It was a game that surpassed all the records, benchmarks, and superlative descriptions of a college football game, postseason or otherwise, and the torrid pace set by the offenses of both teams left most spectators figuring the outcome would come down to the last team to possess the ball.
And that was the case in North Central College’s second-round NCAA Division III playoff game at the University of Mount Union Saturday, in Alliance, Ohio. After all the points and yards had been piled up, it was a defensive stand which sealed the outcome for the fifth-ranked Cardinals, who took down the venerable, playoff-accomplished Mount Union, 59-52, to advance to Saturday’s national quarterfinal.
North Central will play host to Delaware Valley at noon in Naperville.
After rolling up close to 700 yards of offense, the North Central found the issue still in doubt as Mount Union took possession on its own 40-yard line with 2:39 to play. A 50-yard pass from D’Angelo Fulford to Wayne Ruby put the Purple Raiders in striking distance, but Fulford was brought down for a loss once by Ben Wong and twice by Tommy Hyland before a fourth-down pass was intercepted by Jake Beesley in the end zone with just two seconds on the clock.
“I’ve never been a part of a game like that one,” said North Central head coach Jeff Thorne. “That was unbelievable. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. Mount Union is a first-class organization from top to bottom, I have nothing but respect for them. I’m beyond elated with the way our guys played. At the end of the game, that’s our mantra, ‘I am a champion and I refuse to lose.’ We had some guys put the team on their backs and say, ‘we’re not losing today.'”
For Mount Union, 11-1, ranked No. 1 by D3football.com and No. 2 by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) heading into the game and having not faced a deficit at any point in any game this season prior to Saturday, it marks the first time since 1994 that it will not advance past the second round, and it took every inch of the finest offensive performance ever put forth by a North Central team to make it happen.
The Cardinals gained a school-record 699 yards of total offense, including a school-record 522 passing yards fron quarterback Broc Rutter, formerly of Neuqua valley High School, whose five touchdown passes give him a single-season record 47 this year. Andrew Kamienski hauled in a career-high 256 yards on 12 catches to become the first Cardinal to record more than 200 receiving yards in a game since 2005 and DeAngelo Hardy easily surpassed the game-high totals of his young career with 186 yards on eight receptions.
Mount Union gained 713 total yards.
North Central, 11-1, took its first lead of the contest early in the second period when Rutter delivered a 24-yard touchdown pass to running back Ethan Greenfield, giving the visitors a 21-20 advantage with 12:05 to play in the first half.
—North Central College