Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 12, 1993 TAG: 9312120157
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Rob Atwood and Ed Bubonics swirled through Rowan College's pass defense in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, each player prominent for a half in the NCAA Division III football championship game.
With Rowan keying on Bubonics in the first half and Atwood in the second, the two seniors caught 18 passes between them for 318 yards and two touchdowns (both Atwood's) in Mount Union's 34-24 victory.
Atwood, a tight end who rarely lines up as one, caught five balls for 110 yards and a touchdown in the first half. Bubonics, the team's leading receiver with 93 catches entering the game, had three receptions for 53 yards in the first 30 minutes.
In the second half, Atwood caught four for 50 yards and a score; Bubonics had six for 105 yards, including three for 71 during a 73-yard third-quarter scoring drive on which Mount Union took the lead for good at 28-24.
"They really concentrated on me in the second half," Atwood said. "Bubonics really exploded up the sidelines."
The pair may have had less fun had Rowan accomplished its goal of pressuring Jim Ballard, Division III's player of the year and Mount Union's quarterback.
Ballard was sacked three times but often had enough time to choose from among Atwood, Bubonics and running back Jim Gresko, who had 10 catches.
Atwood found a home across the middle, even though Rowan knew that was his hangout.
"We were supposed to wall him off, stop him from getting across," said Rowan linebacker LeRoi Jones. "Other defenses just let him go by."
Atwood said he saw Rowan's defenders turning to face him when he arrived at midfield. He also noticed he had enough room to make a few catches.
"That's where I went," Atwood said. "I went and sat right in the middle."
He went through a lot to get there. At various times he lined up along the offensive line, split wide to one side, split wide and one step behind a wideout or in the left or right slot.
And sometimes he'd go in motion.
"They were really trying to collision me," Atwood said. "[Going in motion] kept me moving so it wouldn't be as easy for them to get a collision. I don't line up against a 270-pound defensive lineman. I only weigh 200 pounds."
Not that Atwood doesn't notice defenders. Before his first touchdown, on a 24-yard screen pass, he noticed Rowan linebacker Andy Hyde's strong pass rush. When Atwood caught the pass, Hyde was upfield and Atwood went downfield to erase Rowan's 6-0 first-quarter lead.
"It happened exactly how we wanted it to," said Atwood, who had four touchdown catches Dec. 4 in a victory over St. John's (Minn.).
Atwood's second score Saturday came in the third quarter, after an illegal-procedure penalty on the Purple Raiders prompted them to forgo a field-goal attempt and try to pick up a first down on fourth-and-seven from the Rowan 13 into the wind.
He and a teammate ran crossing routes, Jones and Douglass Watson collided and Atwood was wide-open for the score that made it 21-9 Mount Union.
Atwood's six touchdown receptions in the playoffs are a championship tournament record, one more than Ithaca's Nick Ismailoff had in 1991.
Two possessions after Atwood's second score, Ballard went to Bubonics three times as Mount Union hurried downfield and regained the lead on Gresko's 2-yard touchdown reception.
"In the second half, they started mixing their coverages up," Ballard said of the Profs. "We stayed with the same patterns. Every time I dropped back, [Bubonics] was wide-open."
Thus, the nation's top-ranked Division III passing offense rode the violent air currents above Salem Stadium to a national title.
In a warm and windless postgame interview room, Atwood described the weather without bitterness. The wind-chill factor had been as low as zero, and 35-mph gusts had driven sporadic snowfall at stinging speed.
"Our practice field gets so bad, we thought this was nice weather," he said.
Nice field or nice weather?
"Well, a nice field," he said with the carefree smile of a victor, "and the weather wasn't bad."
by CNB