College Football | Facts and figures for Saturday's Mount Union-North Central game
Mount Union continues the quest for its 14th NCAA Division III football national championship against the North Central (Ill.) Cardinals in the semifinals. Here are eight things to know about the matchup:
Kickoff
Noon Saturday at Mount Union Stadium. Tickets are available online through Hometown Ticketing and at the gate for $8 (cash only). Gates open at 10:30 a.m.
On the air
The game will be broadcast live on WDPN-AM (1310 AM) and WRMU-FM (91.1). A live stream is also available at ESPN+ but viewers must have a subscription.
The history
This is the third meeting between Mount Union and North Central, all in the postseason. The Purple Raiders won at home 41-40, in the 2013 national semifinals. The Cardinals scored a 59-52 win at Mount Union in the 2019 national semifinals. North Central went on to defeat Wisconsin-Whitewater in the Stagg Bowl the next week.
Road to the playoffs
North Central (12-0), ranked No.1 in the country by AFCA, won the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin championship to earn the automatic bid to the playoffs. The Cardinals' opening-round postseason game against Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) was canceled because of COVID protocols. North Central defeated No. 11 Wisconsin-La Crosse 34-20 in the second round and No. 18 Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.Y.) 55-6 in the quarterfinals.
Fourth-ranked Mount Union won its 32nd Ohio Athletic Conference title to earn one of 27 automatic playoff bids. The Purple Raiders defeated Washington & Lee 52-0 in the first round, No. 16 Johns Hopkins 45-35 and No. 13 Muhlenberg 35-29 in overtime last Saturday.
Postseason history
This is the 13th appearance for North Central and it is 20-11 all-time. The Cardinals won the 2019 Stagg Bowl, 41-14 over Wisconsin-Whitewater. Mount Union is 107-18 in 32 playoff appearances with 13 national championships.
The coaches
Geoff Dartt is 17-0 in his second season at Mount Union. Jeff Thorne is 64-9 in his fourth season at North Central.
Scouting the Cardinals
Located in Naperville, Ill., about one hour west of Chicago, North Central has an enrollment of approximately 3,000 students. The Cardinals have the longest winning streak in Division III — 23 — and lead the nation in scoring offense (57.2). QB Broc Rutter, who tormented the Purple Raiders in 2019, has graduated, but there are a handful of holdovers. The most obvious are WR Andrew Kamienski, who caught 12 passes for 256 yards and four TDs in 2019, and RB Ethan Greenfield, who rushed for 130 yards and two TDs in the game. On defense, DB Jake Beesly intercepted a pass in the end zone with seven seconds remaining to seal the 2019 win.
The Cardinals' QB this season is freshman Luke Lenhen, who has thrown for 3,001 yards and 30 touchdowns. He has the nation's top efficiency rating (197.30). Greenfield has rushed for 1,481 yards and 23 TDs this season, and Kamienski has 66 receptions for 1,144 yards and 11 TDs.
Scouting the Purple Raiders
Mount Union (13-0) rallied from a 21-9 second-half deficit last week to defeat Muhlenberg in overtime. The Purple Raiders have been tested by better-than-average passing attacks, giving up 486 yards to Brody Hahn of Ohio Northern, 386 to Ryan Stevens of Johns Hopkins and 313 to Drew Sims of Heidelberg. However the Purple Raiders have been almost impossible to run against, and LB Mason McMillen and DT Duke Hill have been beasts against the run and wth the pass rush. The secondary has battled through injuries and, led by DB Malik Britt, were much stronger last week.
Offensively, Mount Union can't give away Red Zone opportunities like they did last week. The Raiders scored on just 4-of-8 trips inside Muhlenberg's 20-yard line, though one score was negated when Wayne Ruby Jr. was ruled out of bounds at the 3-yard line on a questionable call. That drive ended with an interception in the end zone.
Mount Union also needs to play better on special teams. Last week the Raiders had a missed extra point, a muffed punt return and a poor punt snap that led to Muhlenberg's tying score late in the fourth quarter.
Junior QB Braxton Plunk has completed 343-of-479 passes for 4,284 yards and 41 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. The running back tandem of senior Josh Petruccelli and DeAndre Parker have accounted for 1,762 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns. WRs Wayne Ruby Jr. (101 catches, 1414 yards, 13 TDs), Derrick Harvey Jr. (54-716-7) and Jaden Manley (41-612-8) are a terrific trio of targets. McMillen and Hill continue to anchor the defense with McMillen leading the team with 94 tackles and Hill with 17.5 tackles for loss, including a team-best 5.5 sacks. Britt leads the team with six interceptions.
Up next
The winner of this game will advance to the Stagg Bowl at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton on December 17 against either No. 2-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) or Wisconsin-Whitewater. Those teams play in Saturday's other semifinal at 3:30 p.m.
Playoff tidbits
The four teams remaining have won every Division III national championship since 2005, and at least one has played in every Stagg Bowl since 2000. … In the 20 tournaments since the turn of the century, Mount Union has 17 appearances and nine victories; Whitewater has 10 appearances and six wins; UMHB has four appearances and two wins, and NCC has one appearance and one win. … St. John's (Minn.) and Linfield have the other two championships, in 2003 and 2004, respectively. … UMHB's 2016 championship was vacated by the NCAA due to violations self-reported by the school. … The 2022 Stagg Bowl will be played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., with future games at Salem, Va. and Humble, Texas, before returning to Canton in 2025.
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Mount Union plays in the semifinals of the NCAA Division III playoffs on December 11
