As the clock ticked down to zero on the Washington University football team’s 43-34 win over the University of Chicago in Chicago on Saturday, the team’s celebrations were slightly subdued.

The victory guaranteed the Bears a share of the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) championship, but the conference’s automatic playoff bid would be determined by results elsewhere.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Junior David Nees fights off a defender against Hendrix. The Bears will play UW-Whitewater in the first round of their NCAA Division III playoff run.

“We knew we could win an SAA title, even a UAA title, and still have no playoffs,” head coach Larry Kindbom said.

To get into the postseason, Wash. U. needed Berry College to pull off a victory against Centre College, in a game that was still going on in Danville, Ky.

“I didn’t know the score until after the [Chicago] game, but it was probably on the back of a lot of guys’ minds,” senior wide receiver Kevin Hammarlund said. “I actually ended up watching the end of the Berry game on someone’s phone.”

Thirty minutes later, Berry secured a 21-19 victory, and the Bears had their first playoff bid since 2013.

In the must-win rivalry game, the Bears and Maroons went punch for punch. The Wash. U. defense forced Chicago to punt on their first possession, and on the return the ball bounced kindly for the Bears, giving them the ball at midfield. Senior quarterback J.J. Tomlin wasted no time with the short field, and four plays later, he found senior tight end Matt Page on a driven pass down the middle of the field for an 18-yard touchdown.

The Maroons tied the game up on their next possession on a third down throw by quarterback Burke Moser. After trading punts on the next two possessions, a strong Chicago drive gave them a first and goal on the four-yard line. On a first down throw, however, sophomore defensive back Ben Marcus read the play, and intercepted in the end zone.

The Bears once again took advantage of the momentum on a quick scoring drive. This time, Tomlin found Page isolated one-on-one on the sideline. Page made the grab through contact, shrugged off his defender and jogged into the end zone for a 58-yard score. Chicago answered right back, with a 74-yard drive capped off by a six-yard Chandler Carroll touchdown run, tying the game at 14 apiece.

Wash. U. had a chance to retake the lead before halftime, but Tomlin just barely missed Page in the end zone on a third down. Dan Kalvaitis’ 41-yard field goal attempt, however, was blocked, and the teams went into the locker room with the score knotted up.

Chicago started the second half on the front foot. On their first possession of the third quarter, the Maroons drove into the end zone. A 16-yard sack by sophomore Jake Coon forced them back to the 26-yard line, and they were forced into a long field goal attempt, which came up short. On the next Maroons’ drive, Wash. U. forced another fourth down, just outside of field goal range. This time, Chicago went for it, and Moser found Syd Reynolds for a 33-yard score.

The Bears would not be behind for long. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Chicago on the ensuing kickoff brought the Bears to their own 42, once again giving the Bears a short field. On the second play of the drive, Tomlin connected with junior wide receiver Marcus Ramspott cutting inside from the sideline. Ramspott made the catch roughly 10 yards past the line of scrimmage and found a gap in the defense, winning a footrace into the end zone for a 52-yard score.

Chicago retook the lead on the next drive, with another touchdown reception from Reynolds. Once again, however, Wash. U. responded quickly. Hammarlund had been uncharacteristically quiet at this point in the game, but late in the third, he broke through. A diving catch on the hash marks brought the Bears into the red zone, and then a 16-yard catch and run secured a first down on the four-yard line. Tomlin went to Hammarlund for the third straight pass on the goal line, this time on a lobbed play-action pass to the corner of the end zone. Hammarlund made an acrobatic play on the ball, reaching up for the two-handed catch while falling backwards and managing to get his feet inbound to tie the game at 28-28.

This time, there was no immediate response. Moser left the game after an incomplete pass and was replaced by Brian Collis. Collis’ first pass attempt was deflected at the line of scrimmage. The ball looped up high into the air, and Coon reacted the quickest, collecting the ball for his fourth interception of the season.

Tomlin, once again with good field position, made quick work of the next drive. He found Page with a 15-yard strike over the top, setting up a first down on the Chicago 22-yard line at the close of the third quarter. On the first play of the fourth, Tomlin found Hammarlund wide open in the center of the field, and Hammarlund reeled in the throw and strode into the end zone to retake the lead.

With the score now 34-28, Kindbom made a surprising decision and opted to go for the two-point conversion.

“To be honest, I wanted to go for two after the touchdown before that,” Kindbom said. “We scored so quick, so I thought their defense might still be reeling, and we could get it. I told the other coaches next time that we scored quick, we were going to go for two.”

It turned out to be the right call, as a quick screen pass to Hammarlund made for an easy conversion.

Chicago managed to drive for a touchdown on the next possession but down by two, were forced to go for the conversion to tie the game. With no open receivers in the end zone, Moser’s pass sailed incomplete.

On the ensuing possession, the Bears extended their lead to nine on a 30-yard Hammarlund touchdown reception. On the pass, Tomlin tied the single-game school record with his sixth touchdown throw of the day. Tomlin now either owns or shares every major Wash. U. game, season and career passing record. Marcus all but sealed the win on the next Chicago drive, intercepting a bobbled throw on the Wash. U. 14-yard line with 1:25 left to play. The interception was the Bears’ SAA-best 20th of the season.

The Bears stifled a last-ditch effort by Chicago, and Tomlin took a knee to end the game at 43-34.

“Everyone was ecstatic,” Hammarlund said of the win. With eight catches for 166 yards, Hammarlund brought his season total to 1,249—a school record. With that, Wash. U. celebrated its first ever SAA crown and a share of its 12th UAA title.

The Bears now look forward to what will be only their third appearance in the NCAA playoffs. Next Saturday, they will travel to Oshkosh, Wis. to take on the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

“Obviously, we’re excited for the playoffs,” Hammarlund said. “We’ve never won a playoff game in school history, so that’s our first goal. We want to get past that first-round matchup. We’ve got a great team and a really talented offense, and we want to see how far the ride will take us.”

Kindbom echoed the sentiment.

“We just want to continue along an upwards trajectory,” he said, before joking, “This season has been like a Magical Mystery Tour for us, and we just want it to keep going.”