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| Roman Namdar hauled in the game-tying score in the second quarter, but it was the ground game that separated Mount Union in the second half. Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com |
By Adam Turer
D3sports.com
SALEM -- There is no question that the two best teams in Division III football this season were on the field in Salem on Friday night.
Mount Union left no doubt that it was the most dominant, most complete team in the nation in 2015.
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The Purple Raiders started slow and fell behind for the second straight week. They erupted in the third quarter and held off St. Thomas for Mount Union's second Stagg Bowl championship in the past four seasons, 49-35.
Mount Union was motivated to return to the pinnacle after falling on this stage the past two years. Fueled by those defeats, the Purple Raiders are elated to bring back national championship number 12 to Alliance.
"The whole offseason, every day we came in there, we just remembered, championship loss. We weren't good enough last year," said senior running back Logan Nemeth, who rushed for 220 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries. "We had to be better. It eats at you every day. It just drove us to get back here and play the way we can."
It took some time for the Purple Raiders to reach their peak.
Each team wanted to make the opposing offense one dimensional and was aided by a howling wind. St. Thomas opened up a 14-0 lead as Mount Union's offense struggled to get on track in the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Purple Raiders got on track while the Tommies slowed. Mount Union maintained the focus that led it through each week of its 15-0 campaign.
"A team with a lot of experienced players tends to keep its poise a little bit better," said Mount Union coach Vince Kehres. "The coaching staff has a little more experience than we've had the past two years and I think that helps, too."
The first score of the game was initially ruled an incomplete pass. Upon review, the officials correctly determined that Charlie Dowdle pinned the ball to his shoulderpad with one hand while sneaking a foot inside the end zone. The Tommies then blew up a fake punt attempt and capitalized to take a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.
The Purple Raiders slowly revved up their offense, first with handoffs to Logan Nemeth and quick passes to Roman Namdar, who finished with five catches for 127 yards and a touchdown. That set up a play-action pass to Lane Clark, his first of two scores on the day. Clark caught five passes this season, all in the postseason, three of which went for touchdowns. A quick three-and-out gave Mount Union the ball and momentum, and Taurice Scott connected with Namdar for a 29-yard touchdown to tie the game. Scott earned Most Outstanding Player honors, passing for three touchdowns and rushing for another. At the center of it all was the offensive line, anchored by junior center Mitch Doraty.
"They get on people, they just never stop. They're so strong and quick," said Nemeth of his offensive line. "They just made my job easy. They're one great unit. It was a fun season with those guys."
The Tommies did all the could to keep the ball out of the hot hand of the Purple Raiders offense, including a fourth down conversion from their own 17-yard-line late in the first half. Mount Union did get one last chance in the second quarter, but ran out of time and the teams headed to the locker room tied at 14.
A busted coverage as Tommies quarterback Gould scrambled allowed him to find Nick Waldvogel for a 58-yard touchdown early in the third quarter.
Then, the Machine began to hum. Mount Union scored 21 straight points to go up 35-21, thanks to halftime adjustments made by offensive coordinator Geoff Dartt. The Purple Raiders used play-action, quick passes, and split back sets with Nemeth and B.J. Mitchell. Scott, bottled up by Tim McClanahan and the Tommies' defense in the first half, added Mount Union's third score of the quarter with his cleanest and most effective run of the day.
"The offensive staff wanted to be able to run the ball in the third quarter," said Kehres. "It was really a great job by Coach Dartt and the offensive staff to figure out what would work best against that aggressive style."
St. Thomas regained momentum in an unconventional manner. Waldvogel fumbled, but the ball took two perfect bounces into the arms of a running Gould who scooped it up and raced 56 yards to the end zone. The Tommies defense then stopped Mount Union, and St. Thomas could have taken momentum into the fourth quarter, trailing 35-28. But, a questionable fake field goal attempt was snuffed out and Mount Union entered the fourth quarter in control.
It was more of the nation's top ground attack that put the game away in the fourth quarter. The addition of Mitchell to the offensive arsenal opened things up for Scott and Nemeth. That trio combined to rush for 245 yards in the second half.
Meanwhile, the defense, led by Jonathan Gonell, Hank Spencer, and Tom Lally, bottled up Jordan Roberts. After rushing for 101 yards in the first half, the All-American was held to 34 rushing yards in the second half. He finished with 135 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries.
"It hurts. I'm in a lot of pain right now. It hurts that it ended this way," said Roberts. "I'm very, very proud of the season that we've had and I'm proud of the guys in this locker room. I'm so happy to be a part of this locker room, but it hurts."
Nobody expected the Tommies to quit, and they battled to the end. A Roberts touchdown followed by a perfectly-executed onside kick by Paul Graupner gave St. Thomas a chance trailing by 14 with over six minutes to play. Then Mount Union freshman Louis Berry stepped up to make his fifth interception of the season. Scott ran out the clock on another impressive season from the Tommies, but another one that came up just short of the ultimate goal.
"I'm a big believer that we learn from every experience, but don't tell me that we don't learn more from our failures than our successes," said St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso. "It doesn't mean I want to be sitting here in the same press conference next year. I want to be here ten minutes from [now] next year."
For the Purple Raiders seniors, this was a familiar feeling, but one that they truly earned this time around. For Lally, Gonell, and Alex Kocheff, the trio who played in their untouchable-record 60th straight game on Friday, this was a perfect culmination. The seniors ended their careers the same way they ended their freshman season: hoisting the Walnut and Bronze in Salem.
"We've come a long, long way from small, wide-eyed freshmen trying to make some plays on a national championship team that was stacked that year," said Lally. "Now, it feels good to be on the opposite end of that, to be a senior going out with a national championship."