We’re pretty spoiled up here in Duluth, watching not one but two college football teams win with amazing regularity.
UMD provides us with all the success and excitement that Division II football can provide, winning the northern half of the Northern Sun Conference with what must seem like monotonous efficiency, year after year.
St. Scholastica, operating in the more confining no-scholarship realm of Division III, does the same thing in the UMAC.
UMD lost their first two road games of the season, at Mankato and at Sioux Falls, and while those two southern division teams rolled undefeated into last weekend, the Bulldogs have had to win under pressure to keep their playoff hopes alive.
If you went out to see a victory or two last weekend, you could have gone up to Malosky Stadium where UMD crushed Minnesota-Crookston 66-17. Or you could have left at halftime, when UMD led 45-14, and hustled out to Public Schools Stadium, where St. Scholastica was beating Minnesota-Morris 32-7.
But going out to see victories is nowhere near all the fun you can have by looking behind the scenes of those two exceptional teams.
At UMD games, we’re used to seeing quarterback Drew Bauer run, pass and generate touchdowns at will, and running back Logan Lauters is usually his top triggerman. With Lauters out injured, Beau Bofferding has been willing to step into the spotlight.
But nobody ever hears of senior nose guard Jonathan Harden, who nose guards effectively with his 5-foot-10, 305-pound stockpile of muscle. But in goal-scoring situations, coach Curt Wiese sends Harden out with the offense, where he blocks holes open from fullback to allow the swifter backs to score all those touchdowns.
Defensive players love the game enough to play unselfishly out of reach of the spotlight in most cases, and St. Scholastica has one of those, too, in junior linebacker Mitch Ejnik.
Last Saturday, the stories behind the stories at both football games were Harden and Ejnik.
UMD opened a quick 14-0 lead on Bauer’s 23-yard pass to Bofferding and on Bauer’s 35-yard run. But when they got frisky down in touchdown territory a third time, it was reward time. Bauer handed the ball to the bulky blocking back two times in a row, and on his second try, Jonathan Harden wedged himself under the pile of bodies at the goal line for his first touchdown of a four-year career.
The Bulldogs also got a touchdown from Darren Walker, a transfer from Los Angeles Harbor College, who burst through the line on a 56-yard touchdown run, while gaining 136 yards in eight carries. The Bulldogs built their lead to 66-14 after three quarters, and cruised home.
Meanwhile, out at Public Schools Stadium, Saints coach Kurt Ramler insists that Mitch Ejnik, a junior from New London-Spicer, does not bug him about playing tailback. “He does a great job for us at linebacker,” said Ramler, “but he’s an electric guy with the ball.”
The Morris game was scoreless in the first quarter until Ejnik raced 60 yards to score on a punt return. Later in the first half, Ejnik darted in from linebacker and threw his 5-11, 198-pound body skyward to block a Morris field-goal attempt.
  The Saints made it 19-0 by halftime, with Kyle Stepka’s 38-yard pass to Nick Murphy one of two touchdown connections between those two. But the only touchdown of the third quarter came when Willie Fust went 72 yards with a recovered fumble for Morris’s only touchdown.
Not to be outdone, Ejnik scooped up a Morris fumble in the fourth quarter and ran 70 yards for a touchdown to complete a remarkable day. He compiled 130 yards for two touchdowns on his punt return and fumble return, and he threw in a blocked field goal for good measure.
No wonder he doesn’t ask to play offense. He must be exhausted just playing defense!
This weekend, UMD is on the road at Northern State -- refreshed by knowing that both Mankato and Sioux Falls were upset from the unbeaten ranks last Saturday. St. Scholastica plays at home in a 1 p.m. showdown against Westminster -- the Saints top challenger for the UMAC title.

The best thing about having your two choice opponents fail to reach the World Series is that you can enjoy the culmination of the baseball season for the sheer entertainment value each game provides.
Yes, I had picked Toronto and the Cubs to make it to the Series, but the New York Mets stifled the Cubs both in New York and Chicago to leave no doubt who the best National League team was, and Kansas City outlasted the Blue Jays in an American League final that was overfilled with drama and intrigue.
The Royals won Game 1 in a 5-plus-hour 5-4 epic on Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice fly in the 15th inning when I finally submitted this column. I just hope it goes seven games so we can enjoy the competitiveness and technical excellence of both teams to the fullest.
The deciding game of the series came in Kansas City, and some of the subtleties overshadowed the big plays. KC jumped ahead 1-0 on a home run by Ben Zobrist. In the second inning, Mike Moustakas hit a shot toward the seats in right-center that went for a home run and a 2-0 lead. The fence out there is unusual, in that it rises, then leaves a cap to a second fence, atop which is a railing. As the ball is sailing toward the seats, it was clearly evident that a fan wearing a baseball glove reached over the railing and down over the fence to catch the ball. I thought nothing of it, until the announcers explained that the ball must clear that secondary fence to be a home run, and on the replay it was clear the fan had reached over, therefore it would be a ground-rule double and not a home run.
Incredibly, after viewing the replay videos, the officials announced that they were “inconclusive” in providing enough evidence to overturn the call. Why, I wondered, was it conclusive on a big-screen television in Duluth, Minnesota, but not in Kansas City or New York? Reporters of all stripes rushed out to those seats and found the young man for interviews. When asked about reaching over, he insisted that no, he never went closer than about 5 inches to the railing. The Internet came alive with people who had stop-action shots of the ball landing in his glove, well over the railing and below the top of the fence. But it stayed 2-0.
At any rate, Jose Bautista homered, and then trailing 3-1, he hit another homer -- a two-run shot to tie the game 3-3 in the eighth.
In the KC ninth, Lorenzo Cain, the Mets speedy center fielder, coaxed a walk. Then Eric Hosmer, who must be the best first baseman in all of baseball, hooked a single down the right-field line. Bautista played the ball off the wall and came up firing to second, trying to hold Hosmer to a long single. He succeeded, but third base coach Mike Jirschele -- who had brilliantly noted Bautista’s penchant for showing off his arm strength by overthrowing the cutoff man on such plays -- saw it coming again and kept on waving. Cain never broke stride, scoring all the way from first.
In the last of the ninth, Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin singled to center leading off. Dalton Pompey, who has Olympic sprinter speed, ran for him and promptly stole second, then third. With nobody out, that 4-3 deficit wasn’t so imposing. Kevin Pillar walked, and stole second, and closer Wade Davis was in deep trouble.
I had grown to appreciate the few, but clutch, hits by Goins, the second baseman and ninth hitter. Dioner Navarro went up to pinch hit, and I thought “No!” I wanted Goins to stay in there and, with his great speed, execute a squeeze play by bunting. Get it past the mound, toward the second baseman, and nobody could gun down Pompey at home. Instead, Navarro went up and struck out.
That brought up the top of the order, and Ben Revere, former Twins center fielder now in left for the Blue Jays, had a 2-and-1 count. Davis threw him a pitch that was, roughly, 3 inches off the plate, outside. Now, I like it when the umpires call a large strike zone, but this one was distant. Revere threw a mini tantrum right then, for obvious reasons. If it was a ball, Davis would have to throw a strike on 3-and-1. But being 2-and-2, he could play with the next pitch. Good slider, diving down to the dirt at home plate, and Revere struck out.
While Revere went into the dugout and beat the daylights out of a garbage can, Josh Donaldson grounded out to end the game, and to end the fantastic season the Blue Jays had.
It would have been interesting to see what might have happened had that bad strike call been a ball. And even more interesting if the umpires and their review board had reversed the second inning home run by Moustakas to a ground rule double and left the game 1-0. It was a great series, nonetheless, and we can only hope the World Series gives us as many highlights.