FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[USee]

Clayton Thorsen, brother of Thunder WR Luke and son of Crusader legend LB Chad, just led Northwestern to an upset victory over #21 ranked Stanford. As a true freshman! Congrats Thorsens!

Clayton is actually a Redshirt Freshman but congratulations as well!

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 23
Concordia (WI) 16

A bit ragged, but some real high points as well for NPU, especially on defense. Always nice to start off the season with a road win.

[mr_b]

North Park 23
Concordia (WI) 16

A bit ragged, but some real high points as well for NPU, especially on defense. Always nice to start off the season with a road win.

Thanks for the webcast!  I hoped to watch the video feed at the same time but it was really choppy.

[gbpuckfan]

St. Norbert beats Carthage 35-6.

CC moved the ball very well at times... but turned the ball over 5 or 6 times, flubbed a FG snap, and made other mistakes.

SNC had scoring plays of 30, 57 and 66 yards, plus an 84 yard INT for TD. I think CC's biggest play was  a 25 yard run to open the second half - which was fumbled away to SNC.

CC did a good job much of the day on defense, but forced no turnovers and couldn't stop those big plays.

Cleanup some of the mistakes and Red Men have some good players, it seemed.

[Mugsy]

Wheaton defeats Coe by a score of 52-14. 

Wheaton with 574 yards offense (216 rushing, 358 passing)
Peltz finished 24 of 35 for 350 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT

Two receivers over 100 yards (Thorson 9-116, Norton 6-118)
Jordan Shive was leading rusher with 7 carries for 93 yards

Good 1st half by the defense allowing only 126 yards, more yards in the 2nd half during mop-up time.

[markerickson]

The NU QB's name is spelled Thorson, which means he is of Swedish descent.  He brought the hammer to Stanford today.  If his name was spelled Thorsen, then he would be Danish.  If his surname was Thorsson, then he would be of Norwegian stock.  My mom is a Sorensen as her dad came to America from Denmark in his early 20s and my farfar, i.e., father's father, came to America from Sweden when he was one year old.

[Mr. Ypsi]

FINALLY a final from Franklin, IN (halftime stretched out more than three hours due to lightning - the game ended over six hours after it began):  IWU 34, FC 24.  Jack Warner was nearly perfect in the first half (10 of 11 for 153 yards and 3 TDs); not so much in the second (6 for 13 for 48 yards and no TDs).  (I never could get the video to work, and Live Stats doesn't distinguish between poor throws and receiver drops [or great defense], so the fall off may or may not be a reflection on Jack.)  Artie Checchin was great as usual:  4 rushes for 67 yards; 4 receptions for 61 yards - he led IWU in both categories.

[thunderdog]

The NU QB's name is spelled Thorson, which means he is of Swedish descent.  He brought the hammer to Stanford today.  If his name was spelled Thorsen, then he would be Danish.  If his surname was Thorsson, then he would be of Norwegian stock.  My mom is a Sorensen as her dad came to America from Denmark in his early 20s and my farfar, i.e., father's father, came to America from Sweden when he was one year old.

If this doesn't prompt a guest appearance by MadSwede, don't know what will.

No offense intended for the Swedes, Norwegians, nor the Great Danes. Just a typo, actually a guess on my part

[Gregory Sager]

NPU dominated the game statistically against CUW, putting up 122 more yards of offense than did the Falcons and generating a lot more big plays than the hosts were able to manage. What held North Park back, and what kept the game close, was turnovers. The Vikings coughed up the ball four times, including two costly fumbles inside their own 20-yard line that led to CUW's two touchdowns. Other than that, it was really a solid day for the Vikes.

T.D. Conway was not at his best today (26-55, 283 yds, 1 td, 2 int), but he more than kept the Falcons on their toes with his ability to stretch the field with his arm in addition to throwing short, an ability his CUW counterpart Aaron Nixon doesn't have. The surprise star in the passing game was Jordan Turner, the sophomore from the Seattle area who is sort of the unheralded fourth wheel at WR alongside Devin Childress, Dakota Conway, and Anthony Burton. Turner had six catches for 83 yards, including a terrific 27-yard connection for what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown in the third quarter. But the most gratifying bonus on offense was the running of sophomore John Wilkinson and freshman Kvonte Spearman. After being stymied for only five yards on eleven carries in the first half, the Vikings running backs slashed for some big gains in the second half, as in the end the Park outrushed CUW by 44 yards despite carrying the ball 11 fewer times.

The big surprise was on defense. NPU trends more youth and inexperience on that side of the ball, but the Vikings D was really solid all day. The Falcons gained 270 yards on the afternoon, which was only 3.3 yards per play, with the vast majority of that yardage coming in the middle of the field. As I said, the two CUW touchdowns came on very short fields following NPU turnovers. NPU defenders sacked Nixon, a running QB, six times and did a great job of containing him and bottling him up in the middle whenever he decided to tuck and run. North Park has a lot more team speed on all three levels of defense now, and the Vikings are able to do a much better job of closing down on ballcarriers than I can remember them doing in the past.

Shout out to senior kicker Noah Moore, who became the third kicker in North Park history to notch three field goals in a game. He joins Art Anderson (1968 vs. Elmhurst) and my good friend Ryan Johnson (2002 vs. Illinois Wesleyan) in that category -- a nice reward for his day, given the up-and-down career he's had with the Vikes. NPU's other kicking specialist, punter John Gieseking, had a great day as well, netting 38 yards per punt (including one he somehow got off after the snap nearly sailed over his head) and pinning the Falcons twice inside their 10-yard line. The second time he did it was with 3:17 left in the game and the Vikings clinging to their seven-point lead. Gieseking's punt was downed at the CUW 9, and with all that real estate behind them the Vikings were able to relax and focus upon keeping the Falcons in front of them.

It was a promising start to the season. I suspect, though, that St. Norbert is going to prove a much tougher customer next week in the home opener at Hedstrand Field than was CUW, given the pasting that the Green Knights handed Carthage today.

[AndOne]

But pasting is what most teams will likely do to the dub-yas of the CCIW this season. SNC may be a good team, but it isn't because they made the Redmen look like their feet were glued to the turf.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin knocks off Greenville, 34-16, at Lindsay Field. The Big Blue was down 3-0 at the half. It would've been interesting to be a fly on the wall of the MU locker room during halftime.

[Gregory Sager]

Augie hangs on to beat Mt. St. Joe, 42-39, in a hairy one over in the QC. So the CCIW goes 6-1 on opening day.

[Mugsy]

Augie hangs on to beat Mt. St. Joe, 42-39, in a hairy one over in the QC. So the CCIW goes 6-1 on opening day.

A much, much better start than last year, that's for sure.

[USee]

Biggest shocker of the day yesterday for me was Benedictine over Central 21-19. The game was played @Central, who was picked to finish 2nd to Wartburg in the IIAC. Kickoff has the IIAC rannked as the 8th best conference, just ahead of the CCIW. That's a reality check result. For Benedictine, that was the hardest game on their schedule.

2nd most surprising is UWSP, picked to finish 4th in the WIAC, losing @Albion, 65-52. I don't know if I was more surprised by the result, where UWSP gave up 21 pts in the last 3minutes of the game, or the score, which is a  lot of points. I'll be very interested to see UWSP v Augie this Saturday.

[sac]

2nd most surprising is UWSP, picked to finish 4th in the WIAC, losing @Albion, 65-52. I don't know if I was more surprised by the result, where UWSP gave up 21 pts in the last 3minutes of the game, or the score, which is a  lot of points. I'll be very interested to see UWSP v Augie this Saturday.

Albion had a 90 yard scoring drive that put them ahead 52-45 with about 4 min left.  On the ensuing drive UWSP went for 4th and 1 on their own 25 and didn't get it.  Albion scored in 2 plays, next drive UWSP threw a pick 6 to make it Albion 65 UWSP 45.  UWSP then drove 47 yards in the last minute to score their final touchdown.

Prior to the final 3 minutes the largest lead in the game for either team was 13 for Albion and that lasted 47 seconds.
http://miaa.org/sports/fball/2015-16/boxscores/20150905_984d.xml

Albion plays at Augustana next Saturday