We’re four weeks into the 2017 season and things are starting to get interesting. Like, how bad is the SEC East? When will USC go all “USC on itself?” Coaches on the hot seat and Heisman hopefuls are recurring topics of discussion and on the field, most of the top teams won—and yes, I’m looking at you Oklahoma State—and while you spent hours trying to keep track of all the games across all the networks available there was a lot of action that might not have made it to the scroll across the bottom of your TV, including breaking news that occurred “Elsewhere in College Football”…
Breaking News
(In your best—or probably better, in your worst—John Sterling voice) The Wolverines win!! The Wolverines win!! THHHEEEEEE Wolverines win!!! No, not the team up north, they did win, but this is bigger and breakingier than anything the Harboys accomplished, we’re focused on the Wolverines of Grove City College who snapped a 33-game losing streak by rallying with fourteen 4th quarter points to down St. Vincent 24-14. The Wolverines had gone 1,407 days without winning a football game but all that changed Saturday night in front of a “Whiteout” crowd of 3,900 at Robert E. Thorn Field in Grove City, PA.
Grove City was down 14-10 as the 4th quarter started but on the first play from the St. Vincent five, Bearcats DB AJ Jean-Baptiste was called for pass interference and the Wolverines got it first and goal from the two and sophomore Wesley Schools found the end zone to give Grove City a 17-14 lead. The teams traded punts then with 5:41 remaining in the game the Wolverines got the ball at the St. Vincent 46. Grove City QB Randall Labrie hit Cody Gustafson for 33 yards and Gabe Grecko for 11 and with another first and goal from the two, the Wolverines called on Schools again and he delivered to make it 24-14.
The Grove City defense, which limited St. Vincent to just 233 yards of total offense, stopped the Bearcats on their next possession and got the ball back with a little more than two minutes left and ran out the clock to secure their first win since November 16, 2013. The win was the first for second year head coach Andrew DiDonato.
Schools led the Wolverine attack rushing for 177 yards and three TD’s. Freshman LB Carl Jaszcar was the star on defense with 11 tackles including two sacks and the Wolverines D held St. Vincent to just 29 yards on their last 24 plays of the game. Grove City will go for two in a row next Saturday when they travel to Waynesburg. The Bearcats of St. Vincent fell to 2-2 on the season.
With Grove City snapping their streak, the spotlight now shines on Simon Fraser, the university, not the former Ohio State defensive end, because according to our research, their losing streak is now at 27, which would be the longest in the nation. Interestingly, the Clan—yes that’s their nickname—of Simon Fraser University isn’t even a school in our nation. Located in Burnaby, British Columbia, the Clan bills itself as “Canada’s NCAA Team” and is a member of the D-III Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Simon Fraser has not won since they defeated the Hardrockers of the South Dakota School of Mines back on October 18, 2014 and consecutive loss #27 was worthy of a mention in our next category.
Biggest Blowout of the Week
There was no shortage of lopsided wins this weekend. Charleston Southern shut out Point, or more accurately “no point”, University 66-0 and at no point in the second half did Point advance beyond their own 35-yard line as they finished the game with a grand total of six first downs and 98 yards of total offense. St. Augustine’s won its’ first game of the year by rolling over Lincoln (PA) 81-9 but 72-point wins were enough for more than a mention in this category. The biggest blowout this week was Azusa Pacific’s 76-point win over the aforementioned Simon Fraser. The Cougars of Azusa Pacific travelled north of the border and returned with an 83-7 victory. The 83 points set both a school record for AP and a GNAC record for points in a game. Had the game been scored using the metric system, Simon Fraser would have made it closer.
The Cougars scored on each of their first 10 possessions plus two defensive scores and two safeties. All 83 of Azusa Pacific’s points came in three quarters and they scored seven touchdowns on drives lasting less than two minutes, four took less than 42 seconds and seven of the drives took four plays or less. AP amassed 610 yards—or 557.784 meters—of total offense with junior tailback Kurt Scoby leading the way with 173 yards on 11 carriers and three TD’s. Scoby averaged 15.7 yards per carry and the Cougars averaged 10.3 yards per play.
Azusa Pacific scored five rushing TD’s; 4 passing TD’s, a field goal, two safeties, an interception return and a fumble return. A kick-off return and a punt return would have given them the cycle of scoring.
The lone bright spot for the Clan was Rysen John’s 10-yard TD catch halfway through the third quarter to make the score 67-7.
Simon Fraser will try to avoid loss #28 when they travel to Ellensburg, Washington to take on Central Washington University next weekend. Azusa Pacific, now 2-2 on the season hosts Western Oregon on Saturday.
Fewest Points by a Winning Team
The Lions of Albright College only needed 9 points to win on Saturday but the last 3 were the most important as freshman place kicker Christian Hagens drilled a 23-yard filed goal with three seconds to play as they defeated Widener 9-7. These two teams combined for 351 yards of total offense, went 7 of 33 on third down and punted 18 times. Widener took the lead early in the fourth quarter on a Rob Ennis 1-yard run but the Lions got the ball back with just over two minutes to play and facing fourth and five at the Widener 11, Hagens hit the game winner. Albright improves to 4-0 with the victory and the Pride of Widener falls to 2-2.
Most Points by a Losing Team
The Lehigh Mountain Hawks scored 47 points, the most they have scored in a game this season and racked up 552 yards of offense but they gave up 615 yards and 65 points in losing to Penn. This game set the following records:
• Most points by a Penn team since October 1946
• The 112 points scored were the most in the 141 year history of Quaker football
• 47 points by Lehigh were the most by a Penn opponent in a Quaker win
The teams combined for 1,167 total yards; they ran 139 plays—averaging 8.4 yards per play—had 52 first downs; went 13 of 22 on third down and they only punted twice. Quaker RB Karekin Brooks rushed 29 times for 268 yards and three TD’s. He also had a 61-yard TD run called back for a holding call. Lehigh was led by quarterback Brad Mayes who went 26 of 40 for 44 yards and 4 touchdowns in defeat.
Forfeit of the Rarest Kind—It’s not too often that teams forfeit a game. It’s even more rare when a team forfeits a game a month before it is to be played but that’s what happened when Finlandia University (MI) backed out its’ game against Valley City State University on August 25th. Maybe the trip from Hancock, Michigan to Valley City, South Dakota was more than the Lions were willing to take on but we had been looking forward to a game featuring a vodka matching up against three geographic descriptions.
Valley City State is taking credit for a 1-0 victory to improve to 2-2 and Finlandia is ignoring the game and sticking to an 0-2 record and according to the schedule on the official web site the Lions only have four games remaining this season and two of them are against Trinity Bible College. Something tells me this won’t be the last appearance for Finlandia in “Elsewhere” in 2017.
Finally, Box Scores We Love
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total | |
| Belhaven (1-2,0-2) | 7 | 19 | 6 | 8 | 40 |
| East Texas Baptist (3-0,2-0) | 21 | 13 | 24 | 21 | 79 |
In an American Southwest Conference game these two teams rolled up 1,232 yards of total offense; ran 180 plays; threw the ball 104 times—completing 72 of them—and were penalized 23 times. This was not your typical Saturday night game. Not surprisingly, the quarterbacks led the way for each team. Belhaven QB Hunter McEachren was 33 of 51 for 482 yards and 6 TD’s. Dru Smith of ETBU was equally good passing for 408 yards and 4 touchdowns. East Texas Baptist recorded 10 sacks and limited Belhaven to just 58 yards rushing on 37 attempts.