Lehnen threw two of his four touchdown passes to Jacob Paradee and has 162 in his career, tied with John Matocha (D-II Colorado School of Mines, 2019-23) for college football's all-divisions record.
Mount Union's Tyler Echeverry ran 29 yards untouched to open the scoring — the first time North Central has trailed all season.
Lehnen, who went 57-2 over his college career, threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Myles Walton to make it 7-7 with 4:35 left in the first quarter. It gave Lehnen 159 career TD passes, breaking Braxton Plunk's (Mount Union, 2019-23) D-III record.
After the Purple Raiders failed to convert on fourth down deep in North Central territory, Lehnen scored on a 16-yard run about 7 minutes into the second quarter to make it 14-7 and the Cardinals led the rest of the way.
Mount Union (14-1) made trips into the red zone on four consecutive possessions but scored just once, a 30-yard field goal by Ivan Maric with 3:57 remaining first half.
The Purple Raiders (75) and North Central (47) have won a combined 122 consecutive regular season games.
Mount Union has won 13 D-III championships in 23 title game appearances, both of which are records. North Central — which captured its first title in 2019, the first championship-game berth in program history — beat the Purple Raiders 28-21 in the 2022 title game.
Echeverry, who had 68 yards rushing and a touchdown on eight carries in the first quarter, finished with 20 carries for 83 yards.
___
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football. Sign up for the AP's college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25