BEREA, Ohio — When you hear the term "curse" in relation to a sports, what are the big ones that come to mind?
The "Curse of the Bambino". The "Curse of the Billy Goat". The "Madden Curse". The "Sports Illustrated Curse".
How about curses closer to home? The "Curse of Rocky Colavito" and well, "The Cleveland Browns" in general are a few of the biggest curses Northeast Ohio has to offer.
November 12, 2022 may mark the official recognition of a new Northeast Ohio curse.
Baldwin Wallace University Football, my beloved alma mater, has quite a storied past for a division three program.
From the heyday of the program with iconic coaches Lee Tressel (father of former OSU head coach Jim Tressel), and Bob Packard who both accomplished near identical win/loss records with a win percentage north of .742 and .741 respectively in their 53 consecutive years head coaching football for BW from 1958-2001.
However the last 26 matchups have presented a singular thorn in the Yellow Jackets side, the Division 3 powerhouse Mount Union Raiders.
Mount Union is the absolute class of Division 3 football and always has been. 13 D3 championships, 33 Ohio Athletic Conference titles and 31 undefeated regular seasons.
The Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets have not defeated Mount Union since 1994. No, BW has not been going through a "down" period in the program for the last 28 years. That's just how dominant Mount Union has been.
Which brings us to the here and now. Saturday, BW took the field at George Finnie Stadium to once again welcome in those Raiders from Alliance.
It was all Mount Union again as they went into the 4th quarter with a commanding 17-0 lead.
Then in a flurry, BW scored three straight unanswered touchdowns, the go-ahead TD with just 22 seconds left on the clock to take the lead over the stunned Raiders 21-17.
Finally. 22 seconds to snap 28 straight years of late season torment.
Trouble is, those 22 seconds proved to be all the time Mount Union QB Braxton Plunk needed to complete three straight passes to the BW 48 yard line, and then this:
Against any other team, this is an incredible bad beat. Against a team you have a 28-year losing streak to?
Maybe a "curse" is on the table.
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