Box Score Wheaton, Ill. – The Polars football team traveled over the weekend to Wheaton, Illinois to play Wheaton College in the first round of the Division III College Football Playoff tournament. Crown lost by a score of 14-76.
Wheaton got off to a hot start and continued their dominance throughout the game. They scored 34 unanswered points in the first quarter as the Polars trailed 34-0 at the start of the second quarter. On the first possession of the quarter,
Christian Lloyd caught a 31-yard touchdown pass from
Jamarrius Courtney to get the Polars on the board. The Thunder scored two more possessions in the second quarter to take a 48-7 lead into halftime. Early in the third quarter,
Carteyae Gordon ripped a pass away from a defender in the endzone for a 28-yard touchdown catch to bring the score to 14-55. Late in the fourth quarter Courtney through a 20-yard pass to the goal line and
Christian Robinson made an incredible play on the football but came up 1-yard short of the end zone. If the Polars had scored one more time, they would have scored the most points by a UMAC team in playoff history as no team has scored more than 14 points.
Quarterback
Jamarrius Courtney had his best game of the season in the passing game throwing for career highs in passing yards (153) and passing touchdowns (2). He also ran for 82 yards with a long of 22 yards. The receiving was spread out with five receivers with at least 28 yards.
Christian Robinson led this group with 36, but
Donovan Soloman was right there with 34 yards.
Jakari Hunnecook had 32 receiving yards,
Christian Lloyd had 30, and
Carteyae Gordon had 28. Defensively,
Jakalyn Roy dominated again with three tackles for loss with a strip sack. He also had five tackles for loss.
Nathan Tomlinson led the team in tackles with 9, and
Rudy Criner had 8. On special teams,
Reichen Hoekstra had 4 punts for 136 yards and went 2-2 on extra points.
Rudy Criner also returned 4 kickoffs for 60 yards.
After winning the UMAC and making the playoffs for the first time ever, the Polars knew that would have a tough first round matchup. The most successful season in program history comes to close on the road in Wheaton, Illinois. It will be an interesting offseason for the Polars as they look to continue to build a program that will compete for conference championships in the coming years.
