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| Another year, another NACC AQ for AU. Photo by Steve Woltmann for Aurora athletics |
Susquehanna, Aurora and Salisbury each clinched automatic bids, while the Presidents' Athletic Conference and Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference each got a week closer to resolution in action among teams ranked in the D3football.com Top 25 on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.
There remain 28 total automatic bids to be handed out, with the 12 at-large bids all determined by the NCAA's new NCAA Power Index (NPI) for Division III. The top 12 teams in that metric at the end of the season that do not get automatic bids will receive at-large bids to the playoffs. Those bids and the bracket will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 17.
Tyler Adkins completed 30 of his 41 passes for 389 yards and six touchdowns as Aurora clinched the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference automatic bid, defeating Benedictine 56-20. Ten players caught passes for the Spartans, who improved to 8-1, 7-0. And Moravian gave Susquehanna a run before the River Hakws pulled away to a 49-34 win, giving Susquehanna two conference titles in two years of Landmark Conference football. Susquehanna scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to outlast the Greyhounds (5-3, 3-1 Landmark).
No. 17 Carnegie Mellon and No. 19 Washington & Jefferson each struck blows in the race for the Presidents' Athletic Conference title on Saturday as the Tartans rolled past Westminster (Pa.) 45-20 and the Presidents defeated Case Western Reserve 34-21. Tre Vasiliadis ran for a game-high 187 yards for the Tartans (7-1, 7-1 PAC) and the CMU defense held the Titans (6-2, 6-2) to 52 yards on the ground in the win. For the Presidents (8-1, 8-1), Jacob Pugh threw for 340 yards and three scores and Kobe Derosa ran for two more TDs in the win. Dawson Dietz had a game-high three sacks and Brandon Brown picked off two passes for W&J. It's the second loss for Case after a 6-0 start.
No. 13 Grove City had little trouble keeping pace in the PAC, as Logan Pfeuffer went 21-for-26 for 285 yards and three touchdowns and Caleb Brubaker had an 82-yard pick-six in a 51-0 win at Waynesburg. Brubaker's interception return was Grove City's sixth defensive touchdown of the season, most in Division III this season. Through Saturday's action, W&J, Carnegie Mellon and Grove City are each tied with one loss in the conference standings, and each team has split against the other two.
Maddox Pratt kicked a 25-yard field goal with 55 seconds to play and Carver Cram intercepted Adam Moen at the 8-yard line on the final play of the game as UW-La Crosse knocked UW-Stout out of the first-place tie in the WIAC, defeating the Blue Devils 33-31. UW-Platteville and UW-Oshkosh remain tied for first at 4-1 in the WIAC, with La Crosse, Stout and Whitewater each a game back, at 3-2. Whitewater defeated River Falls 13-7 to remain in the conference's top five, while River Falls fell to 2-3 in conference play.
Jackson Chryst ran for a touchdown and Jackson Fox kicked two field goals, all of which came in the second quarter of the Warhawks' 13-7 win. Fox's first field goal was from 48 yards. River Falls had two drives get into Warhawk territory in the fourth quarter but Ethan Gallagher and Braeden Barrett teamed up to sack Riley Warzynski on the first drive and the Whitewater defense held on fourth down as Paul Kim rushed Cade Fitzgerald into an incomplete pass on fourth-and-2 from the 27. Whitewater was able to run out the final 6:56 of the game for the win.
No. 8 Platteville had little trouble with UW-Stevens Point in a 42-14 win, while No. 9 UW-Oshkosh won at UW-Eau Claire, 42-31.
One year after Johns Hopkins topped the Mules with an improbable offensive (or was it special teams?) touchdown on the final play of the game, the Hopkins defense took its turn as junior Carson Bourdo returned an interception 70 yards on the final play to seal a 26-13 victory against Muhleberg. Bourdo's touchdown capped another remarkable performance by the Blue Jay defense, which forced three, second-half turnovers and held the Mules 32 points and nearly 200 yards under their season averages entering the game. All three turnovers were forced inside Blue Jay territory, including a fumble inside the Blue Jay 5-yard line on the Mules' first drive of the second half.