|
| Pressure from Luke Schuermann on fourth down with 1:12 to play helped ensure that Johns Hopkins was able to escape on Friday night against Centennial Conference rival Muhlenberg. Photo by Mike Atherton, d3photography.com |
No. 8 Johns Hopkins held off Muhlenberg, while No. 3 UW-Whitewater kept No. 19 UW-Oshkosh at bay in front of a record crowd in Division III football action on Friday night.
- Week 7 scoreboard
- Friday night: Big games, big crowds
- Week 7 Top 25 wrapup
- Full week 7 wrapup
- Even more game stories
Johns Hopkins scored touchdowns on its first five possessions and then held off a furious rally by visiting Muhlenberg as the Blue Jays topped the Mules, 34-27, at Homewood Field Friday night. The win, JHU's first in the series since 2018, improves the Blue Jays to 6-0, 5-0 in the Centennial Conference while the Mules fell to 3-3, 3-2.
At Whitewater, Wisconsin, the Warhawks topped No. 19 UW-Oshkosh 17-3 in front of 18,951 fans, the fourth-largest recorded crowd in Division III football history and the largest crowd for a D-III game held on campus.
No. 8 Johns Hopkins scored touchdowns on its first five possessions and then held off a furious rally by visiting Muhlenberg as the Blue Jays topped the Mules, 34-27, at Homewood Field Friday night. The win, JHU's first in the series since 2018, improves the Blue Jays to 6-0, 5-0 in the Centennial Conference while the Mules fell to 3-3, 3-2.
After the teams battled evenly to a 14-all tie through the first 20 minutes of the game, the Blue Jays took control with a 20-point run that gave them the 34-14 lead early in the third quarter.
The 20-point lead held until late in the third quarter, when the Mules capitalized on an Alex Batista interception at the Blue Jay 38-yard line. It took just three plays for the Mules to turn the interception into a touchdown as Joe Repetti found Thomas Jenkins down the middle from 15-yards out to pull the Mules within 34-20.
After forcing a Blue Jay punt, Muhlenberg then pieced together an eight-play, 84-yard drive that Repetti capped with a 9-yard strike to James Nye in the back of the end zone with just over nine minutes remaining.
The Blue Jays proceeded to eat more than six minutes off the clock on their ensuing possession as they started at their 20 and worked their way to the Muhlenberg 19. The Blue Jays converted on a pair of fourth-downs – one from their own 29 and another on a fake punt from the Muhlenberg 49 - that kept the drive alive. A 34-yard run by Emmett Turner on the fake punt set the Blue Jays up at the Muhlenberg 15 with less than four minutes remaining, but the Mule defense stiffened and forced a field goal attempt that was blocked.
Taking over at their own 23, the Mules worked their way out to midfield, but a completed pass resulted in a two-yard loss and three straight incompletions sealed the win for the Blue Jays. Chris Bedell batted away one of those attempts and PJ Penders knocked away Repetti's fourth-down pass to Jenkins with 1:14 on the clock and the Blue Jays kneeled it out for the victory.
Wolf rushed for a game-high 130 yards and two touchdowns and Stevens added 80 yards rushing and the one score and threw for 139 and two others. Wolf and Stevens powered a rushing attack that generated 309 yards on the night for Johns Hopkins.
Duncan Van Kouteren and Ross Andersson paced the Blue Jay defense with 10 tackles apiece, while Seidel and Matt Dubois each had interceptions. The Johns Hopkins limited the Mules to 77 yards rushing in the victory.
For Whitewater, the lead was 10-0 after the second play of the second quarter. Kyle Koelblinger later picked off Oshkosh quarterback Kobe Berghammer and the Warhawks recovered a muffed punt before the Titans were finally able to get on the board with a 39-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter.
UW-W forced a punt on Oshkosh's first drive of the second half and Tyler Holte gave the Warhawks great field position with a 31-yard return to the UW-O 43. Preston Strasburg registered his second touchdown run of the night bouncing it up the middle from 9 yards out. The kick made it 17-0 Whitewater with 8:08 left in the third.
Jaylon Edmonson ran for 107 yards for the Warhawks.