GREENVILLE, Pa. — Alright, well, 15 of the first-round games are in the books and the 16th is a formality at this point, with Occidental trailing Linfield 63-21. As good a time to start as any.

Keith McMillan and I drove up to Greenville, Pa., for the Thiel-Johns Hopkins game and certainly came away impressed with Thiel receiver Brandon Chambers, who had three long touchdown catches, each different styles, in the 28-3 win. As an exercise on the drive up here, we each predicted not only the winner of each first-round game, but the actual score. (We each wrote down scores indpendently and only compared notes afterwards.) So let’s see how we each did:

East Bracket
Delaware Valley/Curry — Pat: DVC 56-7. Keith: DVC 56-17. Actual: DVC 37-22.
Hobart/Cortland State — Pat: Cortland 21-17. Keith: Cortland 31-28. Actual: Hobart 23-22.
Rowan/Wilkes — Pat: Rowan 38-17. Keith: Rowan 13-10. Actual: Rowan 42-3.
Ithaca/Union — Pat: Union 28-27. Keith: Union 20-14 (OT). Actual: Union 55-41.

South Bracket
Trinity/Mary Hardin-Baylor — Pat: UMHB 45-21. Keith: UMHB 35-21. Actual: UMHB 35-6.
Wesley/Ferrum — Pat: Wesley 54-24. Keith: Wesley 21-6. Actual: Wesley 59-14.
Bridgewater/W&J — Pat: W&J 35-34. Keith: W&J 45-42. Actual: Bridgewater 30-21.
Thiel/Johns Hopkins — Pat: Thiel 24-7. Keith: Thiel 17-3. Actual: Thiel 28-3.

North Bracket
Wabash/Albion — Pat: Wabash 31-17. Keith: Wabash 28-10. Actual: Wabash 38-20.
North Central/Capital — Pat: Capital 28-17. Keith: North Central 35-33. Actual: Capital 21-19.
Augustana/Lakeland — Pat: Augustana 56-7. Keith: Augustana 49-9. Actual: Augustana 49-22.
Mount Union/Mt. St. Joseph — Pat: Mount Union 56-7. Keith: Mount Union 51-14. Actual: Mount Union 49-6.

West Bracket
Linfield/Occidental — Pat: Linfield 53-21. Keith: Linfield 49-24. Actual: Linfield 63-21 at this writing.
Concordia-Moorhead/Coe — Pat: C-M 21-17. Keith: C-M 28-10. Actual: C-M 27-14.
St. John’s/Monmouth — Pat: St. John’s 52-14. Keith: St. John’s 45-17. Actual: St. John’s 62-3.
UW-Whitewater/Central — Pat: UWW 45-14. Keith: UWW 49-21. Actual: UWW 34-14.

You guys score this at home. Looks pretty even.

OK, Keith checking in while Pat helps some poor fellow hook up to the internet from the Thiel Student Lounge (fine looking student center here though).

As for immediate thoughts, not too many surprises around the bracket. Some may have thought Trinity would put up a better fight against UMHB, but the Cru looks like it’s ready for another run toward Salem … Wilkes, as the 32nd team in, looks like it might as well have stayed home. I picked a low score on that one because of the Colonels defensive rep and Rowan’s banged up offense, but Pat said heck no, they’ll still hang a bunch on them. Score one for Pat. … Capital/North Central turned out to be the great game we thought it would be, while the East bracket panned out as far as the New York games were concerned. Wow outta Union, 99 points?

Pat: Another great W&J/Bridgewater game. They should play in the regular season. Just thought of another great matchup we won’t see — two of the three Division III all-men’s schools (St. John’s and Wabash) meeting in the finals, in the Stag Bowl (pun intended). Not a whole lot of surprises, other than North Central hanging in without Tyke Spencer (separated shoulder) … or Capital winning despite five turnovers (can’t do that next week, guys). Or Curry leading Delaware Valley and hanging late into the game. Neither of us surprised by the Wesley/Ferrum result, as you can see. Should be an interesting matchup for Wesley next week — Chris Warrick will have a lot less time to throw against UMHB.

Keith is heading out to Augustana/Mount Union and I am heading for St. John’s/UW-Whitewater … somehow. John McGraw will be at Rowan/Union. Gordon Mann will be at Delaware Valley/Hobart. We’ll try to have someone at Thiel/Bridgewater.

Throwing the floor open.

There are some intriguing matchups coming down the line as you look through the NCAA Tournament bracket. Now, granted, we won’t see them come to fruition, but it would be interesting to see anyway.

Larry’s kids: Other than Larry Kehres himself, there are three Mount Union alumni head coaches in the playoffs this season, Jim Zebrowski ’91, Erik Raeburn ’94 and Mike Sirianni ’94. North Bracket No. 7 seed Lakeland and West Bracket No. 6 Coe could meet — in the Stagg Bowl, while No. 6 South seed Washington and Jefferson could meet Coe in the semifinals. Mark your calendars.

Same time, next quarter-century: The regional final could see the long-awaited Occidental/St. John’s rematch. Until last year, the 1985 meeting, a 28-10 Occidental win, could have been considered the SCIAC’s high-water mark on the Division III football scene. And both coaches, Dale Widolff and John Gagliardi, are still at their respective schools.

Yeah, let’s forget this one: The regional final could also provide a less-awaited rematch of the 1985 playoff game between Occidental and Central, a 71-0 Central victory.

Don’t blink, you’ll miss it: The potential Stagg Bowl between Ferrum and Augustana could be a quick one. The option-based Panthers run for 379.7 yards per game and throw for 103, while the Wing-T Vikings run for 352.4 yards per game and throw for just 25. Throw in TV timeouts and we’ll still get done before we need the lights in Salem.

Depth-chart battle: Monmouth quarterback Mitch Tanney could square off against the guy that beat him out, Wabash quarterback Russ Harbaugh. Tanney transferred to Monmouth and both are in the Top 10 in Division III in passing efficiency. Another interesting Stagg Bowl-only matchup.

Bad headline writers everywhere rejoice: We can anticipate many overworked metaphors if Mary Hardin-Baylor meets Capital in the Stagg Bowl. Both teams are nicknamed the Crusaders. We’ll spare you the examples. Similarly, Wilkes and Curry are both the Colonels, but even though those teams are in the same bracket, that matchup is even less likely than a UMHB/Capital title game.

Then there’s Cardinals/Blue Jays, Dutchmen/Dutch, Britons/Scots, and all the various big cats.