North Central dominates in playoff opener
Their faces kind of told the story. They had just felt the wrath of what North Central College is capable of on the football field.
University of Dubuque wide receiver Michael Zweifel, quarterback Wyatt Hanus and coach Stan Zweifel met the media in a classroom at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium on Saturday after the Spartans had been crushed by North Central 59-13 in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.
They spoke the praises of the North Central team that didn’t miss a step in winning its 10th straight game to move to 10-1 and set a new school record for single-season scoring at 496 points, eclipsing 2009’s mark of 490.
“North Central is good enough to win the national title with their defense and run,” Zweifel said. “We knew we would have to score a lot of points to be in the game, and we didn’t accomplish that. They mixed up their coverage a lot.”
The Cardinals move on to a second-round contest against Wabash College next Saturday. The NCAA will release the location of the game Sunday. Wabash beat Illinois College 38-20 Saturday.
The North Central defense kept a Spartans offense in check that went into the game having scored at least 40 points in eight of its 10 games and averaged 507.9 yards of offense a contest.
Hanus finished with 261 yards through the air and two touchdown passes and established a good connection early on with Zweifel. But thanks to the Cardinals defense, the Spartans passing attack didn’t produce more points, and North Central made the Dubuque running attack a non-factor.
Alex Tripp led the victors with 2 sacks, Valente Garza had 1.5 sacks with Willie Hayes, James Robinson and Greg Dickson each collecting 1. Peter Bulandr, Peter Mann and Jim Clendenning were given credit for a half-sack each. Hanus finished with minus-19 yards on 13 carries.
“The coaches put in a lot of new coverages. We wanted to make sure we got the receivers to the ground with no yardage,” North Central cornerback Josh Mitchell said. “We try to shut (the opponents) out every game. We don’t want to let them on the scoreboard at any time.”
Like the defense, the North Central offense was firing on all cylinders. Actually, running on all cylinders. The Cardinals racked up 411 yards on the ground. Nick Kukuc (Naperville Central) ran for a game-high 131 yards and 2 touchdowns and hit the 1,000-yard mark for the season. Jordan Tassio (Naperville North) was right behind him with 121 yards on the ground and also two scores. It was the first time this season that the team’s top two rushers ran for over 100 yards in the same game.
“We want teams to worry about the both of us. That takes the burden off of me. And that takes the burden off of him,” Kukuc said.
Also adding to the score for the Cardinals were touchdown runs from Tyler Dicken, Ryne Rezac and Brad Crackel. Crackel’s was a 73-yard sprint to close out the scoring. Nick Dace booted a 41-yard field goal and Dicken threw a 4-yard scoring pass to Kyle Fiedorowicz early in the fourth quarter.
“All three phases — the offensive guys, the defensive guys and the special teams guys — all did very well. I’m very pleased with them,” said North Central coach John Thorne said.