Junior cornerback Quinten Bennett drops back to defend a pass. (Catherine D’Orazio | Contributing Photographer)

On Saturday, Oct. 3, No. 10 WashU football did something that no other team in program history has been able to do: defeat a top-10 Division III ranked opponent. Following the WashU Athletics slogan for the 2026-27 school year, the Bears “met the moment” by beating No. 8 John Carroll University (JCU) 35-25, in a historic day at home on Francis Field (after the loss, JCU dropped in the rankings from No. 8 to No. 17) . 

This year, the WashU football team joined the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) and have reinforced their standard as being one of the best football teams in the country. In each of their last two seasons, the Bears won eight games, yet fell short in all four of their matchups against ranked opponents during that time. This season, WashU is off to a 5-0 undefeated start, including victories over ranked opponents DePauw University and JCU. The Bears find themselves sitting atop the NCAC standings, tied for first place with Denison University, who they will face on Oct. 31. 

Going into the game, WashU’s offense had to prepare to face one of the best defenses in all of D-III football. JCU, a team WashU has never played before, held their opponents to an average of 6 points and only 158 yards of offense this season. 

“I didn’t have to say much to the players to get them fired up, they knew what kind of opponent was rolling in here,” Head Coach Aaron Keen said. “We knew it would be a very physical game, and that would be very important. Every one of our players chose this place [WashU] to play football because they knew they’d play against the best teams in the country, so they look forward to these opportunities.”

Despite the energy coming out of the locker room, the Bears couldn’t score and take advantage of receiving the ball first. After one first down, they punted the ball back to JCU. The JCU Blue Streaks proceeded to march down the field and score first off a 22-yard touchdown pass. 

The Bears responded with three minutes left in the first quarter, scoring three consecutive touchdowns. The key to these drives were the explosive plays that moved the ball down the field. This included a 45-yard and 55-yard reception by senior wide receivers Drew Bomar and Makael Carter, respectively, off perfectly placed throws from senior quarterback Levi Moore. 

Moore capped off these drives with touchdown passes to senior running back Matthew Kinoshita and senior tight end Luke Stephens. With 10 minutes left in the first half, WashU had a 21-7 lead after Moore found Carter once again on a downfield strike for a 76-yard touchdown. 

“Those chunk plays, those big plays, certainly help with our productivity,” Keen said. “They also help in just creating momentum and excitement on our sideline and helping our guys play better football.”

Before halftime, the Blue Streaks scored a touchdown and field goal narrowing their deficit to five, 17-21. With 30 minutes left to play, JCU was one big play away from taking the lead in the closely contested matchup between two of the best teams in D-III.

Both defenses started the second half strong, limiting offenses that both average over 40 points per game. In order to score again, the WashU offense had to pull out a trick play: a jet sweep followed by a lateral to senior wide receiver Colin Donahue who then passed it to a wide-open Moore in the endzone. 

“It’s [a play] we practice on a weekly basis,” Keen said. “We know if we see a good dose of man coverage, that it’s going to be a great play. We’re fortunate we’ve got a wide receiver [Donahue] who’s an all-state quarterback in high school and can throw it a little bit, and our quarterback [Moore] is athletic and can get out there and catch the ball. It’s a play our guys enjoy, and I think they knew the look was there and were excited when we called it, and they executed it well.”

At the end of the third quarter, the Bears’ offense struck again, this time thanks to a 64-yard rushing touchdown from sophomore running back Brayden Lewis. 

The Blue Streaks failed to find holes in the Bears’ defense — who were continuously making open field tackles while pressuring JCU’s quarterback.

“We definitely made [JCU’s quarterback’s] life uncomfortable,” senior linebacker Henry Murr, who led the team with 11 tackles, said. “In every game that we play, we have a goal to hold the [opposing] team to under 100 rushing yards, and I think they got 82. That was definitely a big thing for us in this game, we wanted to force them [JCU] to pass the ball, and that’s what they did.”

WashU closed out the game strong, with several crucial fourth-down stops that prevented any type of comeback. When the clocks hit 0:00, the Bears came out on top 35-25. The team ceremoniously showered Keen in Gatorade to celebrate the biggest win in his career thus far and possibly in all of WashU football history.

The Bears are now at the halfway point in their schedule with only five games remaining in the regular season. After a bye week, WashU will travel to Ohio on Oct. 17 to face another new conference opponent, Kenyon College. If the Bears are able to continue their undefeated play in the second half of the season, there is no doubt that they should find themselves in the D-III NCAA tournament, a feat that hasn’t happened since 2016.

“We came back in on Monday morning and lifted and watched film,” Murr said. “Now, we just need to take it one game at a time. Our coaches told us no one’s goal for the year was to beat the eighth best team in the country, and that’s it. We have bigger goals than that.”