Football Runs Past St. John Fisher in Opener
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| Nate Kmic has rushed for 801 yards in three games against St. John Fisher. |
Kmic crossed the 5,500-yard plateau for career rushing yards and his 5,515 yards places him eighth in NCAA Division III history. Kmic also rushed for two scores giving him 84 career rushing touchdowns, seven shy of the NCAA Division III record 91 by R.J. Bowers of Grove City (PA) College.
Aside from Kmic, fellow senior All-American Greg Micheli (Upper Sandusky/Upper Sandusky) was 14-of-19 passing for 224 yards with two touchdown passes of 35 and 36 yards to junior wide receiver Cecil Shorts III (Cleveland/Collinwood). Shorts had a career-high six receptions for 147 yards.
Junior Ryan Rembarger (Euclid/Euclid) had a pair of interceptions and fellow junior Roger Stewart had a team-high eight tackles to pace a Purple Raider defense that also had three sacks and held St. John Fisher to just 18 yards rushing and 249 total yards.
After that defense held the Cardinals on the first possession, the Raiders went 74 yards in 11 plays with Kmic tallying 50 of those yards on the ground including a seven-yard scamper to make the score 7-0. On the ensuing drive sophomore quarterback Tim Bailey in his first start led the Cardinals to the Mount Union 38-yard line before he overthrew his intended receiver to give Renbarger his first interception and give the Raiders a 7-0 edge at the end of the first quarter.
It was then more of Kmic as he had 48 yards rushing on the Raiders first possession of the second quarter that he capped with a 15-yard scoring run that with a missed extra point gave Mount Union a 13-0 lead. After both teams traded a pair of possessions, St. John Fisher started a drive on its own 11-yard line with two minutes left in the half. Four plays later with it first and 10 from the Cardinal 20-yard line, Bailey tossed his second interception and this time Renbarger returned it 21 yards to make the score 20-0 at the half.
Mount Union went to the air in the third quarter as Micheli finished off two drives with 35 and 36 yards strikes to Shorts to give the Raiders a 33-0 lead with five minutes left in the third quarter.
St. John Fisher’s lone score came in its first possession of the fourth quarter as Chris Pierri booted a 27-yard field goal.
Mount Union will now take a week off before hosting Ohio Northern University in the Ohio Athletic Conference opener Saturday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. in Alliance.