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No. 8 must wait - for now

 
Saint John’s dashes Mount’s hopes for 8th national title with 24-6 upset

     SALEM, Va. - Saint John’s defense ended Mount Union’s defense of its three national titles here Saturday.

     When Saint John’s defensive back Mike Zauhar returned a Jesse Burghardt interception 100 yards for a Johnnies touchdown, it ended Mount Union’s three-year run as the top team in NCAA Division III football.

     Zauhar’s pick was just one of several big defensive plays turned in by Saint John’s as they claimed a 24-6 victory over the Purple Raiders here Saturday in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.

     “We got outplayed today,” said Mount Union head coach Larry Kehres.  “We lost to a team that played an exceptionally good game.  Their defense really had control of us most of the time.  We failed to get some scores when we were close.  It was poor play on our part, but it was very good play on Saint John’s part.”

     The Johnnies’ defense held the Raiders to just 286 yards of total offense - well below their average of 541.7 yards per game.  That included just 91 yards on the ground and 195 through the air, but held leading receiver Randell Knapp to just one catch and intercepted Burghardt and Zac Bruney a combined four times.

     “Our defense is always trying to make a statement,” said Johnnies linebacker Cameron McCambridge.  “We definitely had something to prove today.”

     The Johnnies had suffered losses in the two teams’ three previous meetings, including a 10-7 last-second decision in the 2000 Stagg Bowl.

     On Saturday, Saint John’s made sure it didn’t come down to a the wire as it scored 24 unanswered points, including touchdowns on a Blake Elliott 51-yard run and Zauhar’s return in a span of 4:32 in the fourth quarter.

     It all amounted to Mount Union’s worst loss since 1989 when the John Carroll topped it 31-7.  In allowing just the six points, Saint John’s held the Raiders to their lowest point total since 1982 in a 6-3 win over the College of Wooster.

     “We knew we were going to beat them,” said Johnnies quarterback Ryan Keating.  “We were very confident.  Fifty-five games they’ve won? That’s a lot of games in a row.  But someone had to knock them off, and it might as well be us.

     “We knew our defense was tough.  We knew they would have a tough time moving the ball.  And we know our offense can be tough.”

     The key for the Johnnies (14-0) though was definitely its defensive effort as Zauhar’s interception early in the fourth quarter propelled them to their first national crown since 1976.

     With Saint John’s holding a 17-6 lead following the 51-yard jaunt by Elliott, the Raiders marched 42 yards in 11 plays, reaching the Johnnies’ one-yard line.

     After two straight tries to get into the end zone on the ground, Kehres called for a pass play to Knapp that was picked off by Zauhar and returned the length of the field, setting a Stagg Bowl record for the longest play.

     “That was a bad call on my part,” admitted Kehres.  “I just put Jesse in a position that was impossible for him to get out of.”

     However, up until that point, the Raiders had held out belief that they could come back to earn their fourth straight national title and the program’s eighth overall.

     “We still felt pretty confident,” said Mount Union defensive back Mike Miller.  “We had been in this position before.  We hadn’t been in it this year, but there have been games in the past when we needed scores late to win and we came through.”

     But it wasn’t meant to be on Saturday as the Saint John’s defense picked off two more passes late in the game to end all hopes of a comeback and ended collegiate football’s all-time winning streak at 55 games.

     “I didn’t think anyone would be able to ever stop them,” said Saint John’s coach John Gagliardi, who now has an all-time best 414-114-24 career record.  “But what we did today doesn’t compare to what Mount Union has done.”

     The Raiders accumulated 109 yards to 19 for the Johnnies in a scoreless first quarter.  It was the first time the Raiders had failed to score in the first frame since 2001.

     However, 73 of Mount Union’s first-quarter yards were earned at the end of the frame and it capitalized on that drive on the first snap of the second quarter when Rick Ciccone, making his first appearance in 10 quarters, plunged into the end zone from one yard out.

     George Wilders’ PAT kick was blocked and the Raiders held a 6-0 lead with 14:57 left in the first half.

     The score remained the same for most of the remainder of the first half, but as the clock hit triple zeros, Johnnies running back Jake Theis rumbled into the end zone from 14 yards out on a screen pass from Keating to cap a 14-play, 73-yard drive.

     The score was the first second-quarter touchdown surrendered by Mount Union this season and switched the momentum to Saint John’s who took a 7-6 lead at halftime following a Brandon Keller PAT.

     “That was an outstanding play,” said Kehres.  “It didn’t help us and it was definitely a big momentum swing for them, If we stop that play, we’re still ahead.”

     “That play was huge,” said Keating.  “It showed them that we could score on them and it showed us we could score on them.”

     Saint John’s extended its lead to 10-6 when Keller hit a 22-yard field goal with 1:58 remaining in the third quarter and Elliott’s long run early in the fourth quarter helped put the Raiders in a deeper hole.

     Elliott, who was named the game’s MVP and will be presented with the Gagliardi Award later this week in Collegeville, Minn., rushed for 110 yards on 11 carries with a pulled hamstring, one of several injuries the Johnnies were nursing during the game.

     For the Raiders, Nick Sirianni caught eight passes for a game-high 108 yards, giving him 998 yards on the year.  Bruney went 3-of-12 for 28 yards and two interceptions and Burghardt finished 13-of-23 for 167 yards and two interceptions.  Jeff Strauch was limited to 38 yards on 10 totes.

St. John's 24     Mount Union 6

Scoring

Individual Statistics

Rushing - Mount Union, Strauch 10-38, Miller 4-16, Bruney 6-13, Ciccone 8-12, Burghardt 9-12;  Saint John’s, Elliott 11-110, Nelson 14-69, Theis 14-69, Good 1-7, Team 1-(-1), Keating 7-(-7).

Passing - Mount Union, Burghardt 23-13-2-167, Bruney 12-3-2-28;  Saint John’s, Keating 16-10-0-91.  

Receiving - Mount Union, Sirianni 8-106, Healy 3-52, B. Miller 2-15, Hanley 1-12, Knapp 1-8, Strauch 1-2;  Saint John's, Elliott 5-51, Flenner 2-15, Nelson 2-9, Clintsman 1-16. 

  *By Jack R. Weber Jr.  Appeared in The Alliance Review 12-22-03; photos by Bill Gough.