1. St. Scholastica escaped with a win from New Ulm this last weekend. Don’t let the 21-7 score fool you into thinking this game didn’t make a few hearts skip a beat on the St. Scholastica sideline. It was tied until the fourth quarter and St. Scholastica managed to put up another seven points with 25 seconds left in the game. I wouldn’t put too much stock into how close the game was simply because it’s a strange place to play; however, the way that Martin Luther played defense gives teams around the UMAC a blueprint of how to stop the Saint’s offense. The Saints can fine tune some things this week against MacMurray in preparation for a huge game against Northwestern.
2. Northwestern disposed of MacMurray easily and shifts its focus to Morris. In the last three games, Northwestern has outscored opponents 138-31. The offense has been very explosive against teams that are frankly just plain bad. Even Westminster, a team once favored to fight for a conference championship, has taken a big step back from last year’s team. Are the Eagles real contenders? Or are they a solid team that has taken advantage of playing much inferior competition? The rubber hits the road when they face St. Scholastica in two weeks with conference championship implications on the line.
3. Greenville, as I suspected, took care of business and proved that they are the number three team in the conference. Even though they played terribly against St. Scholastica, there is still hope of a conference championship if some things fall into place. If Northwestern beats St. Scholastica, then things could get very interesting and could keep the race for the championship alive till the very last week of the season. None of that matters if they do not win the rest of their games leading up to their game against Northwestern.
4. Westminster has responded about as well as they could from a very disappointing loss to Northwestern in week one of conference play. They have beaten teams they were supposed to beat, but they are not nearly as talented as last year and I don’t see them beating Greenville or St. Scholastica. Still, they will have opportunities to prove themselves and with big games still left on the schedule they could shake things up a little bit.
5. University of Morris. Denny Green said it best, “They are who we thought they were.” In effect, not the third best team in the conference. They probably should have lost to Martin Luther, and there are not any MacMurrays left on the schedule. It gets even tougher this week with a trip to play Northwestern. Its time to find out what the Cougars are about the next three games against Northwestern, Westminster, and Eureka.
6. Eureka. Simpson dominated in every phase of the game. Period. Eureka needs a win badly against Westminster this week or it could start to unravel.
7. Martin Luther only turned the ball over once and that defense is pretty good in New Ulm. Almost pulling the upset against St. Scholastica gives them this spot in the rankings. Still -32 rushing yards? 67 yards of total offense? Yikes.
8. Crown is starting to figure out that playing with heart can only get you so far. Even still, it was turnovers that really killed the Storm this week. They are still a couple years away, but they will be competetive in a lot of games this year.
9. MacMurray. Not much to say about this past week. But at least St. Scholastica will have to make the road trip this week or that could have made for a very, very long bus ride home for the Highlanders.
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