2014 Mount Union Football
#3/3 University of Mount Union Purple Raiders (5-0, 4-0 OAC) vs Heidelberg University Student Princes (4-1, 3-1 OAC)
Saturday, October 18 - 1:30 pm - Mount Union Stadium (Alliance, Ohio)
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THE GAME
No. 3 ranked Mount Union hosts Wilmington in an Ohio Athletic Conference game Saturday at 1:30 pm at Mount Union Stadium in Alliance.
Mount Union (6-0, 5-0 OAC) extended its regular season win streak to 89 games and 78 straight at home with a 58-17 win over Heidelberg. The Purple Raiders generated a season-best 746 yards of offense as quarterback Kevin Burke accounted for 384 of those yards throwing for 295 with three TDs then running for 89 with two more scores. Bradley Mitchell ran for a career-high 184 yards while Roman Namdar and Taurice Scott had 120 and 117 yards receiving respectively. The defense had 14 tackles for loss, six sacks, two interceptions and recovered a fumble.
Wilmington dropped its 19th straight regular season game with a 56-17 home loss to Baldwin Wallace last week. Sophomore running back Chase Manica rushed for a career-high 158 yards on 13 carries while freshman Brandon Mitchell, in his first career start, threw for 89 yards on 9-of-20 passing with one touchdown for the Quakers.
M-CLUB HALL OF FAME
The University of Mount Union M Club Hall of Fame will induct its 2014 class and give its award of excellence to two others on Friday and Saturday, October 24-25.
A five person hall of fame class includes Jason Hall '99 (football), Michael Hollenbach '97 (men's soccer), Mike Warbel '71 (football), Joe Weimer '99 (football) and Steve Wood '90 (swimming). Nancy Hill '79 and Mark Kingston '83 will both receive the M Club Award of Excellence.
The Induction Ceremony is Friday, October 24 at the Alliance Country Club. Reception begins at 5:30 p.m. with the ceremony starting at 7:15 p.m. Guests are welcome to attend, cost is $15. RSVP to the Office of Alumni Engagement at alumni@mountunion.edu or 330-823-2030. The group will be recognized during halftime of the football game on Saturday.
THE SERIES
This is the 17th meeting between the teams with Mount Union holding a 16-0 lead in the series. The series started with a 43-0 Mount Union victory on Nov. 9, 1968 in Wilmington and the return game in 1969 was a 70-0 Raider win in Alliance. After that the teams did not play until Wilmington became a member of the OAC in 2000.
THE COACHES
Vince Kehres (Mount Union '98) is 20-1 (.952) in his second season as head coach. He went 14-1 in his first season in 2013 to set an NCAA record for most wins (14) by a first year college football coach. He earned OAC Coach of the Year and Lee Tressel Ohio College Football Coach of Year awards. Kehres spent 13 years, eight as defensive coordinator, on the Raiders coaching staff for his father Larry Kehres. As either a player of coach, Vince Kehres has been part of 10 of Mount Union's 11 national championships.
Stacey Hairston (Ohio Northern '89) is 0-16 in his second season as head coach at Wilmington. He played receiver and defensive back at Ohio Northern and then played six years of professional football -- three with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL and three with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL. He also had assistant coaching stints in the CFL with the Edmonton Eskimos, Bluefield (Va.) and seven years at Ohio Northern where in 2003 he had a 4-6 record as interim head coach.
STORYLINES
Mount Union senior quarterback Kevin Burke is the highest rated passer at all levels of college football at the Raiders have Division III top ranked (643 yds/gm) and highest scoring (62.0) offense.
For the first time in school history, Mount Union has started a season with six-straight games scoring 50 or more points in each game.
On Saturday, Mount Union will be participating in the Gameday Recycling Challenge, a national competition to promote waste reduction at home football games. Look for the nearest recycling bin and watch for the "Green" Raider volunteers collecting recyclables.
SCOUTING THE QUAKERS
Since beating John Carroll 24-16 in 2009, Wilmington has lost 50 of its next 51 games heading into the this week. Second year head coach Stacey Hairston has a roster that features seven seniors and 11 juniors.
Freshman Brandon Mitchell made his first start at quarterback last week against BW. He has played in four games total this season and completed 54-percent (19-of-35) for 245 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. The Quakers do feature the OAC's No. 5 rushing attack (209.2 yds/gm) led by sophomore Chase Manica, who is second in the OAC in rushing at 107.5 yards per game. The top receivers are juniors Justin Lee and Jeremy Duncan. Lee has 23 catches for 250 yards and three TDs while Duncan, the OAC's receiver of the year last year, has 15 catches for 224 yards and two TDs.
The defense is led by junior linebacker Nick Williams, who leads the OAC in tackles per game (11.2). He also leads the Quakers with 2.5 sacks while freshman defensive back Margust Charles has two interceptions.
Freshman Tyrik Burns is among the conference leaders in both kick returns -- 2nd at 22.2 yds/return -- and punt returns -- 4th at 14.8 yds/return.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 734 Mount Union has an NCAA III best 733 wins as a program.
- 201-8 Mount Union's win-loss record since 2000
- 55, 54 The Raiders hold the NCAA's two longest consecutive college football win streaks -- 55 from 2000-2003 and 54 from 1996-99
- 118 consecutive regular season road victories for Mount Union dating back to a 21-18 loss at Baldwin-Wallace on Sept. 28, 1991.
- 140-0 Since 1996, the Raiders record when winning the turnover battle.
- 185-1 The Raiders record since 1990 when winning the turnover battle. That lone loss was a 20-17 loss to Wisconsin-LaCrosse in a 1995 national semifinal game in Alliance. In that game, the Raiders had a +1 turnover margin.
- 11 The Raiders 11 National Championships (1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012) are a record for college football teams in a playoff format. Notre Dame has the most college football titles (11) for teams playing in a non-playoff format.
- 89 game regular season win streak for Mount Union dating back to a 21-14 loss to Ohio Northern in Alliance on Oct. 22, 2005.
- 78 game home winning streak for Mount Union dating back to a 21-14 loss to Ohio Northern in Alliance on Oct. 22, 2005.
KEVIN BURKE JOINS 100TD CLUB
Nicknamed "#PaulBunyan" by ESPN's QB guru George Whitfield -- Mount Union senior quarterback Kevin Burke (Westlake/Lakewood St. Edward) threw three TD's on 295 yards passing then ran for two more on 14 carries with 89 yards on the ground last week.
Burke, an All-American and reigning Gagliardi Trophy winner, is the nation's highest rated passer in all divisions of college football this season with a passer rating of 212.1. He has completed 69-percent of his passes (103-of-149) for 1,774 yards and an OAC-best 20 TD's.
Burke's three passing touchdowns gives him 102 for his career which makes him the fourth quarterback in school history to throw over 100 career TD passes. The other three are Bill Borchert (1994-97) 189, Jim Ballard (1991-93) 118 and Gary Smeck (1997-2000) 109.
Burke has also been selected as one of 167 semifinalists for the 2014 William V. Campbell Trophy®, presented by Fidelity Investments®. There will be 16 award winners hosted at the New York Athletic Club, this December.
TOM TERRIFIC
Junior defensive lineman Tom Lally (Fairview Park/Lakewood St. Edward) had 3.0 sacks and 4.0 tackles for loss to lead a Mount Union defense that had 6.0 sacks and 14.0 tackles for loss against Heidelberg last week. The Raiders also got a pair of interceptions from Tre Jones (Twinsburg/Twinsburg) and one in the end zone from Cody Pogorelc (St. Petersburg/St. Petersburg).
The Raiders have the nation's No. 2 rated total defense (182.2 yds/gm) and No. 3 rated scoring defense (6.2 ppg) and pass defense (109.8).
DYNAMIC DUO
Juniors Roman Namdar (Southlake, Texas/Carroll) and Taurice Scott (Alliance/Alliance) each went over 100 yards receiving in a game as they had 120 and 117 yards respectively last week. Namdar is the OAC's top receiver averaging 119.3 yards per game with eight touchdowns. It was the first time Mount Union had two 100-yard receivers in a game since last year against Wittenberg when Luc Meacham had 110 yards and Jack Nicholls had 105 yards.
BJ ON THE RUN
Sophomore running back Bradley Mitchell (Detroit, Mich./South Lake) had a career-high 184 yards rushing with a pair of touchdowns against Heidelberg last week. It was Mitchell's 20th career game last week and he has 1,960 rushing yards (98 yds/gm) with 19 touchdowns. He is 192 yards from cracking Mount Union's top-10 career list for rushing.
UP NEXT ...
Mount Union plays two-straight road games traveling next week to Otterbein for a 1:30 pm start in Westerville then Nov. 8 at Baldwin Wallace for a 1:30 pm kickoff in Berea.
