Around District 11 With Pam and Guy: The Only Game in Town
Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News, Pennsylvania Colleges, pfn, Playoffs
Guy Smith | December 17, 2024
2024 Episode 32. We thought that our 2024 football season was over a week earlier when Northwestern Lehigh scored in overtime to defeat Avonworth for the PIAA 3A state championship. We thought wrong.
After the NCAA D3 Susquehanna River Hawks upset the Saint John’s Johnnies in Minnesota, we looked at the bracket to see where they were going to have to travel next. To our surprise, with the Bethel College Royals’ defeat of the higher ranked Wartburg, Susquehanna became the higher seed of the two and after traveling to Minnesota the week before, were awarded a home game this past weekend.
This NCAA D3 Quarterfinal was not only the only game in town, it was the only football game in the state of Pennsylvania on Saturday. Penn State and U. Pitt were idle, Slippery Rock was playing in Michigan, the Army vs. Navy game was not in Philadelphia this year, and the Eagles/Steelers were playing on Sunday.
Thus, a trip to Selinsgrove and the Susquehanna University campus became game number 64 for the year. That was not a record for us, as last year’s total was 67. If we would have gone to five or six of the state finals this month instead of just one, we would have set the PR.
Guy had been to Susquehanna once before during the four “Blog Years.” That was just last year, when the River Hawks lost a heartbreaker in the first round of the tournament to another PA team, Grove City. Pam was off at an ASHA conference for that one and missed it. But of the 117 sites in the past four seasons, Pam had missed only ten. Six were when she was at conferences, and four this year while rehabbing the knee. We always planned on those ten being eventual “catchups” but didn’t expect to be able to knock one out yet this season.
Susquehanna has had another great season, entering the game with a sparkling 11-1 record, losing by just two points to the then number two ranked team nationally, SUNY Cortland. Their record included a win over #3 Saint John’s on a last second field goal the week before. This season they scored their 500th career victory.
There are several District 11 graduates on the Susquehanna roster. Those include: Andrew Wells–Nazareth, Jesse Ruisch–Parkland, Logan Hilarczyk–Nazareth, Toby Mackall–Easton, Galen Limantour–Palisades, James Mitsch–Palisades, Hunter Shimko–Marian Catholic, Liam Reiley–Nativity BVM, Frankie Mroz–Nazareth, Jackson Reed–Parkland, Jack Kocher–Whitehall, and cheerleader Kaitlyn Wagner–Nazareth.
The Bethel Royals were no slouches, despite being ranked just 21st. They were 11-2, with both losses to Saint John’s, by 25 points in September but by just eight in November in the MIAC championship game.
We arrived an hour before game time and planned to park and sit on the visitor side, as that was the side in the sun. Tickets for this NCAA college national quarter final game were just $8 with no fees, in other words, less than those PIAA district playoff games where teams with zero or one win get mercy ruled by the one seed. And the $8 included a free program.
An excellent crowd turned out for the game, almost filling the home side stands. And that was with the fall semester over and all students already out of the dorms and home for the holidays. We were also impressed by the number of fans that traveled to the game from Minnesota. Official attendance was listed at 2,500.
Interesting was the fact that in the field house, located directly next to the home stands, a big indoor track and field meet was taking place at the same time as the game.
The refreshment stand had a very limited hot food menu of just burgers and dogs, but they did have an outdoor grill blazing, ensuring some good tasting hot food.
If you visit the stadium, don’t miss the plaza with the statues honoring Amos Alonzo Stagg Sr. & Jr. It’s a very nice tribute to two men that played an important role in Susquehanna University football. Of course, Sr. played an integral role in college football in general, his innovations shaping the modern game. As Knute Rockne once said: “All football comes from Stagg.” Stagg coached at Susquehanna with his son from age 85-90, part of an incredible 68-year coaching career that spanned from age 28 in 1890 until age 97 when he retired from coaching at the College of the Pacific. The Division III national championship game is named in his honor.
When we left home in the beautiful Pocono Mountains, it was 13 degrees. At the game, we sat on the sunny visitor side and it was so nice that Guy never even put on his coat the entire game. This was the warmest game we had been to in almost a month.
Bethel took the opening kickoff and drove down the field with apparent ease using a very effective short passing game. When Susquehanna went three and out on their first couple possessions, the prospects looked bleak. But the defense adjusted and limited the high scoring Royals, who topped 70 points on consecutive October Saturdays.
The first quarter ended with the Royals on top, 7-0. Each team scored once in the second quarter, and it was 14-7 Royals at halftime. Susquehanna QB Josh Ehrlich kept them in the game with impressive scrambles, but most of his passes were well off the mark, thrown into the dirt.
In the second half, he looked like a whole different person, and many of his passes were spot on. If you discount the rushing yards lost on sacks, Ehrlich had over 100 yards running and 200 yards passing, despite only going 14-27. Rahshan Le Mons had over 100 yards rushing for the River Hawks as well. On the Bethel side, QB Cooper Drews was much more accurate, going 33-45.
Susquehanna capped a nice 90-yard drive and knotted the score at 14 just before the end of the third quarter.
Bethel would have none of it, and answered quickly to retake the lead 21-14 just six seconds into the fourth quarter.
Susquehanna mounted another nice drive midway through the quarter and got very close to paydirt, but settled for a field goal and it was 21-17.
The end of the game was crazy. Susquehanna drove to the Bethel five-yard line and had first and goal. They ran on first and second down, forcing Bethel to expend its final two timeouts. On third down, another run stopped just short of the goal line and Susquehanna was down to their final play.
Susquehanna made a near game-costing gaffe by immediately calling timeout instead of waiting until the play clock ran down to one second. On fourth and goal from the one, they punched it into the end zone and with just 38 seconds to play, took their first lead of the game 24-21. If they had waited to call that timeout, they would have given Bethel about 15 seconds instead of 38.
Bethel got the ball and without timeouts, moved the ball down field and got to the Susquehanna 30. With five seconds left, Bethel went to the end zone and the pass was caught for the apparent game winning touchdown. The Bethel players stormed the field in jubilation.
But there was a flag on the play for holding. There was no time left on the clock, and a Bethel player removed and spiked his helmet in anger, garnering an unsportsmanlike conduct flag.
Having watched the replay a number of times, we agree there was holding. Not the most blatant example ever, but the Susquehanna pass rusher was held and that could definitely have affected the outcome of the play should he have been able to get to and put pressure on the quarterback. The Susquehanna player did help sell it by flailing his arms, for sure. However, holding is holding and we think the only thing “controversial” about the call comes from those that believe the rules should mysteriously change for the last play of the game, when in fact they do not.
With no time left on the clock, the announcer said the touchdown was nullified by the hold, the unsportsmanlike was not to be enforced because it came after the time had expired, therefore the game was over and Susquehanna was the winner. The Susquehanna players stormed the field in jubilation.
But wait. The officials huddled and decided the game was not over, and it was announced that there would be an additional untimed down “because the ten second runoff could not be enforced.” We don’t understand that at all. To our understanding, the ten second runoff is to prevent the team being penalized (or with an injured player) from benefitting. Going from the game being over to giving Bethel another chance to win certainly did benefit the team that was penalized.
The ten yard holding plus the 15-yard unsportsmanlike moved Bethel back 25 yards, now too far for a Hail Mary. Instead, the tried the old multiple lateral / fumbleruskie which almost never works. It didn’t in this case (but almost at one point), resulting in a 41-yard loss. For the third time, the apparent winning team stormed the field in jubilation. This time it was final.
Even with the extra time to sort everything out on the last play(s), this was still a quick game, lasting less than three hours.
Susquehanna moves on to the semifinal game this Saturday and will have to travel three states to the west, playing the North Central College Cardinals in Naperville, Illinois. The winner advances to the Stagg Bowl in Houston, TX on January 5.
Who would have guessed that after 64 games the best two games we saw all season would be the last two games we saw all season? That was indeed the case. Feedback always welcome at RTRYFBAR@AOL.COM.
GUY & PAM BLOG ERA TEAM SCORECARD
2021-2024
47/47. All District 11 Varsity Football Teams at Home.
7/8. District 11 JV Teams Playing at Different Locations Than Varsity.
11/11. D11 related: Subregional Teams, Special Events or Former EPC Teams.
6/6. All-Star Games with D11 Players.
11/17. Outside D11 State Playoff Game Sites with D11 Teams.
2022-2024
11/19. NCAA D2 PSAC Colleges Including Former PSAC Schools.
- NCAA Bowl Games, National Playoffs, or NFL.
2023-2024
14/20. GEFA 8-Man Semi Pro football.
2024
2/18. D11 Teams Playing Regular Season Games Outside D11. This is where the fun will be next year.
Total: 117 (Pam 108)
Plus 9 “Other”
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