Week eleven saw the Buckeyes rebound nicely against Sparty, a #1 team go down, Miami make a statement, and the all mighty, all powerful Alabama get pushed to the limit. There will be plenty of talk about who’s in and who’s out in the new playoff rankings, Heisman hopefuls, conference championships and everybody’s favorite topic, “what if?”
We’ll leave all of that coverage to the major outlets and we’ll focus our efforts on the best of what you probably didn’t see as explore what happened, “Elsewhere in College Football”…
Biggest Blowout of the Week
There were blowouts aplenty in week 11. Edinboro rolled Cheyney—who doesn’t—63-0; Hope won by 64 points in their 70-6 win over Concordia (WI); LaVerne had a 65-point win over winless Whittier 82-17; Rose-Hulman and West Florida both won by 69 points with 83-14 and 69-0 victories and Wheaton took things to the next level with a 71-0 shutout of Carroll. But the winner this week is St. Thomas as the Tommies slipped past St. Olaf 97-0.
The Tommies are ranked #4 in D-III and the win was their 28th consecutive conference victory. That ties the league mark set by St. Johns’ between 2000-04.
St. Thomas scored touchdowns on their first eleven possessions and led 64-0 at the half and replaced their starters early in the third quarter. The Tommies out-gained St. Olaf 667 to 71, they intercepted four passes—one of which was returned 39 yards for a touchdown—and they had a punt return for a TD to earn a MIAC road win. The 97 points are the second most in this category this year. In week #1 St. John’s defeated St. Scholastica 98-0. The Tommies had a chance to beat that mark but they missed two extra points.
St. Thomas wraps up the regular season at 9-1 and 8-0 in the MIAC. They’ve earned a spot in the D-III playoffs starting next weekend. The Oles of St. Olaf finish the year 4-6 and 2-5 in the conference.
Fewest Points by a Winning Team
We may have a first in this category as the team scoring the fewest points and winning needed overtime to get it done. The Fighting Scots of Monmouth College (IL) defeated St. Norbert 9-6. This game ended 3-3 in regulation and after the Green Knights of St. Norbert won the toss to start OT, Monmouth elected to play defense and held St. Norbert to a 33-yard field goal from Spencer Thompson-Meyers. On their possession in OT Hayden Nelson scored from a yard out for the win. Monmouth trailed most of game but got a field goal midway through the fourth quarter to tie things up. The OT win gives the Scots back-to-back Midwest Conference Championships for the first time since the 2008 and 2009 seasons and they earned a spot in the NCAA playoffs next week. Monmouth finishes the regular season at 9-1 and St. Norbert wraps up their 2017 campaign with a record of 7-3.
Most Points by a Losing Team
In NAIA action in Olathe, Kansas the Missouri Valley College Vikings dropped a 49-45 decision to MidAmerican Nazarene University Pioneers in a Heart of America contest. MVC led 24-7 early in the second quarter but MNU scored twice in less than two minutes to cut the lead to 24-21 at the half.
The teams traded scores in the second half with Missouri Valley regaining the lead 45-42 with five minutes left in the game but Marquis McQuire’s 39-yard TD run at the 2:38 mark was the difference for MNU.
MVC had 4th and 12 at the MidAmerican Nazarene 20 in the final seconds but Jake Bridges’ pass to Jakari Johnson was broken up by Josh Guerrero in the end zone to preserve the victory.
Both teams finished the season at 5-6.
And the Beats Go On
Make it 33 straight losses for Simon Fraser. The Clan lost a tough 24-21 Great Northwest Conference game at Western Oregon Saturday.
After taking their first lead of the season 21-17 on Miles Richardson’s 1-yard run with 1:20 to play in the third quarter, Simon Fraser was one quarter away from a win but Western Oregon scored the go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth when QB Nick Duckworth hit Keoni Piceno with a 16-yard strike.
Simon Fraser drove to the WOU 7-yard line and had first and goal with seconds remaining but Richardson fumbled the ball out of bounds trying to avoid a sack at the 11 and a personal foul penalty on the play moved the Clan back to the Western Oregon 29 with one second on the clock. Ethan Beselt, the back-up kicker forced to take over after an injury to SFU’s regular kicker, tried a 47-yard field goal to win the game but it came up short and WOU escaped with the win.
The Clan finishes at 0-10, 0-8 and Western Oregon improved to 3-8, 2-6.
Two Break Through for Win #1
Two teams did what Simon Fraser and twenty-two other teams couldn’t do—get that first win of the season.
In a match-up of winless teams, Junior running back Jake Schwern set a school record with 257 yards rushing and tied a school mark with four touchdowns in a game to lead the Colby Mules to a 31-20 win over rival Bowdoin. Colby rallied from a 20-10 deficit with three Schwern touchdowns in the final 20 minutes of the game. Schwern carried it 28 times and he averaged 9.2 yards per carry. The win snapped an eight game losing streak and gives the Mules a 1-8 mark this season. Bowdoin ends the 2017 season a 0-9.
Culver-Stockton College Wildcats used a 36-point second quarter to earn their first win of the season, a 67-30 victory over Graceland. Quarterback Korbin Marcum threw for three TD’s and Nathan Barnes added three more on the ground to lead the Wildcats and snap a 16-game losing streak. Both team close the 2017 season at 1-10.
Finally, Box Scores We Love
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total | |
| Columbia (7-2, 4-2) | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 18 |
| Cornell (3-6, 3-3) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
Columbia did the little things to score 18 points and pick up their 7th win of the season getting three field goals, a safety and a two-yard TD to defeat the Big Red. Oren Milstein kicked field goals from 26, 33 and 28 yards and the Lions defense forced a safety midway through the third period before finally scoring a touchdown with 3:28 left in the game to win the Empire State Bowl Saturday at Ithaca, New York.
