC era. Crown remains winless for their second time in as many years and remains without a winning record in that same timeframe.

Eureka 63, Martin Luther 26 - Martin Luther made it interesting for the first half of the game, trading jabs with the eventual conference champ as reported by D3football.com, who had a rep in attendance to capture the atmosphere. Martin Luther was pesky and kept answering Eureka's drives, and fast too - the score at the end of 1 was 22-12 Eureka, and with 3:15 left in the second quarter was only 29-26 Eureka. Coach Kurt Barth must have had a heckuva rousing halftime speech, as Eureka shut down Martin Luther the rest of the way en route to the rout and their first (and last) UMAC conference title and first NCAA DIII playoff berth. LeAnthony Reasnover was pulled from the game after his seventh TD with 4:10 left in the 3rd quarter. The NCAA DIII record for rushing TDs in a game is 8; he was one away. Ya know what though? Classy move by Eureka. Reasnover is a junior, he'll have plenty of chances to get that eight next year. It might be against some stiffer competition though, as Eureka will be moving to the NACC. Eureka finishes as UMAC champs with a 8-2 record, while Martin Luther drops to 5-5 to finish the season.

Iowa Wesleyan 21, Westminster 27 - Westminster ground out another win to remain undefeated at home, and seniors Trent White, Latif Adams, and Chase Abbington all had solid days to take down Iowa Wesleyan and end their season and their careers on a positive note. White threw for 216 yards and 2 TDs, Adams ran for 2 TDs, and Abbington racked up 196 total yards and caught 2 TDs. DE Ben Holt had a monster game for Westminster on defense, tallying 3 sacks and 5 tackles. For Iowa Wesleyan, senior WR Rodolfo Amezcua also went out with a bang, catching 7 passes for 101 yards and a TD. Westminster bolsters their record and finishes at 6-4, while Iowa Wesleyan falls to 2-8 to finish out the 2017 campaign.

A pretty exciting few weeks in the UMAC ends in a poetic finish for Eureka, who will ride off into the sunset as UMAC champions in their last year in the conference. St. Scholastica will miss the DIII playoffs for the second year in a row for the first time since the UMAC received an automatic bid in 2011. While it's fun to see the change happening, it will be interesting to see how the UMAC changes with the absence of an up-and-coming program in Eureka. The rumor is that the UMAC will continue as a 9-team conference and will fill their remaining game slot with another non-conference game, which will come to a relief to some programs; long bus rides are never ideal.

I finished my season at 35-10, just as I predicted. Congrats to MacMurray on getting back on track and spoiling my pick and St. Scholastica's chance at part of a UMAC championship, and congrats to Eureka, the 2017 UMAC champs! Good luck in your game probably against a ranked opponent! Let's all remember how that turned out for St. Scholastica in week one. I mean - positive thoughts. The seniors get another game, you get to be champs and tell everyone on Twitter you're going to go get your rings sized, and your program is now proven to be successful! Keep checking for updates, the official "Selection Sunday" for the DIII playoffs is November 12th and I will also be writing a 2017 season recap. Thanks for reading to my droning blog posts and rambling stats on Twitter, I'm planning on being back for 2018.