By MONTE DUTTON

The great crusade for the Pioneer Football League championship is now against the odds, as if it ever wasn’t for the smallest school in Division I.

Still, Presbyterian College (8-2, 4-2 PFL) and its fourth-year head coach, Steve Englehart, has a great task ahead. The task is in Saint Paul, Minn., where the Blue Hose take on the University of Saint Thomas (7-3, 5-2) at 2 p.m. EST.

The Tommies. While Davidson was upsetting Presbyterian, 14-3, Saint Thomas was defeating Drake (6-3, 5-1), 20-13. The Blue Hose return home for the scheduled finale versus Marist (4-6, 2-4), which should be a win. Then again, so too should Davidson (2-8, 1-5) have been.

“It might have been a little bit more of a special feeling than other wins, you know, when you beat Mercer, like when you beat Furman,” said Englehart. “Then there are some times when a loss seems a little bit ‘suckier’ than some other losses. [Davidson] was one of those. I’ve been on both sides.”

None of this tangled web should be surprising. The PFL, the first of America’s conferences to emulate the words of “This Land Is Your Land,” before Stanford and California joined the “Atlantic Coast Conference,” or Oregon and Southern California enlisted in the Big “Ten,” etc., is well balanced. No one was going to dominate the PFL.

Ten games into a grueling season, this is no surprise. In league play, Drake is 5-1, Saint Thomas is 5-2, and three other teams – Presbyterian, San Diego and Dayton – are 4-2. While the Blue Hose visit the Tommies, Drake is at Dayton and Butler is at San Diego. In the Midwest, West Coast and South, a cult of fans is paying close attention.

Presumably, Collin Hurst is back in charge of the PC offense. The sophomore marvel has a bad hamstring. Hamstrings are easy to aggravate. If Hurst is fully sound, the Blue Hose have a fighting chance. Ty Englehart waits in the wings.

“When you have a quarterback (Hurst) who has started 20 straight games and is unable to play because of injuries, the whole timing and the whole flow were obviously affected,” Steve Englehart said. “Then you have other things not helping the situation.

“A catch and a fumble, a dropped pass, a missed extra point, and you have decisions by me that didn’t help at all.”

The Blue Hose have to move on. They need some help but nothing miraculous.

“We have to get back to playing with the mojo and confidence and the things we did earlier in the season,” said Englehart. “We played those early games like we were fighting for our lives. It’s time to get back to that.”

Saint Thomas, said Englehart, “is really big, really strong. Their backups look like their starters. They’re really multiple on defense. They blitz, or at least bring somebody on a blitz, 80 percent of the time. We have to come up with a really good game plan to keep them off balance, and we have to stay as balanced as we’ve been.”

Saint Thomas of Saint Paul plays its home games at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.

Quarterback Andy Peters, a fifth-year senior from Boise, Idaho, has put up some imposing numbers: 134 completions in 200 attempts (.670), 1,917 yards, 17 touchdowns, three interceptions. The top receiver, Quentin Cobb-Butler, has 45 receptions for 742 yards and seven TDs.

Three rushers have at least 359 yards, led by Joseph Koch with 404 yards in 71 carries with six scores.

South Carolina (3-0) built its 81-61 men’s basketball victory over Presbyterian around a strong first half in Columbia on Wednesday night.

The Gamecocks led, 41-22, at the break and only outscored the Blue Hose by a point in the second half. USC put four players in double figures, led by Mike Sharavjamts with 13 points.

Jonah Pierce led Presbyterian (3-2) with 19 points. Carl Pierce added 15  and Chidi Chiakwelu scored 11.

Both teams grabbed 37 rebounds, led by PC’s Jaylen Peterson with 11.

The Blue Hose begin a three-game trip to California with a 4 p.m. EST game on Sunday with Sacramento State.

Take a look at the stats here.

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