Automatic bids clinched, the list
| Chris Denton's athletic catch
in the end zone lifted No. 2 Mount Union to the 25-20 win at home
against Baldwin-Wallace. Mount Union athletics photo by JT Higgins |
Hampden-Sydney jumped out to a 21-0 lead and held on in the second half to defeat Washington and Lee 42-35 and win the Old Dominion Athletic Conference automatic bid.
Kyle Vance had nine catches for 147 yards and two touchdowns for the Tigers, while Sean Cavanagh added seven for 131 and a score in the win.
No. 2 Mount Union won in a thriller, with Chris Denton catching a touchdown pass from Matt Piloto with 2:14 left to lift the Purple Raiders past Baldwin-Wallace 25-20. Mount Union clinched the automatic bid and won its 20th consecutive OAC title. Baldwin-Wallace had taken a 20-19 lead with 5:53 left, rallying from a 19-0 third quarter deficit.
No. 6 North Central kept the Little Brass Bell and won the CCIW automatic bid in the process with a 33-7 win against No. 13 Wheaton (Ill.). Three Cardinals passers combined for 10-for-20 through the air for 240 yards and ran for 195 more. Randal Smedley ran 16 times for 118 yards and two touchdowns and No. 11 Salisbury clinched the Empire 8 title in its first year in the conference, defeating St. John Fisher 41-21. No. 4 Mary Hardin-Baylor rolled past Sul Ross State 77-13 to clinch the American Southwest Conference bid. Darius Wilson led three rushers in triple figures for the Crusaders.
No. 10 Wabash jumped out to a 21-0 lead and held on to defeat Wittenberg 28-17 to win the North Coast Athletic Conference automatic bid. The Little Giants ran the ball 66 times for 243 yards in the win. Eighteenth-ranked Trinity (Texas) held off No. 25 Centre to win the SCAC 20-14. It was Centre's first loss, and it came after the Colonels had jumped out to a 14-0 lead. No. 21 Franklin had little trouble with Earlham, defeating the Quakers 55-0, and got some help from Mount St. Joseph, which defeated Hanover 41-23 to eliminate the Panthers from HCAC title consideration.
Dubuque got 212 rushing yards and four TDs from Justin Spaulding and Michael Zweifel caught 10 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns as the Spartans won the IIAC, defeating Coe 49-42. Christopher Newport picked off Ferrum quarterback Marcus Mayo three times in a 48-30 win, clinching the USA South. Benedictine clinched the NATHC for the second consecutive season, having to rally from a halftime deficit against Rockford, which lost its 20th game in a row. Norwich finished running the table in the ECFC and avenged a loss last season to win the conference championship 16-9 at SUNY-Maritime. Andrew Fulford and Kris Sabourin each went over 100 yards rushing.
These teams join the eight teams who clinched bids last week: Albion, Cal Lutheran, Johns Hopkins, Monmouth, St. Scholastica, St. Thomas, Thomas More and UW-Whitewater.
