Small school, big results: Sacco powers North Central’s rushing attack
On the list of high schools that typically produce college football talent, maybe St. Edward in Elgin (current enrollment 268) doesn't rank all that high.
But that's where North Central College found one of its best offensive weapons. Bartlett native Joe Sacco has been the Cardinals' leading rusher the past two years.
In 2023 he led all of Division III in rushing yards and averaged a ridiculous 9.8 yards per carry. His numbers are a little down this year due to an off-season injury, but he piled up 198 yards on just 10 carries in the Cardinals' playoff opener last weekend.
North Central's quest to reach its fifth straight Division III title game continues at noon Saturday against Hope (Michigan) in Naperville.
Sacco comes from a large, extended Italian family. They'd gather frequently for birthday parties at his Nonna's house in Norridge, and there were times when switching high schools was a topic of discussion.
“Some of my relatives live in Park Ridge and my cousins went to Maine South,” Sacco said. “So my dad actually talked to me about maybe transferring there. But I didn't want to leave my teammates, my friends I already made, because I feel that connection helps me play better.”
Sacco grew up playing for the Bartlett Raiders youth program and one of his best friends was heading to St. Edward, so he and his family felt that was a good fit. And the Green Wave did have a nice run of success, making seven trips to the playoffs from 2009-19.
When Sacco was playing in high school, North Central head coach Brad Spencer was still an assistant and Elgin was part of his recruiting territory. So the connection came from due diligence and Spencer checking in on all his schools searching for football talent.
“What caught our eye about him is he was player of the year in the conference and he never came off the field,” Spencer said. “He was on the field for every special team, every offensive play, every defensive play. Any time you're player of the year in the conference, you're probably a good football player, regardless of school or league.”
Sacco actually did some of his best work during his junior season in 2019, since his senior year was pushed to the spring by COVID.
“You watched his film and saw this guy running around, running past everybody everywhere,” Spencer said. “It was like, 'We've got to recruit this kid.' Good grades as well.”
Sacco played a lot of baseball growing up and often had tournaments at North Central. So he was familiar with the school, maybe not its football history, but that was just getting started at the time. During his four years of college, the Cardinals have lost just two games.
One of those was a 1-point defeat to SUNY-Cortland in last season's Division III title game. Once the team returned home, Sacco was diagnosed with a fractured pelvis, which required roughly six months of rest.
“I was on crutches for four months,” Sacco said. “I wasn't able to do anything until June or July.”
The craziest part of the story is Sacco ran for 157 yards against Cortland. He gained some, if not all, of those yards despite the injury.
“It shows you how tough the kid is to be able to play through that,” Spencer said. “But then it caused him for about half a year to rest. Couldn't work out, couldn't train. We knew it was going to take a little bit of time this season to get him back going.”
Sacco missed two games this season but rushed for 146 yards in the season opener against Aurora. As the top-ranked team in Division III, North Central doesn't usually have competitive regular-season games. But the Cardinals have to be ready to face the best competition in the playoffs.
It's possible Saturday's contest will be North Central's last home game of the playoffs. If the seeds hold, the Cardinals would travel for a rematch at Cortland next week, then possibly a semifinal matchup at top overall seed St. John's (Minnesota).
“We just treat every week the same,” Sacco said. “We prepare the same as if we're going to play in the national championship or it's the second week of the season. The coaches hold us to that. We can't play to our opponent, we have to play to our standard.”