- North Central beat Mount Union 41-25 in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl on Sunday night.
- Two-time Gagliardi Trophy winner Luke Lehnen threw four touchdown passes and ran for a TD for North Central.
- The Cardinals won their third NCAA D3 college football national championship.
It was a slow, painful way for reality to set in on the Mount Union sideline.
As the minutes dwindled away Sunday night at Houston’s Shell Energy Stadium, all the Purple Raiders could do was watch North Central’s maestro put the finishing touches on another championship performance.
Two-time Gagliardi Trophy winner Luke Lehnen’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Paradee was the final blow for the Purple Raiders in their 41-25 loss to the Cardinals at the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. The TD with 2:32 left completed a 14-play, 92-yard drive that took almost seven minutes.
Lehnen was named the game’s most outstanding player. He finished 18-of-25 for 298 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for a TD.
Lehnen wrapped up his career with an NCAA all divisions record-tying 162 TD passes.
“He’s an unbelievable football player,” North Central head coach Brad Spencer said on the ESPN broadcast following the game. “I don’t want to think about not having him come tomorrow. Just a great competitor.
“We know that if we put the ball in his hands, he’s going to do everything he can do to help us win. We saw it tonight.”
Lehnen cashed in against a Purple Raiders defense that played well early, but couldn’t get critical stops in the second half. He threw three of his four TD passes over the final two quarters.
“We knew that he was throwing the ball much better this year,” Mount Union head coach Geoff Dartt said. “I thought we were around him a little bit. We just couldn’t get to him, and he delivered the ball down the field. It’s tough to cover their guys that far down the field.”
The TD pass to Paradee completed North Central’s final scoring drive. Joe Sacco’s 5-yard run extended it when the Cardinals chose to go for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 32.
TJ DeShields threw TD passes to Nick Turner and Jerry Cooper in the second half to keep the Purple Raiders close. He finished 22-of-38 for his Purple Raiders career-best 314 yards.
Turner had a 31-yard touchdown catch, while Cooper broke several tackles on his 54-yard TD reception.
“It really was just plugging away, no matter what the score was,” DeShields said. “We weren’t really looking at the scoreboard. It was just next play mentality. … We hit some big plays and got some touchdowns that kept us in it.”
Mount Union’s Tyler Echeverry was held under 100 yards rushing, but scored to give the Purple Raiders their only lead at 7-0. His NCAA-leading 30th touchdown of the season came after Kaleb Brown recovered a Lehnen fumble.
Echeverry finished with 83 yards rushing. His 30 touchdowns tied the Mount Union single-season record set by Chuck Moore in 2001
Red zone struggles doomed the Purple Raiders in the first half. Ivan Maric’s field goal was Mount Union’s only conversion on four trips inside the North Central 20.
A stunning choice in the final seconds of the first half cost Mount Union an opportunity to get within 14-13. The Purple Raiders ran the ball on third down and came up short. With no timeouts left, they could not attempt a field goal before time ran out.
“That was bad coaching by me, plain and simple,” Dartt said. “We should have took a shot to the end zone. If we didn’t have it, throw it out of the back of the end zone and kick the field goal.
“That’s on me as the coach and play caller, not on our guys.”
Safety Brandon Yanssens had a career-high 11 tackles, including nine solos, for Mount Union. Linebacker Marcus Jackson tied a career high with 10 tackles.
North Central (15-0) has the look of NCAA Division III college football’s new dynasty. The Cardinals won their third national championship in their fifth straight Stagg Bowl appearance. They also beat the Purple Raiders in the 2022 title game.
For Mount Union (14-1), the wait for a 14th national title continues. The Purple Raiders have not won the Stagg Bowl since 2017.
“We probably weren’t supposed to be here,” Dartt said. “We were big-time underdogs and we embraced that, but there’s no moral victories at Mount Union. We made it to the national championship game, we had an opportunity and we didn’t get it done. I put that on myself as the head football coach.”
Dartt does appreciate how resilient his team was this season. This was one of the toughest roads to a Stagg Bowl any Mount Union team has taken.
“What a blessing to play with this group of guys,” Echeverry said. “They’re all resilient guys, all dogs. As senior leaders I hope we left the mark that the team can be built from nothing. You can have leaders rise up.
“It doesn’t really matter who you graduate. You can build a new team, a new foundation.”
Reach Mike at mike.popovich@cantonrep.com
On X:@mpopovichREP
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
