Blue Streaks secure first postseason win over Purple Raiders with crucial fourth-down stop in double overtime after Colin Schuler's 39-yard field goal.
ALLIANCE, Ohio — John Carroll defeated Mount Union, 10-7, in a double-overtime thriller on Saturday afternoon in the third round of the NCAA Division III tournament. It was the Blue Streaks’ first win over the Purple Raiders in postseason history, and the school’s first win at all over Mount Union since 2016.
A 39-yard field goal in overtime by Colin Schuler was the difference, but the Blue Streaks needed a fourth-down stop afterward to secure the win.John Carroll advances to play Berry College next Saturday in the quarterfinals at a site to be determined. The narrative has been written for a year and a week by people outside the John Carroll program that the school’s exit from the Ohio Athletic Conference came down to the Blue Streaks’ struggles against Mount Union in football. On a chilly and gray afternoon, playing on a field that has plagued the Blue Streaks’ program for over one hundred years, John Carroll head coach Jeff Behrman blew that argument to pieces both on and off the field. “It had nothing really to do with athletics,” he said. “Our expectation was to play this game this year or in the future. We didn’t duck anybody.” Behrman’s squad was physically and emotionally the tougher team, as both teams dealt with a whipping wind that made the kicking game especially difficult to rely on. Where the Blue Streaks won the emotional battle came in the second overtime, minutes after the defense celebrated a blocked field goal off the hand of Brecksville-Broadview Heights graduate Ben Day. The Blue Streaks’ offense, which had struggled against a stout Purple Raiders’ front line, could suddenly move the ball with ease. Reaching the 1-yard line, the Blue Streaks squared up for a chip-shot field goal for the win that was sure to send the blue and gold faithful storming onto the field at Kehres Stadium. Fate, or whatever you might call it, had other plans for the Blue Streaks as the kick doinked off the left upright. Having to put what could have been behind them, the Blue Streaks came right back out on offense to fight for the win. After a couple of plays to push the ball forward, Behrman sent out the kicking unit again for a 39-yard field goal that sailed through the uprights for a 10-7 lead. “We train for this stuff, we do, I’ll go back to the mentality you have to have to win,” Behrman said. “We’re gonna have each other’s back, that’s why this team has been so special. They are connected and as tight of a team as I have ever been a part of. They are gonna support one another no matter what happens. We train toughness and mental toughness.” All of the toughness that has been trained with in sweat and blood over the course of this season came down to one moment at the north end zone of Kehres Stadium in the shadow of the Purple Raiders’ scoreboard that read fourth down at the John Carroll 4-yard line. Mount Union needed two yards from redshirt freshman quarterback Mikey Maloney out of Riverside High School for a first down, but senior linebacker Kenny Grobolsek out of Brookside High School read the play, stayed on assignment, and came up with a fourth-down stop that sent everyone in John Carroll gear storming the field in a massive victory formation. “I was very keen on what they were going to run, especially after the first two plays they had run, they went QB draw-QB draw,” Grobolsek said. “That’s what we’re getting yards on, they were getting lots of yards, I was just like they’re going to come back to it one way or another, and that’s what they did.”“Before, we didn’t go for it in the first overtime, kind of not confident in that call,” Mount Union head coach Geoff Dartt said. “So I just told them if we get another opportunity, we’re going for it no matter what.” Given the situation, Behrman said he would have done the same thing in the moment. Right or wrong, it was a tough one for him to make 52 yards across from Dartt. “I felt like that was the right decision for him to do, obviously, I second-guess myself a little bit on fourth and one, we just plug it in there, but that’s not what you do,” Behrman said. “You have to play to win the game. We knew the quarterback with the ball in his hands, he’s a phenomenal player and someone that has scored a lot of touchdowns for them in that area. We just had to do our job, and the defense did that.” Long before double overtime, the game looked like it could be over quickly. Mount Union’s first snap on offense was an 85-yard touchdown toss to a wide-open Nick Tuner over the middle of the field. The message was loud and clear for the John Carroll defense to play better, and the Blue Streaks did by shutting out an offense that averaged almost 47 points per game to one big play and nothing after that. “We just trusted one another, I think that’s the big thing we’ve leaned on as a team,” Grobolsek said. “We go out there as a defense, we do our job, we also rely on the offense to do their job, and if one thing doesn’t go the right way, the other side’s got their back. “I think that’s one thing that’s stuck with this team a lot this season, to just all together as a brotherhood, as a defense, is just next play, next play, just keep going.” Watching his team celebrate on the field with family and friends, Behrman smiled as he took in the moment. “I’m really proud of our resolve. That was not an easy game, and we never thought it would be,” Behrman said. “You really start learning a lot about yourself in games like this, and this is what they’ve been training for all year, this team, in terms of being mentally tough and physically tough.”
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