ORANGE CITY, Iowa — The Northwestern Red Raiders hosted Marian in the NAIA quarterfinals in a rematch of the 2021 quarterfinal round, where the Red Raiders came away with a narrow 25-20 victory.
This year Northwestern left no doubt, defeating Marian 52-27 to punch their ticket to the semifinal round. The score at halftime was 35-0, with Michael Storey hauling in four touchdown passes in four consecutive drives in the second quarter.
The Red Raiders make the NAIA semifinals for the third straight year and they will host Indiana Wesleyan on Saturday, for the right to go to Durham for the NAIA championship. Indiana Wesleyan downed #6 Benedictine Kansas 24-13.
The Morningside Mustangs fall to the #12 Keiser Seahawks in the NAIA quarterfinals, with a score of 29-28. The defending champions got off to a hot start, scoring on their first three drives of the game, including a touchdown connection between Joe Dolincheck and Zach Norton, where Dolincheck claimed the record for most touchdowns in a collegiate career with 166.
This was followed by 167 when Dolincheck found Kaleb Williams inside the red zone to put the Mustangs up 21-3 in the first quarter. However, Keiser would upset their second top 5 team in these playoffs on the tail end of a 13-point fourth quarter, to put the Seahawks on top, 29-28 and that would be the final. The Mustangs end their year 11-1.
Keiser will be hosted by #2 Grand View Iowa in the other semifinal. Grand View got there with a 10-7 win over #8 Lindsey Wilson of Kentucky.
NAIA Quarterfinals
No. 12 Keiser (Fla.) 29, No. 1 Morningside 28
No. 2 Grand View (Iowa) 10, No. 8 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 7
No. 3 Northwestern 52, No. 7 Marian (Ind.) 27
No. 5 Indiana Wesleyan 24, No. 6 Benedictine (Kan.) 13
