ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612160129
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STAFF REPORt
For Rowan, the third time wasn't any more charming than the Profs' previous two trips to Salem Stadium.
The New Jersey school went home with another Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl crash, with no answer to Mount Union's 35 second-half points in a 56-24 loss Saturday.
``It was like we used so much energy just getting here, and then, all of a sudden, we ran out of gas,'' said Rowan linebacker Andrew Hyde, who finished his career as one of only two Profs to start in three Division III football championship games.
Hyde was part of a defense that permitted an average of only 254 yards in the first 12 games, but allowed the Purple Raiders a Stagg Bowl record 682 yards. Still, those numbers aren't the memory he will carry away from another defeat in Salem.
``Not everybody has a chance to play football,'' Hyde said. ``How many people get to play for a national championship three times, even just get here? It's not the end of the world for me, or for us.''
NO PASSING FANCY
Rowan coach K.C. Keeler said after the highest-scoring of 24 Stagg Bowls that the Profs ``have no regrets. Whatever happened was going to happen. We were either going to be national champions, or we were going to lose to a better football team. And that's what we did.''
The Profs (10-3) put no pressure on spectacular Mount Union quarterback Bill Borchert, unlike their harassing effort in the first Salem Stagg Bowl in 1993, when Jim Ballard passed Mount Union to its first Division III crown through the wind and snow flurries.
Rowan led 24-21 at halftime, but Keeler knew his team couldn't win a shootout. Borchert, who threw for seven touchdowns and 505 yards, left no doubts in Hyde's mind about which of Rowan's opposing quarterbacks in a Stagg Bowl was the best.
It wasn't Ballard, who was among the 2,500 Mount fans who made up about half of Saturday's crowd, or Craig Kusick of Wisconsin-La Crosse, who troubled Rowan in a 36-7 victory on the same field a year earlier.
``This guy [Borchert] was the best,'' Hyde said. ``His ability to run and pass made him that way. When we did pressure him, he'd run for a first down. The other two guys pretty much stayed in the pocket.''
BY THE NUMBERS
Rowan has been outscored 126-55 in three Stagg Bowl losses in Salem. Mount Union's scoreboard number was the third highest for a Rowan opponent in the 37-season history of the program at the Glassboro school.
The Profs hadn't allowed more points since a 68-6 loss to Central Connecticut in 1972. Rowan fell 58-7 to Southern Connecticut in 1965.
``They made plays,'' Keeler said of the Ohio team. ``It wasn't like we gave it to them. In a game like this, because it's for the national championship, everything is magnified 10 times.''
Mount Union's record is 80-6-1 in the 1990s. That's a .925 winning percentage, the best in college football in the seven-season span. The Raiders have won 38 of their past 41 games away from their Alliance, Ohio, campus.
TUBE TIME
Those sitting at home within a 45-mile radius of Salem Stadium were probably surprised to see the Stagg Bowl on ESPN. It was supposed to be blacked out, but some area cable systems aired the game.
``We don't know what happened,'' said Carey Harveycutter, Salem's civic facilities manager and Stagg Bowl director.
The 7,136-seat stadium held 5,048 paying customers. When stadium manager Scott Sampson's wife called the stadium and said the game was on TV in the host city, Harveycutter tried to find out why.
``The ESPN people [in the production truck] called their headquarters in Bristol, Conn., and asked what had happened, but the division that handles that isn't there on Saturday,'' Harveycutter said. ``We're going to try and get an answer Monday morning.''
THE SALEM SWAMI
Before the season, Roanoke Times sportswriter Daniel Uthman not only predicted Mount Union would win the Stagg Bowl, he called Rowan's title game appearance, too.
In the Times' college football preview section, Uthman selected his own preseason poll, ranking the 16 teams he thought would reach the Division III playoffs. He got 10 right, including the top nine.
He had Mount Union ranked first, with Wisconsin-La Crosse second and Rowan third.
ENCORE PERFORMANCE
No one should be surprised if Mount Union and Rowan meet for the third time in five years in the 1997 Stagg Bowl. The Profs lose only four starters. While Mount Union loses seven, Borchert and his top receivers, Kevin Knestrick and Reiko Gollate return, along with running back Mark Lantos, the Raiders' top rusher.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 linesby CNB