Sports
North Central Defense Pitches Shutout at Carthage College
Behind an 80-yard touchdown run from Jordan Tassio and a stifling defense, No. 9 North Central College went on the road to defeat Carthage College 24-0 on Saturday in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin opener.
In nine seasons as the defensive coordinator, Rick Ponx had never seen the unit he coaches record a shutout.
Until now.
The No. 9 Cardinals needed every bit of their defensive effort to stymy Carthage College 24-0 Saturday in Kenosha in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin opener.
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“The last two weeks we talked a lot about it,” Ponx said about the shutout. "We thought we were going to get it last week, but had some breakdowns with some of our younger kids. This week, we just challenged our kids— this is an offense, if they’re going to run the football, we should be able to shut them out."
North Central (3-1, 1-0 CCIW) got a 14-yard touchdown run from Nick Kukuc in the first quarter after a short field was provided to the offense.
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Jordan Tassio added an 80-yard touchdown burst up the middle in the second quarter, finishing with 140 yards on the ground.
"Coach challenged the running backs that we weren't running hard," Tassio said. "We decided to respond. The hole opened up and the offensive line did a great job. The hole was there and I once I got past the second line it was off to the races."
The Cardinals' offense sputtered after that, however.
Nick Dace kicked a 23-yard field in the fourth quarter to make it 17-0, and North Central defensive lineman Alex Tripp blocked a punt, which linebacker Kane Thompson recovered on the Carthage 5-yard line and ran in for the final score.
The defense was especially challenged to stop the Red Men (3-1, 0-1) and their misdirection running game. North Central held the Carthage offense to just 2.8 yards per rush after getting pushed around a little bit early.
After allowing 78 yards on the ground in the first quarter, the Cardinals allowed just 53 the rest of the way, while forcing a turnover and three turnover-on-downs.
“We’d been hearing all week about how they were saying they were the No. 1 defense in the country,” Tripp said. “We just wanted to send a message, send it to the rest of the CCIW and not just them.”
Message received, loud and clear.
