FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

FINAL:

NCC   37
Stout  10

The game was highlighted by 3 (of 3) long Nick Dace field goals of 41, 53, and 55 yards. 
The 53 and subsequent 55 yard successful kicks both established new all-time NCC records.

Stanek 13 of 21 for 226 and 2 TDs
Kukuc with 13 carries for 172 (13.2 average)
Joey Michals with 11 tackles including 2 TFL to lead the D

I'll let someone who actually made the journey fill in the details later.

[AndOne]

Top D3 news story of the day..........

Buffalo State knocks off #1 Whitewater 7-6. Shocking!   

[Gregory Sager]

At least there's one good football team in Buffalo.

[79jaybird]

41,53,55, wow!  That is awesome!  What a great tool to have also knowing that you have a solid kicker that can still put points on the board when a drive stalls short of a TD. 

Looks like NC has found their stride which (hey all you NC bashers after week 1) is just like they have done in years past.  I never doubted this NC team was going to be the king (until somebody dethrones them) heading into CCIW play again. 

If you are Elmhurst, I think you NEED a solid, complete game against UC with little to no injury, because their toughest competition to date looms in 2 weeks at Naperville.

[iwu70]

CCIW goes 5-1 today, with only Carthage losing to Wartburg.  Some nice wins.  IWU and MU back in action next week.

Nice kicking day for the player from NCC, for sure.  That's DI range.

IWU70

[Mugsy]

Somethings just don't make sense:

Week 1: Wheaton destroys Benedictine by a score of 48-7, a game that wasn't even close.
Week 2: Albion beats Wheaton 22-21
Week 3: Benedictine beats Albion 32-28

[hazzben]

Somethings just don't make sense:

Week 1: Wheaton destroys Benedictine by a score of 48-7, a game that wasn't even close.
Week 2: Albion beats Wheaton 22-21
Week 3: Benedictine beats Albion 32-28

I was thinking the same thing today.

The Albion loss, the more on field evidence we get as the season progresses, will look more and more like an outlier than the norm IMO.

That was a great way for Wheaton to bounce back, whatever else happens.

[Mugsy]

Somethings just don't make sense:

Week 1: Wheaton destroys Benedictine by a score of 48-7, a game that wasn't even close.
Week 2: Albion beats Wheaton 22-21
Week 3: Benedictine beats Albion 32-28

I was thinking the same thing today.

The Albion loss, the more on field evidence we get as the season progresses, will look more and more like an outlier than the norm IMO.

That was a great way for Wheaton to bounce back, whatever else happens.

I hope so.  Saw some factors I didn't like against Albion, like allowing 8 sacks, 2 TD's on 4th down plays and some really stupid penalities.  Much, much better game today on the whole.

[Gregory Sager]

Somethings just don't make sense:

Week 1: Wheaton destroys Benedictine by a score of 48-7, a game that wasn't even close.
Week 2: Albion beats Wheaton 22-21
Week 3: Benedictine beats Albion 32-28

Albion's starting QB got knocked out of the game. The Britons went through two backups, both freshmen, who were in waaaay over their heads. The first one muffed a shotgun snap at his goal line and had to fall on the ball in the end zone for a safety. Borsellino ran back the ensuing free kick for a TD. Thus, a 28-23 Albion lead in the fourth quarter became a 32-28 Benedictine win.

[hazzben]

Somethings just don't make sense:

Week 1: Wheaton destroys Benedictine by a score of 48-7, a game that wasn't even close.
Week 2: Albion beats Wheaton 22-21
Week 3: Benedictine beats Albion 32-28

Interesting. Was the injury serious?

Albion's starting QB got knocked out of the game. The Britons went through two backups, both freshmen, who were in waaaay over their heads. The first one muffed a shotgun snap at his goal line and had to fall on the ball in the end zone for a safety. Borsellino ran back the ensuing free kick for a TD. Thus, a 28-23 Albion lead in the fourth quarter became a 32-28 Benedictine win.

[NCF]

FINAL:

NCC   37
Stout  10

The game was highlighted by 3 (of 3) long Nick Dace field goals of 41, 53, and 55 yards. 
The 53 and subsequent 55 yard successful kicks both established new all-time NCC records.

Stanek 13 of 21 for 226 and 2 TDs
Kukuc with 13 carries for 172 (13.2 average)
Joey Michals with 11 tackles including 2 TFL to lead the D

I'll let someone who actually made the journey fill in the details later.

Great day for a game (hot and sunny!) and the Cards came out strong taking the lead early and finally putting the game out of reach in the 4th quarter. The third quarter was sloppy by both teams, but the victory was a nice ending to the non-conf. portion of the season. Bye week and then conf. opener under the lights with Elmhurst. Go Cards!!

[USee]

The other final no one mentioned:

Elmhurst 33
U Chicago 0

Elmhurst ran for 256 yds. Two shutouts and only 13 points given up by Elmhurst so far.

My assessment of Elmhurst remains. They are a playoff potential team this year. They can run the ball and have a veteran QB. Their defense appears very good, but I wouldn't put them in the dominant category. My concerns are their balance on Offense and their run defense. They are a 65/35 running team through 3 games. Scottie Williams is the best back in the CCIW and an Alll-American if he stays healthy. That is a pretty big if. He is averaging 27 carries a game, which is up 5 carries a game from last year. Levell Coppage averaged just under 25 carries a game llast year for UWW but they were very balanced offensively. When you run it 65% of the time and one guy has 80% of those carries, he will take a beating over the course of a CCIW schedule. Elmhurst needs to pass the ball more if they are going to make a run at the CCIW title.

Secondly, they gave up 150 yds a game on the ground and 4 yds per rush to Loras (1-2), Trine (1-2) and Chicago (1-2). That's not dominant defense in my book and with NCC coming to town in 2 weeks they will need to stop the run to win.

The jury is still out but this Elmhurst team is as talented as they have had and will not be an easy out for the top 3 in the conference.

[USee]

With Carthage's loss to Wartburg in Kenosha, Tim Rucks made the following comments:

"It wasn't much of game," admitted Carthage coach Tim Rucks.  "We got handled in every phase of the game.  Wartburg did what we thought they would do, but they came more ready to play than we did.  Their offensive line set the tone for the game.  They had a lot of long drives and just ate up the clock.  The two offensive lines were the story, how good theirs was and how little protection we offered our quarterback.  If there was a bright spot, our special teams play was very good.  If you invest in something like Carthage football, you need to be embarrassed by a game like this.  Our job between now and Lakeland next Saturday night is to get this right."

That is in stark contrast to the comments he made last week following their win @Adrian:

"...I think we have the best defensive line in the league—they're pretty good.  It's the strength of our team right now."

Yesterday Carthage gave up 458 yds of offense to Wartburg (2-1, unranked) including 208 yds rushing. They sacked Wartburg 3 times.  It may be that Wartburg is a lot better than anyone realizes or it may be that Coach Rucks was a little premature in his evaluation of his CCIW opponents. I think IWU and NCC have the best defensive line's at this point in the season. But that is based on projection and limited stats right now.

[NCF]

The other final no one mentioned:

Elmhurst 33
U Chicago 0

Elmhurst ran for 256 yds. Two shutouts and only 13 points given up by Elmhurst so far.

My assessment of Elmhurst remains. They are a playoff potential team this year. They can run the ball and have a veteran QB. Their defense appears very good, but I wouldn't put them in the dominant category. My concerns are their balance on Offense and their run defense. They are a 65/35 running team through 3 games. Scottie Williams is the best back in the CCIW and an Alll-American if he stays healthy. That is a pretty big if. He is averaging 27 carries a game, which is up 5 carries a game from last year. Levell Coppage averaged just under 25 carries a game llast year for UWW but they were very balanced offensively. When you run it 65% of the time and one guy has 80% of those carries, he will take a beating over the course of a CCIW schedule. Elmhurst needs to pass the ball more if they are going to make a run at the CCIW title.

Secondly, they gave up 150 yds a game on the ground and 4 yds per rush to Loras (1-2), Trine (1-2) and Chicago (1-2). That's not dominant defense in my book and with NCC coming to town in 2 weeks they will need to stop the run to win.

The jury is still out but this Elmhurst team is as talented as they have had and will not be an easy out for the top 3 in the conference.

Elmhurst is never an easy out.

[USee]

Somethings just don't make sense:

Week 1: Wheaton destroys Benedictine by a score of 48-7, a game that wasn't even close.
Week 2: Albion beats Wheaton 22-21
Week 3: Benedictine beats Albion 32-28

Albion's starting QB got knocked out of the game. The Britons went through two backups, both freshmen, who were in waaaay over their heads. The first one muffed a shotgun snap at his goal line and had to fall on the ball in the end zone for a safety. Borsellino ran back the ensuing free kick for a TD. Thus, a 28-23 Albion lead in the fourth quarter became a 32-28 Benedictine win.

Your explanation of events explains the loss but not the level of competitiveness. Albion still scored   about the same amount of points offensively as they did vs Wheaton and gave up more to Benedictine than they did Wheaton.

I was very surprised by this score. In the end it's all meaningless. I think what we can know from all of this is that Wheaton will struggle in CCIW play without more playmakers on offense and better OLine play. Poor exectuion and injuries have played a part, but that's football. They will need to put it together if they want to be competitive in the CCIW.