By Anthony Caruso
Staff Writer
The University of Mount Union’s Purple Raiders are a dominate Division III college football team from Alliance, Ohio. However, their long-running win-streak received little national press.
On Saturday, Oct. 24, the Purple Raiders defeated the Wilmington Quakers, 69-0. The win was historic because it was the Raiders’ 100th-straight regular season win.
“Our players understand that, right now, we are competing against ourselves, and they hold that in the highest of standards,” Mount Union coach Vince Kehres told the Ohioan newspaper T Tedeschi he Review. “They’re not about letting themselves get complacent. They want to continue to improve. They are certainly locked in right now.”
In fact, in their current win streak they are 210-1 in their last 211 regular season games.
They haven’t lost a game since a 21-14 loss to Ohio Northern University Polar Bears on Oct. 22, 2005.
They had a similar streak in the past, as they won 110-straight regular season contests from 1994 through 2005.
Mount Union had 25 first downs compared to Wilmington’s six in the blowout win. Two of their six first downs came on a penalty.
The Purple Raiders, 7-0 this season, had 533 total offensive yards, while Wilmington (1-6) had just 87.
Purple Raiders’ senior quarterback Taurice Scott had a career-high five touchdown passes in the middle of the second quarter after going 11-of-12 for 254 yards. The team scored a touchdown on their first nine possessions.
“The eye contact between Taurice (Scott) and his receivers was on the money,” Kehres said in the same Monday, Oct. 26, article. “There were a couple of plays that became evident of the rapport he’s developed with them.”
Scott also had two rushing touchdowns. He had a 19-yard rushing touchdown at 13:14 in the first quarter, then added a four-yard touchdown run at 8:41.
Senior running back Logan Nemeth also added a seven-yard run for the Raiders.
Mount Union stopped the bleeding in the second half, as they only scored three times, including two field goals. In the third quarter, junior kicker Jake Antel completed a 33-yard field goal.
With 1:30 left in the third quarter, freshman defensive back Louis Berry had a 40-yard interception returned for a touchdown. Antel also had a 20-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.
“You can’t be upset if you don’t get a lot of interceptions, and at the same time, if you get them, you have to take them with a grain of salt,” Kehres told The Review. “With our style of play (a match zone-man combo) we don’t get to see a lot of quarterback reads right before the throw so we might not get as many interceptions. There were some balls that were hung up there and we made some plays.”
With such an impressive style of play it is surprising that this team is still receiving little coverage compared to larger teams who don’t do as well. As the team continues to succeed, the press should keep them on its radar as they reshape the way fans view Division III football.
