North Central wraps up third straight unbeaten regular season
North Central College wrapped up its third straight unbeaten regular season and celebrated its third straight College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin championship with Saturday's 61-17 victory over Augustana College in Rock Island.
The top-ranked Cardinals (10-0, 9-0 CCIW) - the defending NCAA Division III national champions - receive the CCIW's automatic bid to the playoffs. Pairings and first-round host sites will be announced Sunday at ncaa.com.
The Cardinals gained 617 yards with a balanced effort of 313 rushing yards 304 passing yards. Luke Lehnen finished the day 18 of 23 passing, finding DeAngelo Hardy seven times for a game-high 120 yards. Joe Sacco ran for 135 yards on 15 carries, and now ranks 10th in the Cardinals' history with 1,125 yards this season.
North Central's defense was led by BJ Adamchik's season-high 11 tackles, while Julian Bell and Zack Orr each finished with nine.
Augustana fell to 8-2 overall and 7-2 in the CCIW.
Wheaton 42, North Park 26
The Thunder (9-1, 8-1 CCIW) wrapped up the regular season with a strong chance to receive an at-large berth to the Division III playoffs by rolling up 438 yards of total offense in Chicago.
Quarterback Ben Thorson completed 22 of 29 passes for 239 yards and 4 touchdowns. Running back Giovanni Weeks had 19 carries for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also caught 6 passes for 60 yards with 2 touchdowns.
Tight end Ben Juska had 6 catches for 47 yards and a touchdown. Caleb Titherington had 5 catches for 70 yards. Ben Bonga caught 3 passes for 27 yards and a touchdown.
Linebacker Caleb McClung led Wheaton's defense with 7 tackles, including four solo stops.