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| Landon Gallagher and the St. John's defense racked up a total of 10 sacks in taking down No. 5 Wartburg. Photo by Caleb Williams, d3photography.com | More photos from this game |
St. John's knocked Wartburg down a couple of rungs on the ladder, UW-Oshkosh picked off Linfield at the goal line in overtime, Salisbury ran away from Muhlenberg, Endicott got out of Ithaca with a win, DePauw cruised on the road against Berry, Randolph-Macon survived at home in overtime and more in action on Saturday among teams ranked in the D3football.com Top 25.
St. John's racked up 10 sacks and controlled the ball for more than 20 minutes in the second half as the No. 12 Johnnies rolled past No. 5 Wartburg 35-13. The Knights ground out a 10-play, 71-yard drive to open the game, but St. John's scored the next 28 to pull away.
Line control was huge for the Johnnies, who held the ball for more than 11 minutes of the third quarter, allowing Wartburg to run just five plays. Aaron Syverson threw three touchdown passes, including an unbelievable deflection that found its way into the hands of Marselio Mendez at the back of the end zone, and running back Will Blakey ran for 55 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries in the win. Meanwhile, the Johnnie defense got to Wartburg quarterback Carter Markham early and often, with Hayden Sanders and Zach Frank racking up two and a half sacks apiece, with Landon Gallagher and Aiden McMahon each added two more.
Off the deflection! Johnnies extend their lead to 21-7 with 7:23 left in the third as Marselio Mendez plays the tip drill to perfection. #d3fb pic.twitter.com/EYIdfpMnGT
— D3football.com (@d3football) September 14, 2024
Salisbury put up the most points it has scored since 2019 as the Sea Gulls absolutely rolled past No. 18 Muhlenberg, 59-38. Quarterback Gage Katzenell-Hall threw for 174 yards and three touchdowns, while Ronald Clark busted loose an 86-yard touchdown run en route to an 180-yard day in the win. The Mules (1-1) took a 38-35 lead on a Joe Repetti TD pass to Timothy Buda with nine minutes left in the third, but it was all Sea Gulls (2-0) from there, as they scored the final 24 points.
The DePauw defense traveled well on its trip from Indiana to Georgia, and helped the Tigers come away with a 33-0 win at Berry. DePauw (2-0) held Berry quarterback Christian Lewis to just 6-for-29 passing for 73 yards in the win, a week after he had gone 6-for-13 with three TDs against Huntingdon. All-America running back Brandon Cade managed just 74 yards on 26 carries as the Vikings (1-1) were limited to 144 total yards. Nathan McCahill threw for 150 yards and two scores for the Tigers.
Justice Lovelace ran for 130 yards and a touchdown, the game-winning score in overtime as No. 17 UW-Oshkosh edged No. 21 Linfield 28-21 in OT in Oshkosh. The Wildcats (1-1) had scored early in the fourth quarter on a Luke McNabb TD run and Blake Eaton completed a two-point conversion pass to give his team a 21-14 lead, but Oshkosh methodically moved the ball down the field, going 65 yards in 13 plays and using almost seven minutes of the clock before Cole Warren his Clayton Schwalbe over the middle for a TD. That tied the game at 21. Lovelace got the call in the Titans' half of overtime to give UWO the lead, and Linfield got down to the Oshkosh 10 before Kyle Dietzen intercepted Eaton on the goal line to seal the game. Warren completed 15 of 19 passes for 180 yards and two TDs for UW-Oshkosh. He did not allow an interception to the Wildcats but was sacked five times, including two by Wildcats defensive end Caleb Sell.
Top-ranked North Central got off to a strong start, as the Cardinals opened their 2024 season by scoring the first 31 points and went on to defeat No. 14 Aurora 48-21. Joe Sacco ran for a game-high 146 yards and three touchdowns, all of them in the first half, while Luke Lehnen threw for 241 yards and three scores on 21-for-31 passing. Trey Madsen, a grad transfer from Aurora to North Central over th offseason, had a game-high six catches for 63 yards and a TD.
No. 16 Endicott sent Ithaca to 0-2 at home as the Gulls defeated the No. 24 Bombers 13-7. Endicott held the Ithaca offense to just 196 yards of offense and turned the ball over four times. Endicott took a 57-yard completion from Clayton Marengi to Kennedy Charles less than three minutes into the third quarter to get the 13-7 lead. Ithaca had multiple chances to take the lead in the fourth quarter. With less than seven minutes to go, Ryan Burns forced a fumble and Jake Connolly recovered at the Endicott 28-yard line, but IC turned the ball over on downs at the 8-yard line with 4:06 on the clock. Endicott was unable to run out the clock, but a third Ithaca interception finished off the Bombers' chances.
Dante Casciola hit tight end Landon Farriss in the end zone on a fourth-and-2 play from the Hobart 17 in overtime and safety Quentin Mankin was credited with a fumble recovery on Hobart's final play as No. 9 Randolph-Macon pulled out a 14-7 victory in its home opener. Randolph-Macon had had an 18-play drive stall out at the 1 in the third quarter, and survived when a Hobart field goal attempt went wide left as the clock expired in regulation.
Johns Hopkins managed just 180 yards of offense, but the Blue Jays' defense held Christopher Newport to 144 as the No. 7 Blue Jays gutted out a 14-3 win on the road in front of a sellout crowd of 4,752. Nursing a four-point lead and with the Captains pinned deep after a 45-yard punt from Chase Alley, the Blue Jays got the game-turning play that they needed from their defense as Jack Schondelmayer intercepted Tahir Johnson at the CNU 29-yard line and returned it to the 22. Two plays later, Harvey hit PJ Scales down the seam and he weaved through traffic inside the 5-yard line before finding the end zone to give the Blue Jays a 14-3 lead and the eventual win. CNU struggled as it used three quarterbacks in the game and finished the game with its third-stringer, Tahir Johnson.
No. 3 UW-Whitewater and No. 6 UW-La Crosse, each unable to find enough Division III schools willing to schedule them in non-conference games, found themselves playing Division II schools on Saturday and each of them came away with wins. Whitewater won 24-14 at Roosevelt, while La Crosse defeated Northern Michigan 35-21. NMU is 0-3 this season and has lost its last 14 consecutive games, and saw La Crosse roll out to a 28-7 lead and a 35-14 lead before the Wildcats made the score close in the final minutes. Jack Studer led the way for UWL with seven catches for 154 yards and a touchdown, moving into second place in career receiving yards and TDs for UW-La Crosse behind 2004 D3football.com All-America selection Scott Burnoski. Roosevelt, in its season opener after going 6-4 last year, gave up a 92-yard drive to Whitewater to open the game, trailng 7-0 early, but the Warhawks (2-0) could only manage one 16-yard scoring drive for a field goal the rest of the way in winning 24-14. The remaining points came on a Lucas Sadler fumble recovery in the end zone and a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Tyler Vasey. That was on the opening drive of the second half, one on which Roosevelt started at its 16 before Tavy Cramp forced a fumble, Kyle Koelblinger and Kyle Koelblinger added a tackle for lossl On third-and 21, the Roosevelt quarterback fumbled, recovered by Sadler.
Cortland was on absolute cruise control as the No. 2-ranked Red Dragons crushed Lycoming 70-7. Zac Boyes completed 18 of 19 passes for 340 yards and three touchdowns in less than three quarters of action, Jaden AlfanoStJohn caught seven passes for 182 yards and two scores and ran for a touchdown, and Ethan Gallo rushed 17 times for 73 yards and three scores in the win.
Denison scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to get within striking distance, but it wasn't enough as No. 15 Alma held on to defeat the Big Red 38-30. Fueled by an impressive performance by freshman quarterback Tyler Green, Denison scored three touchdowns in the final 15 minutes to pull within a single possession. Green completed 28 of 42 pass attempts for 320 yards and three touchdown passes. And Denison put the onside kick into a good spot, as a Big Red player was able to knock the ball free. However, the Scots pounced on the loose ball to gain possession and seal the victory. Carter St. John threw for 277 yards and three touchdowns in the win.