Raiders roll into title game

By MARK W. MILLER
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
ALLIANCE -- In its crushing 66-0 victory over Bridgewater (Va.) in a Division III national semifinal Saturday, Mount Union College set some NCAA football records.
The Purple Raiders (13-0) will now seek their fourth straight national championship and eighth overall crown against St. John's (Minn.) next Saturday, in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Salem, Va.
St. John's, which lost the 2000 title game 10-7 to Mount Union, topped RPI 38-10 in the other semifinal Saturday.
Senior wide receivers Randell Knapp and Nick Sirianni each caught three touchdown passes for the Purple Raiders, who had put the game out of reach by halftime, 35-0.
The Purple Raiders extended their NCAA Div. III winning streak to 55 straight games, bettering the 54 set between 1996-99. Mount Union has now won 109 of its last 110 contests.
Mount Union coach Larry Kehres said the 66 points scored against Bridgewater was a surprise.
"Bridgewater uses a blitzing defense, with man-to-man coverage," Kehres said. "We worked all week at practice against that and it worked because we had to protect our quarterbacks and give them time to throw and we did that today."
Turnovers at first
Mount Union got off to slow start, having one of its passes intercepted on its first possession, then lost a fumble on its second possession that stopped a 10-play, 77-yard drive at the Eagles' 4-yard line.
But when Purple Raiders strong safety Andrew Doak returned an interception 16 yards for a TD four plays later, it was clear sailing.
The Eagles had a couple of scoring opportunities, but couldn't cash in. Behind 21-0, Bridgewater had a 62-yard drive halted, when Mount outside linebacker Anthony Frate forced a fumble and teammate cornerback Mike Miller recovered at the Purple Raider 15.
"We gave quick momentum [early TD] to them [Mount Union] and we couldn't recover," said Bridgewater coach Michael Clark.
"We lost the national title to them two years ago and I thought we could give them a better game today."
Clark thought his team had more speed in one-on-one match-ups.
"They just beat us with aggressiveness and we felt we were much better than that," he said.
Knapp caught five passes for 92 yards, which included TD strikes of 40 and 16 yards from senior quarterback Jesse Burghardt, who hit on 11-of-12 passes for 210 yards and four TDs.
Knapp also caught a 5-yard TD pass from junior signal caller Zac Bruney that gave the Purple Raiders a 14-0 lead 2:30 left in the first quarter.
Knapp sets mark
Knapp broke the Mount single-season record for receiving yards (1,459) in the first half that bettered the mark of 1,456 set by Adam Marino in 1999.
"We are focused and everybody completed their assignments," Knapp said. "We try to do the best we can on every play and we did that today."
Bruney, who was 6-for-9 passing for 55 yards, connected with Sirianni on a 15-yard TD strike as Mount Union scored 21 points in the second quarter.
Sirianni also caught 35- and 34-yard TD passes from Burghardt and he finished with seven catches for 130 yards.
The Purple Raiders also broke the NCAA Div. III total offensive record (7,042 yards) for 13 games, which bettered their previous mark of 6,798.
It was the sixth shutout this season for Mount, the first time it accomplished that since 1931.