Quarterback Russell Minor-Shaw and King’s won the MAC championship to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament. The Monarchs will host Ursinus on Saturday in a first-round matchup.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
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The first NCAA tournament game for King’s football in more than 20 years will be played in Wilkes-Barre Township.
The MAC champion Monarchs will host Ursinus at noon Saturday at McCarthy Stadium in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament. The bracket was unveiled late Sunday afternoon.
Both King’s and Ursinus enter the game with a 9-1 record. The teams met as recently as 2022 to close out the season in the Centennial-MAC Bowl Series, with the Bears earning a 24-13 road win.
King’s rebounded from an opening loss to Wilkes for the Mayor’s Cup to win nine straight games and claim the MAC title, highlighted by a 14-6 win over perennial league power Delaware Valley.
The Monarchs’ conference title win earned them an automatic spot in the tournament in their first season under head coach Mike Cebrosky, the long-time defensive coordinator who was promoted to the top job in February when Skyler Fultz stepped down to take the helm at his alma mater, McDaniel.
The Bears claimed an at-large bid into the field out of the Centennial Conference with their only loss coming to league champ Johns Hopkins.
The winner will take on NJAC champion Salisbury in the second round on Nov. 30 in Maryland. The Gulls (10-0) are ranked No. 8 in the country in the final D3football.com top 25 poll of the regular season.
Salisbury was the Monarchs’ first opponent the last time they reached the NCAA tournament back in 2002. King’s blanked the Gulls 28-0 in the opener before narrowly falling 19-17 to Bridgewater on the road.
This is the first year of an expanded Division III bracket, which went from 32 teams to 40. Sixteen teams will be in action on Saturday with the winners joining the 24 squads that earned a bye.
The tournament is split into four 10-team regions. The group with King’s includes a first-round matchup between John Carroll and Mount St. Joseph, with the winner facing historic D3 power Mount Union. The second-round matchups that are already set for Nov. 30 are Randolph-Macon vs. Washington & Jefferson and Carnegie Mellon vs. Centre.
WILKES GOES BOWLING
Wilkes will also extend its season as the runner-up in the Landmark Conference, landing a spot in the Chesapeake Challenge Bowl Series.
The Colonels will face Washington and Lee in the Cape Henry Bowl at 1 p.m. Saturday in Salem, Va. The series, now in its second season, stages a doubleheader between the Landmark and Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Moravian will play Shenandoah at 5 p.m. in the Cape Charles Bowl.
Wilkes went 7-3 under first-year head coach David Biever in the regular season with a 5-1 mark in Landmark Conference play. The lone league loss came against champion Susquehanna, one of the top-ranked teams in the nation that earned a bye in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The Colonels have qualified for the Chesapeake Challenge in both seasons of its existence, defeating Bridgewater to close out the 2023 campaign.
Washington and Lee enters the game 6-4 overall with a 5-2 record in the ODAC.