No Bell, but Wheaton College doesn't mind
The pain of losing the Little Brass Bell is long gone for Wheaton College.
It was replaced Saturday by the joy of defeating archrival North Central College in an NCAA Division III second-round playoff football game, the first time the teams have met in the playoffs.
The Thunder pulled away from the Cardinals in the fourth quarter for a 31-14 victory in Naperville. North Central won the Little Brass Bell trophy when it defeated Wheaton 35-25 on Oct. 15, also in Naperville.
"We like to say that it's just another game, but deep down I think we all kind of knew that this one meant a little bit more to us," said Thunder linebacker Luke Sahly, a Wheaton North graduate. "Able to right some of our wrongs. We never really talked about revenge throughout the week. But just an opportunity to show that we were better than the team that showed up the first game.
"Yeah, the proximity is crazy. We're 15 minutes away. The rivalry means a lot to us. It's something we talk about a lot. So yeah, this is pretty sweet. It feels pretty good."
It didn't feel so good for the Cardinals, who suffered their first loss.
"Our guys played hard," Cardinals coach Jeff Thorne said. "I'm proud of our team. This doesn't change anything in terms of how I feel about the season we've had or the young men that I have the opportunity with our other coaches to coach. Great group of kids."
The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin foes were tied at 7 after one quarter, tied at 14 at halftime and still tied at 14 after three quarters. But the Thunder opened the fourth quarter with a 32-yard Stefan Knoerr field goal, and it opened a 10-point lead with 7:38 to play on Sola Olateju's 15-yard touchdown run.
When the fourth-ranked Cardinals (11-1) went four-and-out on their next possession, the 12th-ranked Thunder (11-1) added another Olateju touchdown run to put the game out of reach.
Olateju was a big part of the reason the Thunder could grind out a win. He finished with 160 yards and those 2 TDs on 29 carries, enough that the Thunder didn't punt in the second half.
Defensively, the Thunder harassed Cardinals quarterback Broc Rutter throughout the game, sacking him six times and intercepting him once. Rutter, a Neuqua Valley graduate, finished 20-of-35 passing for 222 yards. He also ran for the Cardinals' two touchdowns.
"Our (defensive) line has been eating up front all season long," Sahly said. "They like to work, and they like to get after the quarterback. They did that today, and it was a huge help for us."
"At the end of the day, they ran the football and they pressured the quarterback," Thorne added. "So it was at the line of scrimmage where they won today."
The Thunder will play Mary Hardin-Baylor next week in the quarterfinals, probably in Texas, for the chance to go to the semifinals for the first time since 2008.
"We lost to a really good football team," Thorne said. "Any time you get to the Round of 16 you're going to have really good football teams that you're playing against, and we know Wheaton is because we play them every year. They're going to represent the CCIW really well next week."
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