 |
 |
|
| | Saturday, October 16 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ALLIANCE, Ohio -- Mount Union's record 48th consecutive
victory wasn't a whole lot different from the 47 that preceded it.
The Purple Raiders (6-0) relied on their cutting-edge offense to beat Otterbein 44-20 Saturday and surpass Oklahoma's 42-year-old all-division record of 47 consecutive victories.
Using the pass to set up the run, the Purple Raiders also got a big day from Chuck Moore, who rushed for 180 yards and scored four touchdowns. The game was played before a record crowd of 7,132 in Mount Union Stadium, capacity 5,000. If the Purple Raiders keep the streak going and win their fourth straight Division III title, they might have to enlarge their stadium. They have a national championship banner on each of the four light poles. Over the life of the streak -- stretching back to a 20-17 loss to Wisconsin-LaCrosse in the 1995 national semifinals -- Mount Union had averaged 514 yards per game, mostly through the air. Their quarterbacks have thrown a touchdown pass in 107 straight games. Mount Union, a 2,000-student school midway between Canton and Youngstown in northeastern Ohio, has won 70 of its last 71 games and has won 45 straight in the Ohio Athletic Conference.
There was no pep rally, bonfire or parade for the players during the week as coach Larry Kehres attempted to keep the focus on the game. There probably wouldn't have been much interest from the student body, since few of the students had ever seen the Purple Raiders lose. Only the fans and media seemed to get emotionally involved with the historic implications of the game. The general admission areas of the small stadium were packed 90 minutes before game time. With the kickoff still 45 minutes away, the public address announcer asked those without a seat to stand behind the chainlink fence circling the field. They stood three and four deep until the final gun. The crowd included the usual assortment of fans to be found at a nationally televised game between Division I-A powers. There were coeds with hair dyed purple, students with the letters M-O-U-N-T painted on their scrawny, hairless chests and aging alumni who sat quietly amidst the din. There was purple everywhere, from the Purple Raiders' all-purple uniforms and the lettering on the field to the large purple scoreboard and almost every shirt and hat in the stands. It was a rare step into the spotlight for Mount Union, despite its four national titles and 114-6-1 record this decade. More than 100 media credentials were handed out -- roughly four times the number for a typical home game. In addition to the Alliance Review and the Salem News, there were reporters in the tiny pressbox representing USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, ESPN and CNN. Smeck, who completed 15-of-26 passes for 282 yards, had touchdown passes of 18 yards to Marino, 5 yards to Adam Irgang and 27 yards to Moore. Moore also scored on runs of 6, 65 and 7 yards. Marino had nine catches for 209 yards. Otterbein's Matt D'Orazio tried to steal a page from the Purple Raiders' play book, passing for 325 yards and three touchdowns. A game ball and program was presented to the College Football Hall of Fame after the game. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
