ALLIANCE, Ohio – The No. 3 Mount Union football team claimed its 35th Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Championship (eighth-straight) with a thrilling 28-21 win over No. 22 Marietta in a playoff-atmosphere crowd at Kehres Stadium Saturday afternoon.
 
Mount Union (9-0, 8-0 OAC) trailed 21-14 with less than seven minutes remaining in the game, before scoring 14 unanswered points including a one-for-the-history-books 27-yard touchdown pass from graduate quarterback TJ Deshields (Beloit, OH/West Branch) to senior Tyrell Sanders (Indianapolis, IN/Pike) who caught the ball at the highest point and got one foot down by the front right pylon for the eventual game-winning touchdown.
 
A 51-yard touchdown run by senior Tyler Echeverry (Naples, FL/Barron Collier) tied the game at 21.  
 
Sanders finished with a game- and career-high 126 receiving yards, his third career 100-yard receiving game, with a career-high eight catches. Echeverry eclipsed 100 yards on the ground for the fourth-straight time (seven for his career) with 116 rushing yards and two touchdowns – adding to his OAC-leading total.
 
Deshields, who came in for junior Noah Beaudrie (Monroe, MI/Erie-Mason) who got injured right before halftime, finished 9 of 17 for 117 yards and a touchdown. Beaudrie was 10 for 13 for 127 yards a touchdown.
 
Mount Union had a 7-0 lead after a 16-yard touchdown run by Echeverry capping off a 6-play, 63-yard drive. Marietta (8-1, 7-1 OAC) followed with drives of 90 and 87 yards to take a 14-7 lead with 10:18 left in the second quarter. Beaudrie found senior tight end Matt Anderson (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain) for a 10-yard touchdown tying the game at 14.
 
The Pioneers regained the lead late in the third quarter, before the Mount Union comeback.
 
Junior bandit Kaleb Brown (La Plata, MD/La Plata) led the Mount Union defense with two sacks and now has a team-high 10.5 for the season.
 
Seniors John Roland (Livonia, MI/Northville) and Rossy Moore (Lima, OH/Lima Central Catholic) each added a sack. Roland added a fumble force and recovery. Senior Tony Cook (Detroit, MI/Woodhaven) totaled a career-high 10 tackles.
 
Mount Union, winners of 73-straight regular games, receive the automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs, its 35th NCAA playoff appearance - the most in NCAA Division III history. The Purple Raiders close out the regular season next Saturday, Nov. 16 at Muskingum with a 1:30 p.m. kickoff.