The Associated Press

SALEM, Va. - His uniform dirty and eye black fading, Dan Pugh looked nothing like a running back who had carried the ball a record 49 times in leading Mount Union to a 48-7 victory in a national championship game.

"This definitely completes the picture," Pugh said after gaining 253 yards, scoring four touchdowns and setting a slew of records to carry the Purple Raiders past Trinity in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl on Saturday. "This is what we came to do."

The Division III title was the third in a row for Mount Union (14-0) and its seventh in 10 years.

After winning the last two title games by three points each, the Purple Raiders made this game look easy. They took a 28-0 halftime lead as Pugh ran for two touchdowns and Rob Adamson threw for two.

Trinity (14-1) played without suspended quarterback Roy Hampton, who was arrested last week for public intoxication. The Tigers struggled to get their offense going, and they finished with 203 yards, 337 below their average.

Pugh set Stagg Bowl records with his 49 carries and scored on runs of 19, 2, 1 and 1 yards, tying another record. The third TD was his 40th of the season, breaking Barry Sanders' all-divisions record of 39, set at Oklahoma State in 1988. Pugh finished with a record 15 postseason TDs.

"He's not your typical Division III running back," Trinity coach Steve Mohr said. "Some of the cuts he made didn't do what we watched on film any justice."

Pugh also set a Division III record for all-purpose yards in a season with 3,192, breaking Dante Brown of Marietta's record of 2,973, set in 1996. Only Sanders, with 3,250 yards in 1988, had more.

Adamson also hurt the Tigers, going 12-of-23 passing for 222 yards and three scores. He hit Derrick Leach for TDs of 19 and 55 yards, and Randell Knapp for 9 yards.

NAIA championship

SAVANNAH, Tenn. - Robb Latrielle passed for 264 yards and three first-half TDs as Carroll College (Mont.) won its first NAIA title by defeating two-time defending champion Georgetown (Ky.) 28-7.

The Saints (12-2) lost in the semifinals the past two years to the Tigers (12-1), who had won 53 of their previous 55 games.

Georgetown gave up 417 total yards, while gaining only 198. The Tigers' only touchdown came in the first quarter, on a 35-yard pass from Neil Warren to Cody Brown.