SALISBURY, Md. – The Mount Union football team outscored Salisbury 24-7 from the end of the second quarter to the rest of the game en route to a 38-17 win in the 2024 NCAA Quarterfinals on Saturday.
The Purple Raiders have now advanced to the NCAA Semifinals 27 of the past 29 seasons since 1995.
Graduate
TJ Deshields (Beloit, OH/West Branch) threw for 295 yards, his career-high as a Purple Raider, for three touchdowns. Senior
Tyler Echeverry (Naples, FL/Barron Collier) scored three touchdowns, two on the ground and one receiving, totaling over 100 yards from scrimmage. Senior
Tyrell Sanders (Indianapolis, IN/Pike) led all receivers with 126 yards (his fourth 100-yard game this season) with a touchdown off seven catches.
Mount Union's defense held Salisbury below their average rushing the ball and scoring; coming into today's game, the Sea Gulls were second in NCAA Division III averaging 335.5 rushing yards per game (today they had 117) and fifth in the nation scoring 48.8 points per game. Leading the Mount Union defense was senior bandit
Rossy Moore (Lima, OH/Lima Central Catholic), who had a career-high 13 tackles, with two tackles for a loss and two sacks – including a big time sack near the end of the game.
Senior
Von Factor (Fair Haven, NJ/Rumson-Fair Haven) and senior
Dozie Okpala (Loganville, GA/Loganville) each added a sack, while junior
Kaleb Brown (La Plata, MD/La Plata) had a tackle for loss and nine total tackles. Senior
Jazz Jackson (Wadsworth, OH/Wadsworth) had momentum-swinging forced fumble.
Salisbury (12-1) struck first with an eight-yard rushing touchdown by Mason Fisher. Echeverry tied the game with a 25-yard touchdown catch from Deshields. Deshields connected with senior tight end
Drew Sims (Fort Wayne, IN/R. Nelson Snider) to put Mount Union (13-0) up 14-7. After a 33-yard field goal by the Sea Gulls' Tucker Smack, Echeverry scored on a two-yard run, extending Mount's lead to 21-10 at halftime.
The Purple Raiders continued to roll in the second half as Deshields threw a dime to senior
Tyrell Sanders (Indianapolis, IN/Pike) who made a tremendous catch in front of the near pylon.
Sophomore
Ivan Maric (Falls Church, VA/Mclean) made a 43-yard field goal to put the Purple Raiders up three scores (31-10). After a rushing touchdown by Salisbury in the fourth quarter, Echeverry matched it with a two-yard touchdown run.
Mount Union will play Johns Hopkins on Saturday, December 21 in the NCAA Semifinals. The location is to be determined. Johns Hopkins won, 17-10, over Mary Hardin-Baylor in its Quarterfinals game.
For updated Mount Union Athletics news, go to
athletics.mountunion.edu.
