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Mount Union 66 Bridgewater 0 by Dick Ross |
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STAYIN' ALIVE Saturday dawned sunny, bright and cold under partly cloudy skies. The trip "home" to Alliance was quick and uneventful as we rounded the Ravenna bypass. The spot, north of town, where I nearly killed myself on a motorcycle in 1966 always brings back memories and today it marks the half way spot on the journey. The line for the campus center buffet was already well past the lounge, by 9:30, and all of the furniture had been removed from the hallway to make room for some large community event scheduled for later.
Our opponent today is Bridgewater College of Virginia, established in 1880
as Spring Creek Normal Institute by Daniel Christian Flory, a graduate of
the University of Virginia and a progressive leader of the German Church of
the Brethren. Nine years later the school was reorganized, renamed
Bridgewater and chartered by the Commonwealth to grant four year
undergraduate degrees. The college remained fairly small into the 20th
century, absorbing Daleville College of Virgina in 1923 and Blue Ridge
College of Bridgewater determined early that it would be a residential college and its tradition is based on piety, pacifism, and the honor system of the University of Virginia. Their sports teams are known as the Eagles, with uniforms copied from the more well known BC Eagles of Boston College, maroon and gold. As the visitors they took the field, in white jerseys with maroon numerals, traced in black, gold trousers and gold helmets with a black stripe down the center.
The Purple Raiders wore their playoff black tops, with purple numerals
outlined in black, and the always popular purple pants. Bridgewater
won the toss and with its much vaunted defense, elected to receive.
Mount's first two drives ended in turnovers but the second one left the Virginia Eagles deep in the Hartshorn end. More than halfway through the first quarter "at least we're not behind," I said, with the score still all zeros. Snapping from the wrong side of the extra point line, the Bridgewater quarterback, dodging tacklers in the end zone, tossed one out to the first down marker and suddenly Sr. DB Andrew Doak of Uniontown/Green zipped through the picture and was into the Miller Hall corner, where the victory bell now resides, inside the brick fence. Jr. PK George Wilders of Loveland/Kings plunked the ball through the uprights and the number clicked over to "7" on the left side of the scoreboard.
Bridgewater held the ball for three plays and had to punt. The kick
was partially blocked and Mount Union took over at the visitors 40-yard
line. What happened next, I believe, was the defining moment in the
After the conversion by Wilders and the kickoff by Jr. PK Chad Teague of Orrville, the Blue Ridge boys mounted their best drive of the day: nine-plays, 62-yards. Unfortunately, for them, it ended just inside the Raider 20 when Sr. LB Anthony Frate of Mentor forced a fumble, covered by Sr. CB Mike Miller of Cuyahoga Falls. The next two drives ended inconclusively, until Burghardt got "The Machine" back in gear carrying the ball himself, handing off to Jr. RB Jeff Strauch of Avon Lake, and tossing the last 16 yards to Knapp, crossing right to left, for his third of the day.
Bridgewater got moving again, down to the Mount 25. A sack by So. DE
Justen Stickley of Massillon/Jackson caused a fumble recovered by Sr. DE
Jason McElhaney of Pulaski, PA, giving Bruney another turn with 1:37 left.
Zac did a bunch of "scrambling" and, with the help of a carry by Strauch,
one timeout and a completion to Knapp, hit Sr. WR Nick Sirianni of
Jamestown, NY by the north end 25-second clock. After the conversion
by Wilders, out of the "hold" by Bruney, Mount Union handed the ball back to
the As I've said before, there's not much happening at halftime in playoff games. This week, a group behind me passed the time handing around box lunches, saran wrapped sandwiches and Thermos bottles while the pep band played "Sweet Georgia Brown." I listened to Ric Brienza interview Chuck Moore, whose 95-yard Stagg Bowl touchdown run contributed to our first victory over Bridgewater. I'd seen Hugh Jae, my old French Prof, at the Brunch. Hugh still holds the regular season record, at the same distance.
Continuing the quarterback rotation, Burghardt got the first "go" of the
second half and only took two plays to hit Sirianni in the south end zone.
One three-yard run and two incompletions, hurried along by Sr.
DE Johnny
Josef of Mogadore, Bridgewater lined up to punt. Mike Miller whose
name had already been The Eagles followed with a short series and then got their punt away. So. WR Scott Casto of Uniontown/Green returned the 32-yard punt 30 yards and shortly thereafter Burghardt hit Sirianni for his third touchdown reception of the day, Burghardt's fourth as the passer.
When a machine like Mount Union's current program gets going, it's sometimes
hard to slow it down. Stickley registered a quarterback sack, causing a
fumble, picked up by So. SS Ken Whitfield of Strongsville, who lugged the
ball 42 yards for the ninth touchdown of the day.
If the rules allowed, the final period might have been canceled. It
was played Saturday, mostly for the benefit of the parents section and the
kids who hadn't played yet. To hold the score down Wilders got a
couple of field goal attempts and made one, to explain the final score.
Out of all of those who tried to predict the game, no one, on either side,
expected this outcome. Among the records broken today, Knapp set a new single season record for receiving yards with 1,459 in the first half, breaking the 1999 mark set by Adam Marino.
Even though Mount Union broke it's own record, "stayin' alive" with 55
straight wins, 109 out of the last
110 games, there weren't many left, except those who'd come by bus, at the
end. The goal, of course, is at least 56 and one more championship.
Next week the Purple Raiders will face St. John's University of Minnesota, winner of the Western Region, and our opponent in the "Y2K" Stagg Bowl. This is our eighth trip to Virginia. In the last 10 years, we have played more games there than we have at any location, other than our home field on Hartshorn Street. We will be the visiting team and sit on the east side. The usual Friday night gathering has been planned for the Wyndham Roanoke Airport Hotel, and there will be both pregame and postgame activities in the Salem Stadium parking lot and the usual bus trips are also planned.
For more information
contact the College Office of Alumni Activities at (330) 823-2030, (800)
992-6683 Ext. 2030 or e-mail alumni@muc.edu
or check the web sites:
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Maryland, between 1930 and 1944, to build to their current enrollment of
1,100. Among the features that they take pride in are their stables
and equestrian program. Looking at the pictures on their web site, I
saw a brick and stone entrance that looked very much like the State Street
gate to Mount Union.
Mount Union got the ball and, appropriately, the north end, in mid twenties
temperatures in front of a crowd that numbered 3,782, in spite of five bus
loads from Virginia.
game. Jr. QB Zac Bruney of Martins Ferry scrambled to his right and
was pushed across the sideline, headlong through the "off duty" Purple
Raider defense, and into one of the steel benches on the home side. A
penalty flag went up almost instantly, dissolving a knot of potential
ugliness as players from both teams gaggled at the spot. Zac hopped up
and went back out, the 15-yard penalty gave the Raiders a first down.
A Bruney toss to Sr. WR Randell Knapp of Kent/Field gave them a touchdown
and the incident seemed to galvanize the Mount "D" though I doubted they
needed any further motivation. The Wilders kick ended the scoring for
the first quarter. The final play was a one-yard run by Sr. QB Jesse
Burghardt of Uniontown/Lake to the Eagles 40-yard line, after a nice kick
return by Jr. WR Jason Cavell of Concord/Painesville Riverside.
Mount Union's first play was familiar: Burghardt to Knapp, outrunning his
man, all the way to the north goal post, for the score.
Refs with 36 seconds change.
called several times, made the block giving the ball
back to the offense at the Bridgewater 25. Strauch took it from there
on six straight handoffs into the opponents storied line, upping the count
to 49, as Bridgewater quietly imploded.
