Small Colleges are entering the meat of their fall season as some of the top programs poke their heads over the parapet.

Defending national champions St. John's started their season with a non-conference win over DIA team Minnesota, and they have backed up that result with victories over Gustavus and, most recently, 61-12 over Minnesota-Morris. That puts SJU squarely atop the Golden Prairie Pool of the Minnesota league. Meanwhile, in early days yet, St. Thomas and Wisconsin-River Falls share the lead in the River Bluffs pool.

In the Cardinals Conference in the Virginia/North Carolina area, Duke won impressively 84-3 over Richmond to jump into first place at 3-0 over idle 3-0 team Lord Fairfax Community College (Lord Fairfax was the only member of the British House of Lords to actually live in the American Colonies - he was pro-British rule, but was mostly left alone by the Revolutionary Army in part because he was respected and in part because he was insanely rich.)

We will have to wait until November 1 for LFCC and Duke to duke it out.

In the nearby Potomac Conference, American University seems to be making a habit of winning achingly tight games. A week after edging Loyola 15-14, they took down Frostburg 15-10. The US Naval Academy's C team plays in this conference and is routing everyone, so it's a bit of a confusion. American is 2-0, but Mt. St. Mary's, who lost big to Navy C September 20, beat Frostburg by a margin considerably larger than American's victory, and could well be the stronger team.

In New England, it's all to play for. Trinity moved to 2-0 by the slimmest of margins, 5-3 over Connecticut College, while Eastern Connecticut could hardly have won by more to go to 2-0, as they hammered Mitchell 133-0. Those two lead in the Connecticut Conference. In Maine it's all about Bowdoin, as they beat Maine Maritime 34-5 to move to 3-0. The Polar Bears are the only team in the Main Conference without a loss.

In Massachusetts East, Tufts beat Salem State 52-7 led by Paul Sorbo, who was player of the game. That moved them to 2-0, in a tie with idle Lasell. Those two face off Sunday.

In Mass. West, Babson won handily over Amherst to move to 2-0, still five standings points behind 3-0 Nichols, who shut out Brandeis.

And in the North it's New England College, the defending national runners up, leading again. They won 57-9 over Keene State and have averaged 66 points a game in going 3-0.