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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1230484, member: 289"] D3 SEMI-FINALS #1 WISCONSIN-WHITEWATER survived a comeback by #11 Linfield, 20-14. The Warhawks took a 14-0 halftime lead. Ryan Winske intercepted a first quarter pass and returned it to the Linfield 32. That set up an 8 yard pass from Matt Behrendt to Jake Kumerow for a 7-0 lead. Behrendt then hit halfback Matt Moore with a short pass early in the second quarter and moored took it in form 46 yards out. WW seemed to be in control of the game until the third quarter when the Wildcats suddenly erupted for two scores of their own. San Riddle passed 14 yards to Levi Altringer and then ran 14 yards for the second score. With five minute left in the game, “Moore broke two tackles, made a cut and outran a pair of defenders to the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown to give the Warhawks the lead. Linfield drove the ball into Warhawks territory, but junior defensive lineman John Flood sacked Sam Riddle on fourth-and-3, and senior defensive lineman Mykaell Bratchett recovered the fumble to give the ball back to UW-Whitewater with 1:51 left. Ratliffe iced the contest with a 23-yard run on second down.” (D3.com) "We earned it, to get here," said Moore. "It wasn't an easy road. We worked hard and played in close games and came out victorious." #3 MOUNT UNION hasn’t had too much experience with close games and they didn’t gain any beating #5 Wesley 70-21. If anything, the game wasn’t that close. It was 28-0 after the first period, 56-0 at halftime and 70-0 after three quarters. The Wolverines got three “make it look like we at least showed up” scores in the fourth quarter.. The result was disappointing considering that Wesley, after an 0-31 fourth quarter last year, had given the Purple Raiders a 59-62 scare. I’m sure Mount Union coach Vince Kehres remembered that game and kept the pedal to the mettle until he was convinced even Wesley couldn’t do anything about it. The Wolverines had rolled up some pretty good scores themselves, outscoring thirteen previous opponents 664-132, (51-10). But, this year, they were no match for Mount Union. Mount Union’s Kevin Burke and Wesley’s Joe Callahan were the #1-2 passers in the country in Division III. Both put up big numbers. Burke was 26 for 41 for 415 yards and Callahan was 39 for 69 for 440 yards. But for Burke it produced 7 touchdown passes and one interception and for Callahan it produced 1 TD and four interceptions, one of which was returned 85 yards for a touchdown. Burke also ran for 52 yards and a score while Callahan had -20 yards due to 5 sacks. Wesley also lost two fumbles . Mount Union’s record over the last two decades is amazing: [url]http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_iii/oac/mount_union/yearly_totals.php[/url] Since they first won the DIII title in 1990, they have a record of 330 wins and 15 losses to go with 1 tie, (remember ties?). They have outscored their opposition 15,222-3,927, an average of 44-11. They have won 80 games by 50 points or more, 21 of those by 60 points or more and three of those by 70 points or more. Their record in the DII playoffs in this period is 83-12 with 11 national championships. But they have a nemesis, Wisconsin-Whitewater: [url]http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/incomplete_data/year_by_year_current.php?teamid=3622[/url] They’ve been pretty good for a long time but in the last decade, they became the first Division II team to really challenge Mount Union’s Dominance. They’ve even come to dominate the dominators. The Warhawks lost the first two times they faced the Purple Raiders, 28-35 and 16-35. Then, in 2007 they broke through and won 31-21. Then Mount Union, from their point of view, restored order with a 31-26 win in 2008. Sure that was the end of it. But it wasn’t. Amazingly, they met three more years in a row for a total of seven straight champion ship confrontations. Even more amazingly, Whitewater beat Mount Union three times in a row, 38-28, 31-21 and 13-10. At that point, they actually had the lead in the series, 4-3. The combined points were 183-181. It was the greatest championship rivalry in the history of sports! But it was also getting boring. The DIII title game used to be a chance to see a lot of different teams who are normally just scores in the Sunday papers. In the first 32 years of the champion ship games, 26 different schools made it to the championship game. In the last ten years only three schools have: Mount Union, Whitewater and St. Thomas of Minnesota who slipped in when Whitewater had a rare, (very rare) off year with 3 losses in 2012. Mount Union was there to beat them, 28-10 for their 11th title, but at least we had a little variety. Last year White righted the ship and we had MU-WW III. The result was shocking. Mount Union, the team that always slaughters the opposition, got slaughtered 52-14. We’d gone from a wide-open era to the Mount Union Era to the Mount Union-Whitewater Era to the Whitewater Era. What’s interesting is that while Whitewater has come to dominate even Mount Union, they haven’t been as dominant as Mount Union. Since 2005, they are 136-8. They have out-scored their opposition 5,279-1,719, (37-12). They are 32-2 in the playoffs. They have beaten 11 teams by 50 or more point, 6 of those by 60+, none by 70. That’s very impressive but this year’s Mount Union team has beaten 10 teams by 50+ points. The obvious conclusion is that Mount Union comes from a weaker conferences but, historically the Ohio Conference has been the most prestigious DIII conference, producing several national champions and contenders. But when they face off against each other, Whitewater has tended to dominate the line of scrimmage. They seem to be more of a running team and pound away at the Purple Raiders while the Mount Union quarterback is like Peyton Manning against the Patriots or Seahawks: he has to do things faster and thus without his usual efficiency. Now we have MU-WW IX. This Mount Union team seems better than last year’s team. Last year they out-scored 15 opponents 700-318. This year they’ve outscored 14 opponents 844-130. That 844 is the most points scored in college football history, breaking the record of Division II’s Pittsburg State in 2004, (please note that Pittsburg State lost the D2 final that year to Valdosta State, 31-36). The improvement of the defense from 318 to 130 points may be more significant. Despite all the blow-outs they’ve won this year, the Purple Raiders have never been ranked #1 and even dipped to #3 in the final poll when John Carroll gave them the first of two close battles. People won’t believe in them as the country’s best team until they beat Whitewater. The Finals match-up: WISCONSIN-WHITEWATER 14-0, (558-149), Ranked #1 post season record: 42-7 (5 titles) Vs. MOUNT UNION (Ohio) 14-0, (844-130) ranked #3, post season record: 85-13 (11 titles) The game will be played Friday, December 19th at 7PM in Salem Virginia on ESPNU (TWC Syracuse channel 370) If you watch the game, you’ll notice the teams, other than being in home and road uniforms, look startlingly alike: [url]http://lubbockonline.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/10760289.jpg[/url] [url]http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000GZiCXfPbiIo/s/750/750/M3F2008C024.jpg[/url] They have similar colors and, except for Whitewater’s dark pants, a similar look. Basically I think both these teams have risen to the level of dominance they have by building up facilities beyond what was intended for Division III, even if they can’t formally issue scholarships. I suspect they are both much stronger than D3 champions of previous eras because they have built the equivalent of D2 or higher programs. I think the NCAA should think about moving schools up and down form division to division based on competitiveness. Whitewater and Mount Union should be seeing how they can do against the D2 teams. D2 schools that have been unsuccessful at competing at that level should be moved down to D3. The same could be done at other levels. Mount Union Whitewater IX should make it clear to anybody that something here is out of whack. [/QUOTE]

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