By Greg Chandler
D3sports.com 

The Tigers of Wittenberg University became the first team in North Coast Athletic Conference history to win three consecutive outright championships on Saturday, finishing up a perfect 10-0 regular season with a 37-14 victory over Earlham.

Wittenberg, which hasn't lost a regular season game since falling to Wooster in 1997, extended their regular season winning streak to 22 straight and their NCAC streak of consecutive wins to 31.

The No. 4-ranked Tigers spotted Earlham an early 7-0 led, but then Casey Donaldson and the rest of the Witt offense got rolling. Donaldson scored three touchdowns as the Tigers built up a 31-7 halftime lead and cruised home for the win. He now has 22 touchdowns this season, 68 for his career, both school records.

Donaldson rushed for 155 yards on 19 carries, going over the 100-yard mark for the 24th time in his career. He also became the first back in Wittenberg history to go over 5,000 yards rushing for a career. Teammate Jason Stephan added 137 yards rushing on 20 carries.

With the win, Tigers' coach Joe Fincham became the fastest Wittenberg coach in school history to reach 50 wins. Fincham's 50-4 career mark beat the standard established by Hall of Fame coach Dave Maurer, when he got his 50th career win in his 61st game in 1975.

While Wittenberg was putting the wraps on a perfect regular season, Mount Union nailed the door shut on a share of a sixth consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference title. The Purple Raiders made it 57 consecutive conference wins on Saturday by blitzing Baldwin-Wallace 41-0. Chuck Moore had his 14th straight 100-yard rushing performance and scored a touchdown in his 25th consecutive game, while Adam Marino broke Ed Bubonics' career pass receiving yardage mark with 3,303 yards.

In the Presidents' Athletic Conference, Grove City's R.J. Bowers became the first college back ever to go over 7,000 yards rushing. Bowers scored both touchdowns, including the game-winning tally on a 6-yard run with 5:57 remaining, as the Wolverines downed Carnegie Mellon 14-10.

Bowers, who moved past Emporia State's Brian Shay as the all-time career rushing leader in NCAA history last week, moved past Shay in two more categories with his two touchdowns: career touchdowns (90) and career points (550). He now has 7,127 career yards heading into Grove City's season finale against Alfred this Saturday.

In the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Hope can nail down its first outright championship since 1987 with a win over longtime power Albion this Saturday. Last weekend, the Flying Dutchmen (4-0, 7-1) won their seventh straight with a 26-3 win over Olivet, while the Britons (3-1, 7-2) came from behind to defeat Kalamazoo 27-23. 

Adam Magers rushed for 118 yards for Hope, while Brian Adloff moved past Bill Vanderbilt as the school's all-time leader in pass receiving yardage. In the Albion-Kalamazoo game, Tom Weinmann's 2-yard touchdown run with 2:32 left was the winning score, as the Britons offset an outstanding performance from Hornets' quarterback Zach Ellis, who passed for 254 yards, rushed for 79 yards on eight carries and caught an 18-yard pass.

The weekend produced its share of wild, high-scoring games. In Crawfordsville, Wabash's Jake Knott was on the money again, throwing for 421 yards and five touchdowns as the Little Giants ran wild over Denison, 69-33. The game featured 1,176 yards of total offense, including more than 900 yards through the air. Wabash finished with a school record 711 yards of total offense.

Knott, who completed 26 of 41 passes, has now thrown 17 touchdown passes in the last three weeks. Denison's Greg Neuendorf broke the NCAC record for passing attempts, set just last week by Knott, by throwing 76 passes, completing 36 for 494 yards and four touchdowns. However, he was also sacked eight times.

In another shootout, Ohio Northern got a career-high 287 yards rushing from Jamal Robertson in a 52-46 win over Capital. Robertson added 74 yards in kickoff returns and 19 yards in punt returns to finish with a school-record 379 yards in all-purpose running. Quarterback Shane Franzer threw for three touchdowns and became ONU's all-time total offense leader with 6,346 yards.

Capital's Dan Bartholomew didn't enter the game until eight minutes left in the first half, but he had a monster performance -- 25 of 38 for 378 yards and five touchdowns through the air. He also caught a pass for another score.

Ground Gator: Allegheny's Shane Ream and Jeremy Snyder ran wild again on Saturday in the Gators' 43-15 whipping of Wooster. Ream rushed for 204 yards on 33 carries, scoring three touchdowns, while Snyder added 132 yards on just 10 carries, scoring on runs of 66 and 32 yards. Ream set an Allegheny single-season rushing record with 1,468 yards.

Ring my (Monon) Bell
Ah, it doesn't get much better than the Wabash-DePauw rivalry. Even those the two teams are in different conferences now (Wabash in the NCAC, DePauw in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference), the schools separated by approximately 40 miles still get together at the end of the season. This Saturday's meeting will be the 107th battle for the Monon Bell, with the Tigers leading the Little Giants, 49-48-9.

For more, check out www.mononbell.org.

More top-notch performers
Washington and Jefferson's Joey Nichols rushed for 209 yards and three touchdowns as the Presidents downed Malone 36-21, as the PAC champs kept their postseason hopes alive. Muskingum's Jeff Morris rushed for 174 yards and threw for 170 as the Fighting Fish (ok, Muskies) sent Heidelberg to its ninth consecutive loss. Morris had three touchdowns, including an 86-yard run. Heidelberg's Brian Frank threw for 421 yards and four touchdowns in a losing cause.

Wilmington's Adam Ryan completed 30 of 40 passes for 459 yards and four touchdowns as the Quakers scored a 39-23 win against Marietta. Wideout Jonathan Cain had 10 catches for 216 yards and two touchdowns for Wilmington.

Hiram running back and return specialist Walter Froelich rushed for 149 yards on 36 carries, scoring a touchdown as the Terriers posted a 17-7 win over Case Western Reserve.

Dominating defenders
Even in a high-scoring affair such as the Wabash-Denison contest, there was a defensive star. Wabash nose tackle B.J. Hammer had 2.5 sacks, giving him 15 for the season, a school record. Grove City linebacker Adam Corbett had 19 tackles against Carnegie Mellon. Earlham linebacker Robert Gunn had 18 stops against Wittenberg, and continues to lead the NCAC in that category. Otterbein's David Ritchey had 15 tackles.