Top 25 Upsets – Depending which side of the upset you were on it wasn’t always a great day to be a ranked team in the NAIA and D3. The Linfield Wildcats, D3’s 4th-ranked team, lost to the #25 Cal Lutheran Kingsmen, 47-42. If only the Kingsmen were still sporting their cool helmets instead of these bland ones with just lettering it would really have been a great day for their fans…The 9th-ranked St John’s Johnnies fell to the unranked Eau Claire Blugolds 23-20. After being on the losing end of an epic tussle last year Todd Glaser’s boys emerged with a win this time around…In what was just barely an upset in the rankings #14, the Hardin-Simmons Cowboys won a 31-22 game with the 13th-ranked Willamette Bearcats…Over in the NAIA, the 13th spot in the rankings was equally unlucky with the Hastings Broncos losing at home to the 23rd-ranked Northwestern (IA) Red Raiders, 24-10. As usual Great Plains Athletic Conference teams are beating up on each other…The 8th-ranked McKendree Bearcats suffered a road loss to the unranked Marian Knights in a 45-12 beat-down…The #18 Campbellsville Tigers lost at the unranked Cumberland Bulldogs, who were obviously inspired by Ron Pavan’s participation in Sherry’s Run Day, 33-21… The Grand View Vikings, at # 20, also lost a road game to an unranked opponent, the St Francis (IL) Fighting Saints, by a score of 17-10, and the 22nd-ranked Taylor Trojans were upset at home by the William Penn Statesmen in a 44-19 shocker that nobody outside the WP locker room saw coming.
The Lambuth Eagles And The Franklin Grizzlies Rule The World – Last Saturday the Azusa Pacific Cougars defeated the 1AA San Diego Toreros. Yesterday the NAIA’s Lambuth Eagles defeated the 1AA Georgia State Panthers 23-14. The Panthers may be in their 1st year of playing football, but they are Division 1 with all the money and facilities that suggests, so this is another David and Goliath story for the ages. D3’s Franklin Grizzlies, who just barely missed the cut in my list of The 20 Coolest Football Helmets In NCAA Division 3, thrashed 1AA’s Valparaiso Crusaders 42-7, treating Valpo like Simon Bar Sinister to their Underdog.
Not-So-Blue Raiders – Like the Notre Dame College Falcons last weekend it only took the Lindsey Wilson College Blue Raiders 2 games to get the 1st ever win in their new football program’s history! They beat up on the hapless Southern Virginia Knights, 44-3. The Blue Raiders had an extended audience for their historic moment since the matchup was the Victory Sports Network’s Game Of The Week yesterday. For archived views of all VSN games from this season go to http://www.livestream.com/victorysports.
S.A.M. – Service Academy Mania – It doesn’t get anywhere near the press of Army vs Navy, but the Merchant Marine Academy Mariners and the Coast Guard Academy Bears have an intense rivalry. The Bears walked away with bragging rights following an emotion-charged 10-8 victory.
Hands Across The Border – The Southern Oregon Raiders traveled to Burnham, British Columbia to play the Simon Fraser Clan, one of the Canadian teams who play in the USA‘s lower divisions for collegiate athletics. The Raiders came out with a 31-18 win, becoming the 2nd Oregon team to recently beat up on the Clan, who also lost to D2’s Western Oregon Wolves 38-0.
We Went To A Football Game And A Baseball Game Broke Out – Yesterday’s game that fits this feature was the 6-3 win by the Rensselaer Engineers over the Endicott Gulls. It’s always noteworthy when just 1 touchdown and successful conversion attempt would have let you emerge with a victory.
We Went To A Football Game And Half A Basketball Game Broke Out – The NAIA’s 10th-ranked Missouri Valley College Vikings crushed the Culver Stockton Wildcats 70-0 on Saturday! This lopsided victory was the theme of the day for MVC sports as the Women’s Soccer team routed the Tabor College Bluejays 7-0 and the Men’s Soccer team took it to Tabor 9-2. Who would have thought the football team would give up fewer points than the Men’s Soccer team on a given day?
“My Division Can Beat Up Your Division” Department – Balladeer’s Blog has made several references to the passionate rivalry that exists between NAIA schools and NCAA Division 3 schools. To dispassionate outsiders they seem equal in athletic prowess but never to their partisans. NAIA teams had a 5 games to 4 edge in inter-divisional contests coming into this weekend but wound up on the losing side of some thumpings this time around, despite a few wins here and there…D3’s Top-Ranked Whitewater Warhawks dismembered the Dakota State Trojans 70-7. I understand the Warhawks just scored again a few minutes ago…Here are a few more D3 wins over the NAIA: the Concordia-Moorhead Cobbers topped the Valley City State Vikings 42-0; the McMurry “No Nicknames” (I’m serious) crushed the Texas College Steers 64-0; the Coe Kohawks beat the Olivet Nazarene Tigers 45-7; the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets slammed the SWAG Lions 32-7; the Birmingham-Southern Panthers up-ended the Faulkner Eagles 52-16 and the Buena Vista Beavers defeated the Peru State Bobcats 27-7. NAIA teams who made a fight out of it but fell short were the Jamestown Jimmies, who fell to the Stout Blue Devils 27-24 and the ever-tough Belhaven Blazers lost to D3’s 21st-ranked Mississippi College Choctaws, 21-14. NAIA teams who came out with a win were the Menlo Oaks, who defeated the Chapman Panthers 21-10 and the Azusa Pacific Cougars, who lambasted the La Verne Leopards 59-14.
Other Thoughts – The Washington and Lee Generals got their season back on the right track by opening up a can on the Sewanee Tigers, walking away with a tidy 48-17 win. Washington and Lee promised to stop scoring if Sewanee would stop talking about their “most wins within a few days of each other” road trip from way back when. (Just kidding! I love that kind of college football lore!) The Generals are now 1-1 and next face the Averett Cougars on Sept 25th***The Saint Ambrose University Fighting Bees (love that name!) improved to 2-0 with a 28-7 win over the Malone Pioneers. This bizarre turnover-happy game was tied 7-7 at halftime but under the sure leadership of QB “Dangerous” Danny Tharp the Fighting Bees took control in the 3rd quarter***The Ursinus Bears snuck by the Franklin and Marshall Diplomats 10-7 in a game with huge implications for the Centennial Conference race. Ursinus trailed 7-3 at halftime and neither defense blinked in the 2nd half until Bears QB “Joltin'” Justin Decristofaro hit Nick “Nicky G” Giarrantano with a 22 yd touchdown pass with just over 6 minutes left***Another big win for the Saint Xavier Cougars and another record-setting performance for wide receiver Mike “M Squared” Maher. In the 62-6 smothering of the Trinity Intnl Trojans Maher become SXU’s all-time leading receiver with 258 catches. Cougars quarterback Anthony “Crop-Man” Kropp was 15 of 22 for 264 yards and 4 touchdowns. For the full story on Kropp’s superhero persona Crop-Man (which includes foreshadowing of the star performances by M Squared), click here: https://glitternight.com/2010/07/22/saint-xavier-cougars-quarterback-anthony-kropp-joins-new-superhero-team/
Under The Radar Instant Classics – Yesterday’s crop of unheralded matchups that provided little bits of Pigskin Heaven were: the Randolph Macon Yellow Jackets over the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays 41-37; the Wabash Little Giants over the Wooster Scots 21-17; the Carthage Red Men over the Lakeland Muskies in Overtime 35-34; the LaGrange Panthers over the Millsaps Majors 27-21, also in Overtime; the Methodist Monarchs downing the Guilford Quakers 26-21; the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes over the Tabor Bluejays 23-20; the Montana Tech Orediggers beating the Montana State–Northern Lights 17-13 and the Rocky Mountain Battlin’ Bears over the Montana-Western Bulldogs 33-31. Archived video or audio broadcasts would be well worth your time!
Tonight there are just 2 games being played by teams I cover and both are NCAA Division 3. One is a matchup between
