Week 8 Game Recaps

Greenville College Panthers [34-22] Westminster College Blue Jays
The Panthers came into this game needing a win to stay in the race for a share of the UMAC conference championship and they kept that dream alive with a 34-22 victory of the Blue Jays that did not come as easily as was expected. After Greenville scored twice, the teams went back and forth scoring the rest of the game and the Blue Jays pulled within 6 points with just under thirteen minutes remaining in the game. Greenville then drove down the field and scored the final points of the game as RB Manny Gamble crossed the goal line on a 4 yard run to score his second touchdown on the day. Westminster's defense held the Panthers to a season "low" of 198 yards rushing, which ironically is actually 5 yards more than the Blue Jays offense has rushed for all season. Greenville's RB Steven Glover accounted for more than half of those rushing yards as he gained 103 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. The Blue Jays QB, Joe Plassmeyer, completed 53 of his 79 passes for 342 yards and 2 touchdowns completing 15 passes each to WRs James Gladstone and Justin Grahl for 133 and 70 yards, respectively. Westminster has lost their last five games and end conference play at 2-6 as they head into their bye week before hosting MacMurray on November 10th in a non-conference matchup. Greenville moves to 6-1 in UMAC games as they ride their six-game win streak into their matchup against Northwestern this weekend and a chance to win a share of the conference championship.

Northwestern College Eagles [21-17] Eureka College Red Devils
In one of the two surpisingly close games in the UMAC this week, Eureka nearly upset conference-leading Northwestern, but the Eagles snuck away with the victory, 21-17. The game opened with a 3-and-out by Eureka who then punted to Northwestern who quickly converted two 30-yard plays to get into the endzone on a run by RB Chris Simon-Wallace. A 31-yard return by the KR Robert Gilliam set Eureka up with great field position and helped them string together a thirteen-play drive for 59 yards ending on a 1-yard run by RB Zach McCoy. The Eagles looked to be in form as they responded with a 39 yard strike to standout WR Brian Lecheler who accumulated 4 receptions for 70 yards on the day. Unfortunately the next time Lecheler touched the ball was not as profitable for the Eagles as he dropped a punt that was quickly recovered by the Red Devils at the Northwestern 35 yard line and then turned into 3 points on a Travis Huber field goal kick. A few drives later, a pass from NWC's QB Josh Balzer was picked off and returned down to the Eagles 31 yard line, with the Red Devils appearing ready to take the lead. However, two plays later, Eureka's NCAA-record holding QB, Sam Durley, threw a pass that was deflected into the hands of Eagles' DB Mitch Swanson just before halftime.

After a punt by the Eagles to start the second half, Sam Durley's first pass since the interception was thrown again to his most recent receiver, the Eagles DB Mitch Swanson, who returned it down to the 11 yard line to set up a score by Eagles RB Josh Sinnen on the very next play. The score now 21-10, the Red Devil's were not ready to give up as they converted 12 plays on the next drive to go 75 yards down the field to score on a Sam Durley run. A fumble and punt by each team was followed by Eureka blocking a Northwestern field goal kick which was then followed by a Eureka punt, a NWC fumble, a Eureka punt, and a NWC turnover on downs, giving Eureka the ball at their 10 yard line with 2:43 remaining on the clock and a chance to win. Durley got the two-minute offense going and led a drive out close to midfield before with a 31 yard pass to WR Jordan Kindred before NWC's LB Alex Zeller intercepted a throw to the sideline and snuffed out Eureka's hopes for a victory. Northwestern will try to finish undefeated in the UMAC as they host Greenville next week. Eureka falls to 3-4 in conference play, and welcomes MacMurray into town next weekend to close out the season.

University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars [30-29] Crown College Storm
Every point really does count as the Cougars took advantage of a missed extra point to gain the victory after overcoming a 14-point deficit with only 7 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Crown started off the scoring in the first quarter as RB Amos Schmidt sprinted into the endzone, gaining 56 of his 153 total rushing yards for the game on that play. QB Wes Safford followed that up one quarter later with a 1-yard scoring run of his own. UM-Morris closed the gap later on in the second with a touchdown pass from Foss1/QB2 to WR Dalton DeGraffenreid followed by a Cameron Adel field goal just before halftime. The third quarter was very uneventful and consisted of eight drives ending in eight punts. The Storm put 3 more points on the board thanks to a 24-yd Kurt Fickle kick and then defensive back Sebastian Alvarado intercepted the Cougars QB1 and returned it 16 yards to give Crown a 23-9 advantage with 7:16 remaining before the clock hit zero. The Cougars had different plans in mind though as they "stormed" (see what I did there) back and scored quickly, courtesy of the Foss brothers, closing the gap to seven with just over 5 minutes left. Crown's next drive ended after three plays and a punt, giving the ball back to UM-Morris after only 1 minute. UM-Morris put together the games longest drive, going 67 yards on 10 plays before RB Leandro Dower powered into the endzone for his first 1-yd touchdown of the game. Crown was unable to move the ball and punted back to the Cougars who were content taking a knee and heading into overtime.

UM-Morris won the coin toss and elected to allow Crown to begin the extra period on offense. The Storm struggled on their first three plays before converting a 20-yard pass on 4th down. RB Amos Schmidt was able to get into the endzone six plays later after a pass interference call on the UMM defense. Unfortunately, the Kurt Fickle extra point was missed, only giving Crown a six point advantage to begin the Cougar's drive. After a loss of 5 yards by Leandro Dower, Crown was called on pass interference the next play to put UMM on the 15 yard line with a first down. Three plays later, the Storm were called for pass interference again, giving Morris the ball on the 2 yard line. Two plays later, Leandro Dower gained his most important yard of the day as he got into the endzone to tie the game at 29. The Cougar's extra point was good and their comeback efforts were completed. This game featured 19 punts and 11 three-and-outs, so you would think there was not much offense, but somehow each team still put up over 350 yards, despite so many unsuccesful drives. WR Brendon Foss had another outstanding game, putting up 150 yards on 14 catches to lead the Cougars offense. UM-Morris now has a 5-2 record in conference games and heads to Duluth, MN next week to face the St. Scholastica Saints. Crown will be facing the up and coming Martin Luther Knights next week on the road in New Ulm, MN.

College of Saint Scholastica Saints [20-17] Presentation College Saints
Our experts here at UMAC Central predicted St. Scholastica would blow Presentation out of the water in this non-conference game, but the second  year Presentation College Saints were ready for this challenge and only narrowly lost to the more-experienced St. Scholastica Saints squad. The CSS Saints looked like the favorites heading into halftime with a 14-3 lead, only having allowed 91 offensive yards to the PC Saints. The CSS Saints' first half scoring came courtesy of a 3 yard run by RB Jake Jensen and a 6 yard reception by receiver Cory Gebhard. The tables were turned in the second half as Presentation's WR Jalanni James caught a 14 yard pass to close the gap before PC QB Stephen Braswell delievered another 5 yard strike to receiver Will Vealy to put Presentation up 17-14. During this same period of time, PC's defense allowed only 38 yards to St. Scholastica's offense. After a punt by each team, CSS QB Tyler Harper was able to lead a drive down to the 13 yard line to set up K Mike Theismann for a field goal attempt. The kick was good and the score was now tied at 17 with 10 minutes remaining. Presentation was forced to punt on their next possession and Scholastica put together a thirteen play drive chewing up 7 minutes of the game clock as they set Theismann up for a 31 yard attempt to win the game. This time though, the attempt was wide right and with only 18 seconds left on the clock, Presentation decided to run the clock out and try their luck in overtime. After three plays. the PC Saints had not gained a first down and elected to kick a 35 yard field goal, but they missed, giving the CSS Saints the ball and the ability to take the lead and win the game. Scholastica handed the ball off to  RB Chris Gassert who with two runs had the ball down to the 8 yard line, before Presentation's defense stifled the CSS offense for three plays, making it now 4th down and Mike Theismann came trotting back out to the field, easily putting in the 25 yard field goal to give St. Scholastica the victory. Neither team was particularly effective on third down as the CSS Saints went 6/15, while the PC Saints only converted on 4 of their 12 third down attempts. The UMAC Saints will head home for their final game of the regular season as they host the UM-Morris Cougars next week.

Martin Luther College Knights [30-27] MacMurray College Highlanders
The first half of our game of the week made us regret our decision to label this game as such, as there were several punts, turnovers on down, other turnovers, and just general ineffectiveness on offense. Just before halftime though, MLC QB Luke Rothe finally updated the scoreboard with a 2 yard run to make the score 6-0 before a 2 point conversion made it 8-0 heading into halftime. To start the second half, Knights RB Matthew Olson had a 38 yard reception from Rothe that he took into the endzone to make the score 14-0. The MacMurray offense was stagnant again, going three-and-out and punting it back to a Knights offense that was starting to heat up. Luke Rothe's got his second consecutive touchdown pass on the next play, but this one was caught by a receiver with the wrong jersey on as MacMurray's John Brockhouse Jr. returned the interception 89 yards to paydirt, breathing some life into the Highlanders.The teams traded touchdowns on the next two possessions with RB Tyler Dorn score for the Knights and Highlanders' WR Deshonta Smallwood catching a 24 yard pass from QB Cody Hussey. MLC's Luke Rothe was picked off on the Knights next two drives, for his 4th and 5th interceptions of the game, with the second one leading to a 91-yard drive for MacMurray which ended with a 1 yard run by Hussey to make the score 22-20 after a failed 2-pt conversion attempt. The next two drives were again ended with Zorn and Smallwood scoring for their respective teams with MLC going for 2 and MAC kicking the PAT to make the score 30-27. MacMurray's next drive was ended with an interception by DB Galen Holzhueter to allow the Knights to run the clock out and escape with the victory. RB Matthew Olson put together an impressive day for the Knights, rushing 39 times for 212 yards as well as catching 4 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown. RB Patrick Hall of the Highlanders, also passed the 100 yard mark, carrying the ball 24 times for 101 yards. Defensively for MacMurray, DB John Brockhouse Jr. intercepted Luke Rothe twice, and DB Samuel Stanton one-upped him by picking off MLC's QB 3 times in this game. The Knights gain their first conference win, and now sit at 1-6 heading into their game against Crown College next weekend. MacMurray will play their final conference game next week at Eureka before ending in a non-conference matchup at Westminster on November 10th.