ALLIANCE, Ohio – No. 2 Mount Union advanced to the 2022 Stagg Bowl, the national title game, following a thrilling 34-31 win over No. 12 Wartburg in the NCAA Semifinals on Saturday at Kehres Stadium.
The Purple Raiders (14-0) secured their 22
nd national appearance to play the winner of the second semifinal game between No. 1 North Central (Ill.) and No. 3 Mary Hardin-Baylor (Tex.) next Friday, Dec. 16 at Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland at 7 p.m.
Mount has won the national title an NCAA-record 13 times, with its last championship coming in 2017.
Tied 14 at halftime, the fourth quarter turned into another classic in Mount Union lore. On Mount's first drive of the second half, Raider senior quarterback
Braxton Plunk (Plant City, Fla./Plant City) connected with wide receiver
Wayne Ruby Jr. (Pembroke Pines, Fla./Charles W. Flanagan) on a two-yard touchdown pass as Ruby reached over the defender to snag his school-record 29th touchdown catch and second of the game. Senior
Orreon Finley (Memphis, Tenn./KIPP Memphis Collegiate) returned a punt 61 yards to set up the scoring drive, the longest punt return for the Raiders this season. The Raiders led 21-14 going into the final quarter.
Wartburg (13-1) cut into Mount's lead with a 32-yard field goal to start the fourth quarter. The Knights' blocked a Mount punt and took their first lead of the game, 24-21, when senior Nile McLaughlin found junior Drake George for a 26-yard touchdown with 11 minutes left in the game.
Mount Union responded with a 15-play, 83-yard drive, capped off with a 2-yard touchdown run by Plunk, his second of the game, and led 28-24 with four minutes left. The Knights answered with a 59-yard touchdown pass from McLaughlin to Carter Henry for his second touchdown catch of the game. Wartburg led 31-28 with 3:06 left.
The Raiders converted on a 4
th-and-7 with Plunk finding Ruby, who got behind the Wartburg defense, for 36 yards with a minute left. Two plays later, Plunk threw a dime to senior wide receiver
Edwin Reed (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./Dr. Krop) for 27 yards to Wartburg's three-yard line. On the very next play as the clock was ticking down, sophomore running back
Tyler Echeverry (Naples, Fla./Barron Collier) plowed into the end zone for the go-ahead score. The Raider defense forced four-straight incompletions to punch Mount's ticket into the NCAA Championship game.
Plunk finished 43-of-56 for 396 yards and two touchdowns through the air and added two rushing scores. Echeverry led on the ground with 64 yards and the game-winning touchdown. Mount had two receivers with over 100-yard receiving in senior
Jaden Manley (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Hartley) with 111 and Ruby with 103. Ruby is now just two receiving touchdowns away from tying an NCAA Division III season record. Senior running back
Lance Mitchell (St. Clair Shores, Mich./South Lake) returned the second-half kick 77 yards, the longest kickoff return this season and longest since 2019 for the Raiders.
The Raider defense totaled five sacks, led by sophomore defensive lineman
Von Factor (Fair Haven, N.J./Rumson-Fair Haven) with two. Also registering a sack were junior
Mason McMillen (Wadsworth, Ohio/Wadsworth), senior
Ian Sexton (Dover, Ohio/Dover), and junior
John Roland (Livonia, Mich. Northville). McMillen and senior
Jesse Vail (Estero, Fla./Estero) each had a team-high eight tackles. Mount held Wartburg's running back Hunter Clasen, who was averaging 116.6 yards per game, to 53 yards - his season-low.
Plunk connected with Ruby on Mount's opening driving of the game with a 32-yard touchdown. The Knights responded with a touchdown drive of its own with Clasen running it in from seven yards out. The Raiders answered on their ensuing drive with Plunk crossing the goal line with a seven-yard touchdown run. Midway in the second quarter, the Knights took advantage of a Mount Union turnover deep in Raider territory and tied the game with McLaughlin finding Henry for a 14-yard touchdown.
