Maybe it was the defenses. Or possibly the cold temperatures that stayed in the 20s throughout the game.
Either way, Mary Hardin-Baylor captured the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl Friday night at Salem Stadium with the 10-7 squeaker over the Titans of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
Ten of the game’s seventeen points came in the first quarter, and when UMHB quarterback Blake Jackson scored from 1-yard out with 3:16 left in the first half, few would have expected that the book had been closed on scoring the rest of the way.
It was a typical Stagg Bowl in the City of Champions, where conditions over the years have ranged from sleet and heavy snow to unusually warm temperature for mid-December. This time around Jack Frost ruled, although most of they announced crowd of 3,476 seemed unfazed.
Tailgating was at its prime in the hours leading up to kickoff, with UMHB fans reporting that it was in the 70s back home in Belton, Texas, while Oshkosh fans were claiming a heat wave in Salem with the thermometer only hitting 15 in Wisconsin.
This version of the Stagg Bowl had an unusual flavor as, for the first time in 11 Stagg Bowls, neither Mount Union or Wisconsin-Whitewater was on the field looking to claim the championship trophy. The Stagg Bowl has called Salem home since 1993, the culmination of the Division III football championship that begins with 32 teams.
Oshkosh took the early lead on a 2-yard scamper by Dylan Hecker only 5:22 into the game.
Later in the first quarter,Mary Hardin-Baylor cut the deficit to 7-3 on a John Mowery 22-yard field goal with just over one minute left.
The Crusaders, who finished the season with a perfect 15-0 record including 5 playoff wins, got what proved to be the eventual game winner when Jackson scored on the keeper. Jackson, who was 16 of 27 in the passing game and rushed for 119 yards, was named the game’s most outstanding player.
Both teams had opportunities in the frigid second half, but both defenses came up big to keep the scoreboard unchanged over the final 30 minutes of play. The UMHB defense stopped Oshkosh three times on fourth down, twice inside the UMHB 30-yard line and late in the fourth quarter when Matt Cody intercepted Oshkosh quarterback Brett Kasper’s do-or-die fourth-and-10 pass from the Crusader 35.
Bill Turner