No. 1 North Central hits accelerator early against No. 14 Aurora
How does the No. 1 team in Division III get even better? North Central is trying to unleash more speed this season.
Cardinals coach Brad Spencer suggested this might be the fastest team he's seen in the quarter century he's been around the program. The speed certainly showed up on defense Saturday, as North Central made an early statement by building a 31-0 lead on the way to a 48-21 nonconference win at No. 14 Aurora.
“Speed kills,” Spencer said. “That's what we try to recruit, that's what we try to preach, what we try to train. The other thing on defense is having guys that are really mentally locked into their assignments because if you're locked in and know what you're doing, you're able to play faster.”
In a season-opening win at Dubuque, Aurora piled up 32 first downs and 525 total yards. This time the Spartans couldn't get on the scoreboard until just before halftime.
“They're the big brother and it's going to take time to get to the point where we want to go,” said Aurora coach Don Beebe, the former NFL wide receiver. “They're the best team in the country. We didn't play great, but you've got to give them credit, they made us look bad.”
North Central returned eight of its top 12 tackle leaders on defense and had nice balance in Saturday's stats. Grad linebacker B.J. Adamchik led with 8 total tackles, while lineman John Sulivan (Lakes) was second with 7.
“We always come out hot,” said junior cornerback Ethan Groark from Rolling Meadows. “We make that one of our focuses, to come out and punch them in the mouth and I think we did that. We've got a young D-line, which I'm really excited about and then on the back seven, we're super solid.”
Both teams started slowly on offense, but a couple long punt returns by North Central's Jacob Paradee created plus field position and the Cardinals capitalized with 3 touchdown runs by Joe Sacco (St. Edward), along with a pair of field goals from Sean Ryniec (Downers Grove North).
“I think it was just getting the rust off at first,” said Sacco, who finished with 146 yards on 19 carries. “It was our first game in a little bit now. They already got their first game under their belt. Once we were able to get the rust off, we were able to get the train going.”
The big defensive play was an interception by Brayden Garrigan, with Aurora QB Tyler Adkins under heavy pressure. Garrigan returned the pick inside the 10-yard line and it took just one play for senior QB Luke Lehnen to hit Trey Madsen for a 7-yard touchdown.
Madsen (Aurora Christian) is an interesting story, because he's Aurora University's all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, but he transferred to North Central as a graduate student this year.
“It was definitely weird,” Madsen said. “That perspective of trying not to let my emotions get the best of me. Thankfully, my teammates really helped change the perspective of things by having normal conversations with me and keeping my mind off what the game was.”
Adkins (289 yards passing) replaced last year's starter at QB, Ian Luyando (Buffalo Grove), during the Dubuque game and took nearly every snap against North Central.