Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
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Turnovers
Time of Poss.
A gritty, stubborn defensive effort turned the tide for the North Central College football team in Saturday's College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) opener against Wheaton College at McCully Stadium, as the Cardinals overpowered the Thunder, 20-7.
The victory gives North Central possession of the Little Brass Bell, the traveling trophy between the two teams. The Cardinals had not won with the bell on the line since 2016.
Wheaton (1-1) took the game's opening drive 68 yards for a touchdown, but was held in check from then on, finishing with its lowest point total in the rivalry since 2011. The Cardinals punctuated the victory with three straight successful fourth-down stands in the fourth period.
North Central trailed until midway through the second period, when Nic Rummell's 34-yard punt return gave the visitors a short field at the Wheaton 44-yard line. On the next play, Cardinal quarterback Luke Lehnen found DeAngelo Hardy behind the Wheaton defense and delivered a touchdown pass.
The Cardinals took their first lead on the opening drive of the third quarter, covering 87 yards in 10 plays. Lehnen's 39-yard pass to Khori Blair yielded a first down at the Thunder 19-yard line, and a 14-yard pass to Hardy set up first down-and-goal at the 5. A penalty moved the ball to the three-yard line, and Ethan Greenfield crossed the goal line from there to put the guests in front, 14-7, with 9:40 to play in the period. North Central recovered the ensuing kickoff and were within a single yard of another score before the Thunder recovered a fumble.
After its third straight fourth-down stop, North Central (2-0) moved quickly to put the game out of reach as Lehnen delivered a 57-yard completion to Andrew Kamienski before Greenfield scampered 18 yards for a game-clinching touchdown run.
Lehnen accounted for 411 of the Cardinals' 471 yards of total offense, completing 13 of 20 passes for 345 yards and gaining a team-high 66 rushing yards on 21 carries. Kamienski caught seven passes for 191 yards (the seventh-highest single-game yardage total in the program's history), while Hardy made four grabs for 102 yards and Greenfield ran 17 times for 55 yards. Dakota Cremeens, Braden Lindmark and Ben Wong shared the team lead in tackles (7) while Jake Beesley totaled five breakups to move into seventh place in the team's history with 24 for his career.
Wheaton quarterback Luke Anthony completed 23 of 42 passes for 275 yards and the Thunder's lone score of the game, a nine-yard touchdown pass to Spencer Peterson. Giovanni Weeks caught seven passes for 119 yards and ran 13 times for 53.
The Cardinals host Augustana College on Saturday during Homecoming Weekend. The Vikings are 1-1 after a 27-21 overtime loss to Millikin University. Kickoff at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.