ALLIANCE, Ohio – No. 1 ranked Mount Union had team and playoff record 12 sacks along with four interceptions in a 55-23 defeat of St. Lawrence (N.Y.) in the first round of the NCAA Division III Football Playoffs Saturday at Mount Union Stadium.

The Purple Raiders win their 92nd consecutive home game and improves to 11-0 on the season. Mount Union will play Albright (Pa.) – a 49-0 winner over Norwich (Vt.) – in the second round next Saturday at noon at a site to be announced Sunday.

Lineman Tom Lally (Fairview Park/Lakewood St. Edward) led the charge for the nation's top rated defense as he had 3.5 sacks with a team-high eight tackles with 4.0 tackles for loss.  Durum Alarms (Atlanta, Ga./Dacula) and Mike Vidal (Miami, Fla./Ronald Regan Doral Senior) each had 2.0 sacks while Nick Rodriguez (Macedonia/Nordonia) had two interceptions to pace the unit.

The defense held St. Lawrence (8-3) to 35 yards in the first quarter while the Mount Union offense scored four touchdowns. Quarterback Taurice Scott (Alliance/Alliance) threw for three scores and Logan Nemeth (McBain, Mich./McBain) ran for another as the Raiders led 27-0 after one quarter.

Nemeth had an 18 yard touchdown run, his second of the day, and Jamal Johnson (New Philadelphia/New Philadelphia) had 64 yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 41-0 midway through the second quarter.

St. Lawrence got on the board with a 15-yard pass from Mike Lefflbine to Vicenzo Ferraro and it was 41-7 at halftime.

Nemeth had 39 yard touchdown run on the second play of the second half and on the Raiders next possession Scott took off on a 73 yard touchdown run on the first play to take the score to 55-7.

The Saints scored 16 points in the fourth quarter on two touchdown passes from backup quarterback Sean Richardson and a safety.

Scott had 298 yards of total offense as he ran for a career-best 171 yards with a score then threw  for three scores to three different receivers – Tim Kennedy (Hudson/Hudson), Roman Namdar (Southlake, Texas/Carroll) and Octavion Wilson (Lincoln, Del./Milford Senior).

Nemeth posted his fifth 100-yard rushing day over the last six games as he had 130 yards on 18 carries.