North Central makes playoffs look easy
Following the greatest postseason in North Central College football history, starting senior left tackle Jace Werkheiser changed his fortunes when he transferred after attending Northern Illinois University as a freshman.
“It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” Werkheiser said.
Three seasons later, Werkheiser is a veteran leader for the most prolific offense in program history, and the Cardinals aren’t done playing yet. North Central easily advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs by beating Albion 63-7 Saturday in Naperville.
The Cardinals (11-0), ranked No. 4 by D3football.com and the American Football Coaches Association, prepare for a tough home matchup with Wisconsin-Platteville (10-1), No. 7 in the D3football.com rankings, at noon Nov. 30. Quarterback Spencer Stanek threw four more touchdown passes, increasing his single-season school record to 36, and the Cardinals had three rushing TDs.
Kevin Schroeder also blocked a punt that Jason Callahan returned 29 yards for a touchdown, and Kevin Nalefski had a 39-yard interception return for a score.
“That’s maybe as good as we’ve played, but we’ll get tested a whole lot more in the next week so we’ve got a lot of work to do,” North Central coach John Thorne said.
“We’re very excited with the number of nice plays that were made on the special teams. The offense had a number of great plays. The defense had a bunch of great plays.”
After beating the unranked Britons (8-3), the Cardinals have 5,585 yards of total offense in 11 games, surpassing the previous single-season best of 5,457 over 13 games in 2010, the only season they’ve reached the NCAA quarterfinals.
North Central, which entered Saturday averaging 502.8 yards, had 557 yards on 69 plays — 387 yards by halftime in opening a 42-0 lead. Stanek sat out the second half.
“I’d say what’s different this year is that all of us are more confident in our abilities,” said Werkheiser, a first-team all-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin selection all three of his seasons.
“Last year we’d get stopped and we had to punt, everybody would pretty much start freaking out. This year is just completely different. If we punt, we know we’re going to get it right back and score the next time.”
Stanek, named the CCIW’s Art Keller Offensive Player of the Year, only attempted 17 passes but had 11 completions for 185 yards.
Peter Sorenson’s only catches of 5 and 22 yards were TDs to give him 14 this season, one short of the single-season school record. Chad O’Kane and Ryne Rezac had TD receptions of 22 and 49 yards, respectively.
“I didn’t even know (about the total offense record) going into the game,” Stanek said. “We’ve got a great group of guys up front and our skill-position players are outstanding. It starts with the O-line. I never get any pressure so it’s easier to do my job.”
First-half running back workhorse Ryan Kent (York) had a 1-yard TD run. Matt Randolph and Denzel Thompson rushed for TDs in the second half.
Defensively, Alex Tripp and Michael Weidner recovered fumbles. Tripp also had an interception of a ball tipped at the line by Brian Wilson.
”I haven’t touched a football since like senior year of high school. It was kind of surreal it happened,” Tripp said.
The Cardinals have lost in the second round of the playoffs the past two years. Their first three victories this season came against schools in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, to which Wisconsin-Platteville belongs.
“We called our first three games of the season the first three rounds of the playoffs because they were WIAC games,” Tripp said. “We already feel like we’ve had enough practice and we’re just going to try and take care of business and be able to get through that second round and then further on.”