That 98-0 Division III football beatdown could have been much, much worse

It’s quite the score line, and the winning team was merciful.

This is, uhh, something.

Your eyes do not deceive you. Division III Saint John’s beat St. Scholastica, 98 (ninety eight)-0 (zero).

I checked my brightness and calibrated my screen to make sure this was indeed the final, and technology was not leading me astray.

The last such score in a college football game came in 2003, when D3 Rockford beat Trinity Bible, 105-0.

St. John’s was indeed demonstrably better (obviously), but they weren’t exactly running up the score on purpose. They did just about all they could to do play nearly everyone on their roster, a stunning 180 players, according to the school website.

St. John's threw 17 passes, two in the third quarter and none in the fourth. Fourteen players ran the ball. Five quarterbacks got in, including Chris Backes (Fr., St. Cloud Tech). Ten players caught a pass, including one for 14 yards by preseason All-American Evan Clark. Last year, Clark had three touchdowns in the Johnnies' 49-7 season-opening win against St. Scholastica.

Thirty-six Johnnies made a tackle. Three players kicked extra points. (The Johnnies were 15-for-15 on PATs). The Johnnies punted twice, one by Ben Alvord and one by Naufahu Anitoni. Anitoni's went 68 yards.

"We're obviously a deeper team than they are," Fasching said.

With the score 84-0 after three quarters, Fasching said he told the officials he would be all right with a running clock in the fourth quarter. Fasching said an official told him that St. Scholastica didn't want to do it.

Coach Gary Fasching spoke to a local media outlet about the game:

This really could have been much worse. It falls one touchdown short of the DIII record between two teams. The game obviously broke some other records.

The 98 points scored set a new NCAA Division III record for a game played between two Division III opponents. The previous record was Concordia-Moorhead's 97-6 victory over Macalester on Sept. 24, 1977. The NCAA Division III record for points in a game is 105 (105-0), set by Rockford (Ill.) against then-NAIA Trinity Bible (N.D.) on Sept. 6, 2003.

The Johnnies' 63 points scored in the first half set a new program record, surpassing the 62 points scored in the first half against Hamline on Oct. 9, 1993, in Collegeville.

The box score is also quite stunning, and St. John’s scored touchdowns on all but three drives. Two were punts, and the other was the ended by the end of the game. St. John’s had 7-12 offensive scoring drives that were 41-yards or fewer.

Sorry St. Scholastica, y’all just had to be on the wrong side of history on this day.