Purple Raiders turn out lights on Albright

By TIM WARSINSKEY

The Plain Dealer

ALLIANCE

Mount Union continues to make playoff football look like a summer scrimmage.

It was anything but summer in cold, rainy Mount Union Stadium on Saturday. But, no matter.

The Purple Raiders defeated Albright College, 66-7, in an NCAA Division III playoff game.

No. 1 Mount Union (12-0) advanced to the national quarterfinals next Saturday against No. 11 Wesley (11-1), which won its semifinal against No. 8 Johns Hopkins, 42-37.

Mount Union reached the quarterfinals for the 24th consecutive year. It has lost only one of those games.

“It doesn’t get old,” coach Vince Kehres said. “We don’t take it for granted. I’m not taking up hunting, or anything like that. I’m sitting right where I’d like to be sitting right now.”

Sacking the quarterback apparently doesn’t get old at Mount Union, either. The Purple Raiders dropped the Albright quarterback 11 times, and the only reason that wasn’t a Mount Union record is it had 12 sacks last week against Albright.

“The guys up front do such a great job. It’s fun to watch, fun to be part of. It’s like four wild guys going after the quarterback,” said safety Alex Kocheff.

Defensive tackles Mike Vidal and Tom Lally and defensive end Mike Furda each had 2.5 sacks.

“They were just relentless. Every time I stepped up, they had somebody else there,” Albright quarterback Mike Knight said.

With the exception of a first-half interception and two punts, the Purple Raiders offense rolled almost at will.

“As long as I’ve seen Mount Union football, they’ve always been very good at seizing the momentum,’’ Albright coach John Marzka said. “You have to be able to match punch for punch, and if you don’t, you lose momentum.”

Two plays summed up Mount Union’s day.

On their first drive, the Purple Raiders faced fourth-and-8 from the Albright 19. They went for it.

Quarterback Taurice Scott rolled around the pocket for about 10 seconds and fired to Jordan Hargrove standing alone in the back of the end zone.

Touchdown.

Early in the second half, tailback Logan Nemeth was cornered and being driven out of bounds at the Albright 25. He didn’t go down, broke free, angled across the field, bounced off two defenders and dove toward the opposite pylon.

Touchdown.

The 47-yard run gave Mount Union a 42-7 lead.

Nemeth, a senior from McBain, Mich., rushed for a career-best 185 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries. He led an attack that piled up 349 yards rushing (7.1 yards per attempt) behind a dominant offensive line.

Mount Union totaled 634 yards offense.

Albright (10-2) was held to 172 yards total offense.