And Crusaders coach Pete Fredenburg is using the experience as a platform to push for the addition of instant replay in NCAA Division III semifinal games.

“This gives you cause to say, ‘Man, what a horrendous turn of events,’” Fredenburg said Monday during his final weekly press conference of the season. “Would instant replay have helped? Absolutely.”

The bizarre turn of events began with fourth-ranked UMHB trailing No. 5 Wisconsin-Whitewater 12-10 at halftime of Saturday’s national semifinal at Tiger Field.

The Crusaders opted to kick off into the 25-mph wind to start the second half. Alan Munoz’s kick crossed the 50-yard line, then began going backward. It finally touched down on UMHB’s end of the field, where a scramble for the ball ended with the Crusaders recovering it at their 24.

The officiating crew out of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference huddled, then ruled that the ball had come down initially at the UMHB 38. Therefore, the Crusaders had illegally touched the ball - because it had not come down more than 10 yards from where it was kicked - and Whitewater took over at the UMHB 24.

The Warhawks scored on the next play en route to a 39-13 victory.

The film of Saturday’s game, however, clearly shows the ball hitting at the UMHB 41 and taking a big bounce backward toward the 24.

What that means is that the kick had actually traveled and touched down more than 10 yards from where it was kicked, thereby negating the illegal touching penalty.

It should have been the Crusaders’ ball at their 24.

“It’s unfortunate that the officials made a bad call, which I think really had a lot of momentum swing,” Fredenburg said. “I think it might have been as big as anything in the ballgame. But you certainly can’t blame the officials for everything, and I don’t want to cry about it.

“What I would like to do is take a stance that when you have a game of this significance, you need to have instant replay. That would have really helped us all, because it clearly shows on film that the ball hit at the 41-yard line. That would have been a huge momentum swing for us.”

All other NCAA divisions utilize instant replay for at least their semifinals and final. Division III, though, only uses it for the championship game.

Fredenburg isn’t alone in his plea for instant replay.

“I would like to see it used as far back as the quarterfinals and definitely in the semifinals, and I’m going to make a recommendation as such,” said Dick Kaiser, chairman of the NCAA Division III Football Committee and athletic director at Defiance College in Ohio. “The biggest hang-up is the financial issue.

“There would have to be multiple cameras to provide multiple angles, so it would be quite costly not only for the equipment but also for whatever upgrade would be needed at some of the Division III facilities, which right now could not accommodate such a thing.”

The NCAA office in Indianapolis echoed Kaiser’s concerns about money.

“(Instant replay) has been talked about before for Division III football but never put into place,” NCAA assistant director of championships Shonna Brown said. “I don’t think there were ever any real objections from anybody. The big obstacle, of course, has always been money.”

While Fredenburg said the call “might have been as big as anything in the game,” he did not go as far as to say it cost his team a trip to the Stagg Bowl. After all, the Warhawks still would have had the third-quarter wind, which they parlayed into two other scores.

Fredenburg, though, did not dismiss the fact that the ruling played a role in the outcome - thus the reason for his call for instant replay.

“It was a horrendous play with extenuating circumstances, and people are going to blow some of those calls. And obviously, they did,” he said. “My whole deal now is turn my attention toward a positive impact on the game by saying, ‘Let’s have instant replay. Why not?’”

Eating crow

An interesting sidenote to the whole ruling was something Fredenburg said during the post-game press conference Saturday when asked if he agreed with the referee’s call.

“I said to (the referee), ‘You know this is a game decision you’re making and you’re going to pin your reputation as an official on this decision.’ He said, ‘We are prepared to do that,’” Fredenburg stated.

Now what?

With their pride still hurting from a second semifinal loss to Whitewater in as many years, Fredenburg said the UMHB coaches must keep their nose to the grindstone.

“We are in the healing process, but you can’t lay around and mourn,” he said. “We have to get over this hump. We have to get over the hump of beating the Wisconsin-Whitewaters of the world.

“All of our decision making will be predicated on that. Now we’ll judge every player and all that we do on offense, defense and kicking on whether or not it will help us win the whole thing. We’ve knocked on the door enough. It’s time for us to do that.”

Even with 99 victories in the program’s 11-year history, the only coach the Crusaders have ever had plans on re-examining everything.

“What we’re going to do is evaluate absolutely everything,” Fredenburg said. “You evaluate what you do on offense. You evaluate what you do on defense. You evaluate your coaches. You evaluate your players.”

One thing the coaching staff will be looking for is a group of physical recruits. The Crusaders at times were overmatched by the Warhawks’ physicality.

That’s something Fredenburg doesn’t want to see again.

“We have to judge everything on the physicality of our guys,” he said. “If there was a smidgen of difference in the game, that’s what it was. I would see our running backs and our quarterbacks getting really hit. We tackled, but they really punished you.

“When we recruit a receiver, he has to be a guy that can go block and not be afraid to go block a linebacker. We have to have quarterbacks who can run and throw and understand that we’re going to the run the ball, so they’re going to take some punishment.”

Staying put

Fredenburg guided UMHB to the Stagg Bowl in just the seventh year of the program’s existence, which ended with a narrow loss to Linfield (Ore.).

Even though the Crusaders have come up short of a second trip to Salem, Va., in the years since, the veteran coach of almost 40 years has no plans of doing anything else.

He confirmed that Monday when asked how much longer he wanted to coach.

“If you would have asked me (Sunday), I might have had a different answer but I’m healing now,” he joked. “I love doing this. I love coaching. I don’t ever see me not doing it, but I know there will come a time when that will be the case.

“But as long as my health hangs on and my wife tolerates me, I’m going to keep at it.”