FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

And 44-21 is now the final.

[CardinalAlum]

What a game!!!!  Cards completely dominated the first half of play.  Wenger is a beast and Fanthorpe is the man!  The Cardinal O and D lines stepped up and really took control of this game early.  I was worried when Wheaton came right down the field and scored to start the 2nd half.  The scoreboard at Wheaton is awesome.  Did it seem like the Wheaton crowd was rather sparse?  NC fans filled the visiting bleachers plus the smaller bleachers on the home side and lined the West end zone.  Great turnout by the Cardinal faithful!  Way to go Cards!

[CardinalAlum]

I'm anxious to see Usee's take on the game and have him spell out North Central!!  Usee, I borrowed your saying from your profile!!

[Matilda]

With NCC's win tonight, it makes me wonder where they will land in the polls...now I know the polls don't mean diddally-poo and that they are just something for fans and former players to brag about BUT.........

The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ranked teams go down today. There are two teams currently ahead of the Cards who did not lose today.  They are Wabash and Muhlenberg.
Could winning the little brass bell sling the cards at least to a number 3 ranking? We'll find out next time on d3football.com (tv batman theme music)

[Mugsy]

Congrats to North Central.  Clearly the better team won tonight.

I've said it all year... I thought Wheaton was ranked a bit higher than I think they should be. 

Regarding tonight... I'm baffled.  I don't know what to say (but I'll ramble on anyway).   

On the one hand, NCC took it to Wheaton in all facets of the game.  On the other hand, that is the most pedestrian I've seen Wheaton play in awhile.  Perhaps that is mostly attributed to how NCC played, but still... If Wheaton played Augie, Carthage, Elmhurst or IWU tonight, they would have come out with a loss as well.

CardinalAlum said it... Wenger is a beast!  As a former LB, I love to watch how he plays the game.  He is all over the field and he delivers the lumber when he gets there.  Fanthorpe is the real deal.  He threaded some passes in where I did not think it would be completed.  In the first half I swore Ittersagen had an interception, yet Fanthorpe squeeze the ball into the TE.  His recognition of the game is impressive.  Early in the 2nd half Wheaton came on a full blitz and Fanthorpe recognized it almost instantly.  He stepped up in the pocket and scrambled up the gut for 20+ yards.

Unfortunately there were way too many open receivers - WAY OPEN!  I counted at least 3 broken coverages in the first half.  You will not beat a top 10 team with broken coverages, and TURNOVERS.  Yuck!

NCC played a much cleaner game than in past weeks.  Far less penalities.  Far less mental errors.  Only 4 penalities for the game - I think.

What scares me most is how young this NCC team is.  Next year could be really disgusting for the CCIW.

[Mugsy]

What a game!!!!  Cards completely dominated the first half of play.  Wenger is a beast and Fanthorpe is the man!  The Cardinal O and D lines stepped up and really took control of this game early.  I was worried when Wheaton came right down the field and scored to start the 2nd half.  The scoreboard at Wheaton is awesome.  Did it seem like the Wheaton crowd was rather sparse?  NC fans filled the visiting bleachers plus the smaller bleachers on the home side and lined the West end zone.  Great turnout by the Cardinal faithful!  Way to go Cards!

Regarding the crowd.  Where I was sitting there were people sitting in the isles.  It seemed packed to me.

[FormerCard]

I dont think many people thought the game would play out the way it did, including me.  I thought it was the turnovers that really hurt the Thunder.  Gingg never really got going except for one drive in the beginning of the 3rd quarter. 

Wenger  played extremely well early and helped set the tone for the entire game with 2 hits in the 1st quarter...the kid was all over the field.

I was extremely impressed with Ittersagens sure tackling.   The problem for Wheaton is that when you have an athlete like that, and he plays corner  he is not going to be around the ball nearly enough.  I did see that he returned a few kicks (as well as punts) but I dont think he had been returning kicks all year?

NC was by far the better team today.  If Wheaton wins out, will they get a Pool C bid with a 9-1 record (provided North Central wins out and gets the AQ).

[usee]

This is a reality in the CCIW. There is a new sheriff is town: The North Central Cardinals. There is no way around it. They are a better team than every other team in this conference. I was very impressed with the cardinals tonight. Wheaton turned it over 4x to NCC's 0 but even without the turnovers I think NCC is 7-10 pts better than Wheaton. And there are not many Sr's on this NCC team. This is as good a CCIW team as I have seen in a long time. NCC dominated both Line of Scrimmages and they outplayed as well as outcoached Wheaton in every phase. Congratulations to the Cardinals on a much deserved victory.

I will say this: I have been watching CCIW football for over 25 yrs and Matt Wenger is as good a linebacker as this league has ever seen. That is saying something when there have been some great ones. He reminds me of Jon Munch from IWU in the mid 90's. He isn't as big as Chad Thorsen (but he is as good) from Wheaton but he is better than a VanWetzinga (who was awesome). He was a treat to watch, even as he destroyed my Thunder. He is also significantly better than DPOY Lenny Radtke, who was a great LB.

For the game I was very surprised with the Wheaton game plan. It seemed they thought they could run right at NCC which was a mistake. I thought the only advantage they had on the field was their WR's vs the NCC corners and they didn't get to that until the second half. Then I was shocked they didn't run the no huddle by midway thru the 3rd quarter.

And who the heck is kyle fiedorstorkevitch? #89 is some basketball player turned all american tonight. I thought the NCC offense would struggle without Jones, Rubin, Macintosh and welch, but up comes some freshman TE who makes mincemeat out of the wheaton secondary.

the reality is NCC is loaded with excellent players and they aren't going anywhere. They are for sure a top 3 team (nationally) for the next 2 years at least.

congrats. I will be very surprised to see NCC tested at all the next few weeks and they have a good chance at a #1 or #2 seed in the playoffs.

[usee]

Has any team won both CCIW Offensive and Defensive POY?  After tonight's performance, I don't know two better candidates.

yes, it's happened many times. Go back and look at the Augie teams from the 80's. I think they won both awards every year. Also happened several times in the 90's if I recall.

[robertgoulet]

North Central is one of the hardest hitting teams I've seen in the CCIW in my (obviously somewhat green) 8 years watching CCIW football. Even when Wheaton was driving in the 2nd half NCC was still laying the wood.

I was really impressed with Fanthorpe's arm strength, he threaded some passes in there that I didn't think he could make.

A lot of blitzing tonight from NCC, I don't know if it was broken plays or what, but I can't get my head around why Wheaton didn't run more plays for their QB. NCC ran a couple QB draws when Wheaton was blitzing and absolutely torched them on it, with the way the Wheaton QB was running on a few of those plays I would think he could have done some damage...maybe on a play-action bootleg w/ the run option or something. That said, other than 2 ill-advised play-calls (2nd half, deep passes), I thought NCC's coordinators called a heck of a game.

Great atmosphere tonight. I really enjoyed my spot in the Wheaton stands at the very top of the west side. I don't know if this is enough to move NCC up to #2 but I sure do hope they do. Let's just keep our eyes peeled for a possible letdown next week.

Little Brass Bell is where it belongs!

[Matilda]

/quote]

You say some wise things Mr. Goulet, you don't seem like the type of person that would use an understudy on opening night

[RadioNotes]

Cardinal Fans lets all help the team keep from taking
this win to the extreme.  Hopefully there are enough
SRs/JRs to keep the younger players from getting too
full of themselves.  YES, they did beat one of the better
CCIW teams...but they still have to keep humble and
play well for the last 3 conference games! Pride goeth
before the fall can strike at any time in the CCIW--as
we have seen in years past.  Teams you are often
expected to beat suddenly come up with a huge game
against the "ranked" opponent!! AND if you don't continue
to work hard the playoffs can quickly become a nightmare 

Meanwhile--sorry thunder fans but may the bell be kept
warm and shiny in the "southern exposure" it will enjoy with the Cards!

[Carthage Fan]

Wasn't expecting that in Kenosha last night.  I thought after giving the Elmhurst game away and being in the NCC game till the end that we had a good shot at Augie.  Credit Augie with a good game plan and executing well on both sides of the ball.  They basically kicked our butts.  We could not keep consistent drives going on O and were only able to hold them a couple times on D.

In defense of the Red Men we had several key players out on both D and O and a couple that were playing injured.  We had to start a couple guys at positions they do not normally play and had a number of freshman on both sides of the ball.  No excuses, just facts.  Fully healthy I would think we would have been more competitive.

Need to regroup to try to finish out strong.  

[CardinalAlum]

With NCC's win tonight, it makes me wonder where they will land in the polls...now I know the polls don't mean diddally-poo and that they are just something for fans and former players to brag about BUT.........

The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ranked teams go down today. There are two teams currently ahead of the Cards who did not lose today.  They are Wabash and Muhlenberg.
Could winning the little brass bell sling the cards at least to a number 3 ranking? We'll find out next time on d3football.com (tv batman theme music)

Who cares?!!  This isn't about polls, this is about winning 3 more CCIW games and getting a high seed in the playoffs.  Take care of what you can control.  I do worry a little about a letdown, but hopefully with Weenie week, that won't happen.

[matblake]

Congrats to North Central.  I think they seriously exposed Wheaton's deficientcies (sp?).  I'm sure that Carthage and IWU will seriously thank North Central for that.  The Cardinals kept their focus, which seemed to have been a problem for them in past games.  That Wenger kid was awesome.  One of those players that you hate to see on the opposing team, but you just can't take your eyes off him because his style of play is beautiful and efficient. 

I did think that Wheaton over thought itself on defense.  It got to the point when I would just think "First Down, North Central" when the "dime" package would come on the field.   North Central executed beautifully.  The difference in this game, IMO the Cardinal offensive line.  Barely any pressure on Fanthorpe all game.  Good scheme for the oline guys. 

I also think that Wheaton was a bit too stubborn in their offensive strategy.  I don't think that they have the same talent level at wide receiver as they have had in the past.  Pokorny is an good receiver, but there doesn't seem to be that second guy who rises to the level of the #1 guy.

Congrats Cardinals, enjoy the Bell.  Let's get together and discuss possesion again, say next year.  How about on October 24, 2009?