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Mount Union 32 Augustana 7 by Dick Ross |
THE END OF AUTUMN
The short week before Thanksgiving was not a good one here in Cleveland as LTV Steel, which had gone into bankruptcy a second time last December and closed half of its Cleveland operation in an attempt to stay afloat, announced that it was running out of cash, credit and options and might be forced to shut down its remaining furnaces as early as December 4. Cleveland could soon join Pittsburgh, Youngstown and several others as "former" steelmaking towns. Playoff season football
requires an adjustment of the mental clock and an earlier start down the road, southeast
to Alliance. Although the weather has remained unseasonably mild, colder overnight Arriving in Alliance, the holiday break meant that parking was easier to come by, but the crowd at the Kresge Dining Commons seemed to be just as large as usual, swelled by Augustana navy blue and gold, who joined us in the serving line but were provided with a separate room, so that those who had made the six hour road trip could be together. Augustana is one of very few
small schools that offers majors in Swedish and Scandinavian studies. The school's
sports teams are officially known as the Vikings, in honor of their Nordic heritage, but
are popularly known as the "Augies." They arrive in Alliance representing
the Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), after a first round win over
Defiance (HCAC), back home in Rock Island. They After our last meeting,
Augustana's Coach retired and was replaced by Jim Barnes (Augustana '81), who had spent
the previous five years bringing temporary respectability back to the football program at
the
Mount won the coin toss and learning from the 1999 game, when they deferred, this time elected to receive, but were unable to move the ball past midfield. A punt by # 1, Sr. Rodney Chenos of Galloway/ Hilliard Davidson was downed, with a great play, by # 16, So. DB Matt Caponi of Pittsburgh/Baldwin at the Viking one-yard line. Augustana set up in their old fashioned single wing offense and held the football for more than five minutes, leaving the Raiders less than four and a half minutes of first quarter to work with, when they restarted from their own thirty, heading south.
Mount's offense first saw the
ball, in the second quarter, following an Augie punt, with 10:41 left. With the
luxury of even a tenuous lead, the Purple Pirates could work more deliberately, helping
the visitors wind the clock. Four minutes later, from the 27-yard line, Adamson
wound up, throwing from a crowd again, and found Jason Richards in the northeast corner
for what looked to be a touchdown as he bounced across the
On one of only four Augustana pass completions, a 24 yarder to the Mount 39, # 17 Jr. CB Chris Kern of Fairbault, Mn. came up hard to make the stop, was flipped up over his opponent by the force of the collision, and landed on his shoulder. I can't tell you how serious the injury was, from a dozen rows up, but I could see that Chris was in some serious pain. He did walk off at halftime and did not return. Three plays later the Rock Island men completed their second pass of the day to the Mount Union one-yard line, where they punched it across in their usual fashion, adding the conversion. The Mount Union offense got
the ball back on its own 32 with exactly one minute left. In the regular season,
Adamson had excelled in this situation, but this time he ran out of time and downs at the
south end
After a short series by Augustana, Adamson surrounded by defenders found Candle, crossing the field west to east for a 67-yard touchdown strike, down the far side with another toss that must have been forty yards in the air. The extra point was blocked but the Raiders were now up by 19, a good spot to be in against the Augie's fashioned, time consuming, offensive style. The Augie's next possession featured a quarterback sack by Rocky Coniglio and # 45 Sr. LB Stan Watson of Canfield/Austintown Fitch and the Vikings had to punt again, after three plays netting a seven-yard loss.
As the quarter ended, the Quad
Cities squad began to piece together their longest drive of the half. Mount made one first down and was able to put the ball in the end zone only with the right foot of Rodney Chenos but was able keep the Vikings off the scoreboard and to deprive them of valuable time. Augustana came back once more
and made it to midfield when throwing deep, # 13 Jr. Mike Miller of Cuyahoga Falls made an
over the shoulder catch, wrapped himself around the ball and tumbled to a stop like he'd
jumped from a moving train, at the Mount Union 29-yard line. That pretty much ended
the game, though there were still nearly seven minutes on the clock, Adamson, Moore and
Pugh were able to move the chains and wind the clock, ending the game by taking a knee,
inside the Augie 10. The game is at noon, the buffet opens at ten and all are welcome, the cost is $4.50. Game ticket cost is set by the NCAA: $9.00 for the covered stands and the center sections on the east side, $8.00 for all other seating - don't worry about a "sell out," General Admission will be sold even after all the seats are gone. Getting past Augustana and
their hard nosed winning tradition is a large relief, but six of the eight schools
remaining in the tournament, including Wittenberg, are former Stagg Bowl Champions.
The seventh is that school from New Jersey that's been there as often as we have.
Dick Ross
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Last Saturday's "Bye" in the post-season tournament was a gorgeous day and an
opportunity to finish cleaning the yard and put up the outdoor Christmas decorations. 
temperatures, and brisk winds have
removed all but the stubbornnest leaves from the hardwoods along the way. Leaving
Cleveland, just after 8:30 a.m., the sun was shinning brightly but much lower on the
southern horizon, with temperatures rising from the forties to the mid fifties.
Along the way we note that, except for the grass and scattered pines, the season has
passed through the greens and yellows of summer and the reds and oranges of autumn to the
charcoal still-life colors of winter. 
school is 2,175, about the same as
Mount; since they choose to list an exact number and they are currently on break between
their first and second ten week terms, it makes me wonder how often that number is
updated: by the term, monthly, weekly, daily or "as needed" like the old small
town where the sign painter went out to the city limits to record each birth, death, exit
or new arrival?
took the field today wearing yellow
trousers with white shirts and dark blue numerals traced in yellow, and yellow helmets
reading "Augies" in dark blue script, so no disrespect should be inferred by the
use of that name.
Kiltie-Boys Agricultural School (COW)
west of Massillon, by using techniques borrowed from Augustana and team purple. It's
nice that he was able to return home to coach at his Alma Mater, but I felt that if he'd
stayed at Wooster they might have, eventually, played us again. In a pre-game
interview Coach Barnes talked about the importance of tradition - today's game featured
teams who had participated in more than a third of the Stagg Bowls of the Modern era.
NCAA playoff limits, was
greeted by a smaller than usual pep band whose members had given up part of their holiday
to be on hand. 100% of Mount's gymnastic cheerleaders were also present "down
front."
Jr. QB Rob Adamson from Akron/Manchester put on a display of agility as he spun away from
a crowd of Augie defenders and got the ball upfield to # 9 WR Jason Candle, Sr. from
Salem/West Branch and, throwing through a crowd of coverage, to # 80 Sr. WR Jason Richards
of Columbia Station. Runs by # 31 Dan Pugh of Norwalk/St Paul, inside, and # 10 Sr.
Chuck Moore of Mogadore, outside, kept the defense honest until the final three-yard
touchdown toss to # 6 Jr. WR Derrick Leach from Summerfield/Shenandoah concluded the
70-yard drive. The ensuing kickoff burned the final seconds of the first period.
goal line. He was ruled down,
inside the last yard marker, where his hip hit the ground, and Chuck Moore was called on
for the final yard, leaping and diving across the line for six. Chenos upped the
count to 13, with the conversion, and it was Augustana's turn to head south. 
and Chenos was called to attempt a
forty yarder, his longest of the season, from the right hash mark. The skies began
to cloud up but, oddly, it felt as if the temperature continued to climb. With the
wind from the right and behind, Rod's kick was high enough, long enough but was a bit to
straight, did not hook, and was wide to the right.
Augustana received the second half kickoff but Mount's defense had their number. The
numbers on offense were 7, 9 & 10, as Adamson (7) hit Candle (9) for 52 yards to the
Augie eight. After a false start penalty Mount's fine offensive line opened up the
center for Chuck Moore's (10) 25th touchdown of the year on a 13-yard draw play.
Chenos upped the count to twenty, and the covered stands began to breathe easier.
Just when the Raider offense seemed content to end the day with handoffs, Adamson spotted
Candle once more for what was supposed to be a first down possession pass, Jason grabbed
it on the dead run, at the Augie 40, with nothing but grass anywhere near him he was
almost instantly in the end zone for six more. Attempting to get back the point that
was blocked, the Raiders went for two but were stopped well short.
The return was for three yards but will
probably get longer and longer when he tells the story to his grandchildren.