Playoff rematch: Ashland University set to face Notre Dame College for second time

The Ashland University football team is back in the NCAA Division II playoffs.

The Eagles, 9-1 overall and the outright Great Midwest Athletic Conference champion, earned the No. 4 seed in Super Region 1 and will play host to Notre Dame College at 1 p.m. Saturday at Jack Miller Stadium.

The game will be a rematch of Ashland’s season opener on Sept. 1 when the Eagles defeated the then-No. 10-ranked Falcons 31-14.

Ashland was the No. 12 team in the final regular season American Football Coaches Association Division II national poll. Notre Dame, 9-2, is ranked No. 24 after returning to the top 25 for the first time since Oct. 3.

There's still football to play: Ashland clinches G-MAC football title; playoffs next

“I’d rather have had someone new but we don’t get to choose,” Ashland coach Lee Owens said. “I’ve found it to be very difficult to beat the same team twice. All the incentive is for Notre Dame to beat us because we won the last time.

“Does it create a false sense of confidence for us? Because this will be a different team that we play now. We have to prepare differently. It’s not the team we beat by two touchdowns.”

AU has made seven previous appearances in the Division II postseason — 1986, 1997, 2007-08, 2012, 2015 and 2017. The only two Ashland playoff wins have come at home — in 2008 over Minnesota State in their final season at Community Stadium, and in 2017 over Northwest Missouri State at Jack Miller Stadium.

The Falcons, who won their fifth consecutive Mountain East Conference title Saturday with a 27-3 victory at Alderson Broaddus, are in the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

In 2018, NDC was the top seed in the region. After a bye, the Falcons won two games and reached the NCAA semifinals.

In 2019, NDC again won two games and got to the regional final. After COVID-19 canceled the 2020 tournament, NDC defeated Slippery Rock in the first round last season.

With the win over Alderson Broaddus, NDC reached nine wins for the fifth time in the last six full-length seasons.

“This will be a real challenge for us,” Owens said. “We’re excited to be at home, that’s probably the real positive. There’s a huge advantage being here, there’s no question about that. There’s a comfort zone when you’re home.”

After losing the opener to AU, Notre Dame won four in a row before losing 33-30 in double overtime on Oct. 8 at Frostburg State. Since that loss, the Falcons have won five in a row heading into the playoffs.

Against Ashland, quarterback Chris Brimm was 19-of-34 passing for 184 yards. Brimm, who has 56 career starts at NDC, has completed 178 of 306 attempts for 2,423 yards with 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2022.

Since the AU loss, Brimm’s offense has scored at least 27 points in every game.

Running back Idris Lawrence, who carried 18 times for 83 yards against AU, has rushed for 954 yards and eight TDs.

The leading receiver is Jeremy Hamilton, who has 49 catches for 607 yards with four scores. Brimm’s top target against Ashland was tight end Reece Perkins, who had four receptions for 79 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown.

On defense, linebacker Nathan Moore is the leading tackler with 109, 15 tackles for loss and four sacks. Defensive end Teddy Tiokeng has 14.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks.

Over the last three weeks, Notre Dame has outscored its opponents 84-9, with the defense allowing just one touchdown in that span.

“They do what they do,” Owens said. “They’ve just gotten better at it. With just one loss in that league, it’s typical Notre Dame. They’re aggressive. They’re well coached.

“They’ve got a quarterback who has maybe won more games than any Division II quarterback ever. That’s no exaggeration. He’s got an unbelievable amount of playoff experience and that program has had a ton of playoff experience.”

Ashland finished the regular season with a G-MAC title in its second season in the league, beating Lake Erie 31-23 and then Kentucky Wesleyan 41-10 after having a seven-game winning streak broken at Hillsdale.

AU quarterback Austin Brenner earned his second G-MAC Athlete of the Week honor this season for his performance against Wesleyan, a game in which Brenner had more touchdown passes than incompletions.

He finished 10-of-14 passing for 112 yards and five TDs passing, and added 44 yards rushing on five attempts.

Going into the postseason, he has completed 64.6 percent of his passes for 1,737 yards, 17 touchdowns and six interceptions, and has rushed for 265 yards and three TDs.

Brenner passed for 128 yards against NDC, starting for the first time since a season-ending injury in 2021. The Eagles gained 323 yards on the ground in that game, as Gei’vonni Washington had 150 rushing yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, and Larry Martin gained 122 yards with two touchdowns on 10 carries.

With Washington sidelined the last couple weeks, Martin has been a workhorse. He carried 40 times for 240 yards against Lake Erie, then had 135 yards on 18 carries against Kentucky Wesleyan to earn his first collegiate 1,000-yard season.

“If we get (Geo) back it would be a huge bonus for us because we’re putting a lot on Larry’s shoulders,” Owens said. “As we saw in game one, that was such a one-two combination. When they’re both healthy, boy, our run game is really, really good.

“But I think we throw the ball a little better now. Brenner’s knocked some of the rust off. I think every week he’s been more efficient.

“We are who we are. We want to be physical. We want to have a run game. We want to play a clean game and we’ve got a good defense. It’s not like we have to score every time we have the football. It’s been a formula that’s worked most of the year.”

Top seed Indiana, Pa., which has a first-round bye, awaits the winner of a Saturday's game between AU and NDC.

In the other half of the Super Region 1 bracket, No. 2 seed Shepherd (10-1) will play host to New Haven (8-2), while No. 3 seed Assumption (8-2) will play host to Slippery Rock (9-2).

The 28-team tournament (seven teams from four super regions) will conclude with the D-II national championship game Dec. 17 in McKinney, Texas.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Ashland University, Notre Dame College in playoff football rematch