Border battle has more than pride on line
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But the game with the most on the line between the two states is not being played in Auburn this weekend. That game is being played in Georgia and it doesn’t include two huge state schools. It includes two small colleges, Huntingdon and LaGrange.
“A conference title is on the line, both teams are undefeated in conference play. Both teams are 8-1.” Hawk coach Mike Turk said on his weekly television review. “I can’t think of a better opponent that we’d like to have than LaGrange College -- a rival of ours in every other sport, right up the road from us.
“It should be an exciting day. This is what you play the game for. Our guys have worked awful hard to get us in position to do this.”
The winner will take home the initial St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and could possibly earn a trip to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
Those playoff hopes may have taken a bit of hit last week when Huntingdon fell from the unbeaten ranks at home to Hampden-Sydney (8-1) by a score of 38-34. But Turk took a lot of positives from the Hawks first loss of the year.
“We could have folded it up there, when it was 31-14 it was not looking good,” he said. “We did fight back and get back in the game on a couple of occasions. We just could not get a stop when we needed one.
“We’re disappointed but we got a big one this week that we got to get ready for. No time to feel sorry for ourselves. We knew that it would be our toughest test to date and we prepared that way.”
Speaking of preparation, coach Todd Mooney’s LaGrange team spent last week idle. The Panthers have won seven straight since dropping their only game of the year to NAIA Shorter on Sept. 13. But with no Division III or regional losses, a win on Saturday could secure them a playoff bid that seemed highly unlikely at the start on the season. The third-year program lost their first 20 games during their first two seasons.
LaGrange probably enters the game an underdog after falling to the Hawks 43-0 at the end of last season in Montgomery. But Mooney has done a great job keeping his Panthers focused on the task at hand.
The game could resemble a SEC game in another way. Both offenses come in averaging more than 42 points a game and both teams have balance. The Hawks average 262 a game on the ground and nearly 200 a contest through the air. LaGrange had rushed for 185 a game, while passing for 207.
Special teams could also play a big factor in who wins. Huntingdon leads the nation in kickoff return average (27.7) with Miguel Gilmore and Drew Harrell each are averaging 31.9 yards per return. For the Panthers, Mario Wallace, who also has 890 rushing yards ad 301 receiving yards, is ranked among the top punt returners in the nation (21.9.)
The quarterbacks appear to be a contrast in styles. Justin Ridgeway leads the Hawks spread attack with his arms and legs. The junior has passed for 1550 yards with 18 touchdowns and has rushed for 328 yards and six scores. Drew Carter appears to be more in the traditional dropback mold, passing for 1739 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Regardless of who wins on Saturday, or whether or not one ends up in the playoffs, both programs appear to have bright futures on the Division III level. There aren’t many non scholarship schools in that corner of the country, so they should be able to continue fertile recruiting areas in Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
Pool A
Millsaps (9-0, 7-0 SCAC) wrapped up the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference on Saturday with a 50-6 victory over Colorado College at Homecoming in Jackson. The win was the Majors 11th straight and could have a lot of teams singing that great old Johnny Cash song “I’m going to Jackson….” come playoff time. (This song popped up on my Ipod the other day and made me think of the Majors. I’ve noticed that Jackson seems to get a lot of mentions in song, i.e. Kid Rock and Charlie Daniels too.)
Millsaps is likely to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NCAA South Region if the can get past a rapidly improving Birmingham-Southern team (more on them later) this weekend.
Millsaps has been getting “Major” special teams production from Michael Galatas, who was named the SCAC special teams player of the week. The sophomore, who also has 28 catches for 448 yards and four touchdowns, became the first Major to return a punt for a touchdown since 2006. Despite having a couple of other long returns called back the past couple of weeks, Galatas has turned himself into top kick returnees in the nation averaging 18.8 per punt and 25.1 on kickoff returns.
Senior receiver Eric McCarty, who leads Millsaps with 53 catches for 667 yards and nine touchdowns, became just the fourth Major ever to top 2,000 career receiving yards.
Mary Hardin-Baylor clinched at least a share of the title in the America Southwest Conference and a Pool A (automatic bid) in resounding fashion by crushing Howard Payne 67-0 on Saturday. The Crusaders are a likely a two (if the committee moves likely unbeaten Muhlenberg) or three seed when the playoff pairings come out Sunday. They’ll look to complete a third straight season undefeated season in ASC play at Sul Ross State this weekend.
The Crusaders appear to be getting healthy at just the right time, as top receiver Pi’Dadro Davis returned to catch a 30-yard scoring pass and Baylor transfer Matt Hurst (eight carries for 59 yards) saw significant playing time for the first time in awhile.
Though the loss of tailback Quincy Daniels earlier this year has taken away one of the most explosive runners on the D-III level, Bryson Tucker and Roger Sanchez have filled in well. Then, of course, the Crusader defense makes the team a tough out for anyone they may face in the playoffs.
UMHB has often used two quarterbacks in the past and this season is no different. Senior Josh Saenz has started most of the games, but newcomer Kyle Noack has started the last two. Saenz still leads the rushing attack with 466 yards and seven touchdowns, but Noack has proved to be an effective passer by completing 64 percent of his passes.
Pool C Watch
No, they haven’t earned a playoff spot yet. But Hardin-Simmons (9-1, 7-1 ASC) appears to be in better shape than any other team in the nation when it comes time to discuss who will get one of the six Pool C bids (for at-large teams) that get handed out on Sunday afternoon.
The Cowboys wrapped up the regular season on Saturday with a 45-20 victory over McMurry. It was their fifth straight win after a two-point loss to UMHB on Oct. 4. During that five-game streak, they have won by an average of 38.6 points per contest. Add to their resume impressive non-conference victories over former national champions Linfield (2004) and UW-La Crosse (twice in the nineties) and it looks like the Cowboys will spend their weekend preparing for the playoffs.
Who will they play? Well, with a second consecutive loss of a certain SCAC team (discussed below,) it looks likely that we’ll see another first-round matchup with Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton on Nov. 22.
In an effort to reduce costs, the NCAA has traditionally paired Texas teams in the first round to avoid flight costs. This has happened in nearly every year this decade, a.k.a. “the Texas sub-bracket.”
Millsaps, who is likely to be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the South Region will probably host the winner of the Huntingdon/LaGrange match up should either of the two earn a Pool B bid with a win on Saturday. But, of course that’s not a given either.
Trinity had hopes of earning a Pool C bid after falling to Millsaps last week in San Antonio in a battle of unbeatens. Those hopes came to crashing to the ground on Saturday in Kentucky. Centre upset the Tigers 26-17.
In the Millsaps loss, the Tigers had a 36-game winning streak in SCAC at home against conference foes. But if the Trinity website is correct, this week’s defeat is the first time since 1995 that the Tigers have dropped two games in a row.
How does this happen when you roll up a 470-379 advantage in total offense? Simple. A few turnovers in key spots and an excellent job by Colonel punters Tyler Osterman and Jeff Collett. The pair combined to average over 42 yards per punt and placed six kicks inside the 20-yard line. This forced the Tigers to travel a long field most of the game.
Still, after a scoreless first quarter, Trinity appeared to have the game well in hand as halftime approached leading 10-0. Then, after Centre scored with just over a minute to go to pull within 10-6, a muffed kickoff return gave the Colonels the ball back at the Trinity 32-yard line.
Osterman, also an impressive freshman dual threat at quarterback, then hit Jonathon Pinque on a 32-yard scoring pass as time expired to give the Colonels a 13-10 advantage at the break. Pinque led Centre receivers with five catches for 69 yards, while Osterman completed 16 of 20 for 260 yards.
Trinity appeared to on its way to retaking the lead early in the third quarter but a Chris Baer fumble deep in Colonel territory set up a five-play, 80 yard drive by Centre. Pinque, who also rushed for 83 yards and a pair of touchdowns, capped it with a 1-yard plunge.
Baer, who rushed for 187 yards, finished off a 10-play, 90-yard drive with a 3-yard run to pull the Tigers within 20-17 as the fourth clock ticked just under 10 minutes to go. But Osterman found Aaron Hay seconds later on a 56-yard pass that may have sealed the coffin on the Tigers hopes this season.
Centre should be able to complete their first seven-win campaign since 2005 with a victory at Colorado College (0-8, 0-6 SCAC), while Trinity will try to salvage a disappointing end to the season with another tough game against Austin (5-4, 3-3 SCAC.)
Grand Opening
One of the scores that jumped out at me on Saturday night was Birmingham-Southern’s 49-0 trouncing of Sewanee. Playing their first on-campus home game since 1939 at newly minted Panther Stadium, BSC won its second straight game and is closing the season with momentum that could make them one of the surprise teams in the SCAC next season.
After looking at pictures of the new facility, which also includes a state-of-the-art weight training facility, Huntingdon not be the only D-III school in Alabama with playoff aspirations soon.
Quarterback Joe Thigpen, a sophomore, earned SCAC offensive player of the week honors by passing for 157 yards and two touchdowns and running for 94 yards and three more scores.
The Panthers, still just a provisional conference member, have caused some problems for SCAC traditional powers like DePauw and Trinity earlier this season. This week they host the conference champ Millsaps, who beat them 58-7 last year. While a upset would be a lot to expect, a good showing in this game could give BSC momentum heading into the offseason.
Around the South Top Five
1. Millsaps (9-0, 7-0 SCAC)
2. Mary Hardin-Baylor (8-1, 7-0 ASC)
3. Hardin-Simmons (9-1, 7-1 ASC)
4. Huntingdon (8-1, 6-0 SLIAC)
5. LaGrange (8-1, 6-0 SLIAC)
On the radar: DePauw (7-2, 5-2 SCAC), Trinity (7-2, 5-2 SCAC), Centre (6-3, 4-2 SCAC)
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