Sports

North Central rebounds, wins home opener

NAIA Bethel University no match for 15th-ranked Cardinals

That's more like it.

North Central College performed in its home opener Saturday night like many expected them to perform in its season opener a week ago.

D3football.com ranked the Cardinals fourth nationally in its preseason poll only for unranked University of Redlands (Calif.) to hand them their first regular-season loss since 2009, a cold-water wake-up call for sure.

With a new and less-improved national ranking -- 15th -- the Cardinals rebounded from their disappointing loss with a 70-26 win over NAIA Bethel University at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium. The Cardinals (1-1) led 49-10 at halftime, but even earlier it was clear this year's Cardinals could produce a worthy sequel to last year's historical
run to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Playoffs.

"We still have a lot of penalties, so we've got to really work hard on that," Cardinals coach John Thorne said. "But we played a lot more physical, much faster, executed a lot better so now we've gotta get ready for conference. We've got one more try (vs. Olivet College on Sept. 17 in Naperville)."

Midway through the third quarter, the Cardinals recorded their eighth sack of the game, tying a school record and in the process putting behind the 35 points allowed against Redlands.

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Senior defensive back Josh McLeod would not only like to forget the score of the game, he'd like to forget about the game altogether.

"I think we didn't take 'em seriously last week," Mcleod said. "We could have taken 'em more seriously, prepared more, I don't know.

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"I don't want to talk about it ever again."

Most everything else of note seemed to unfold in the first half, when first-teamers from both schools were trying to swing the game their own way. In the first half, Bethel managed only 49 yards of offense on 35 plays while the Cardinals were steadily getting into a rhythm en route to 290 yards (362 through three quarters).

Preseason all-American Kyle Fiedorowicz scored two touchdowns in the second quarter. Fiedorowicz's scores came within 1 minute, 2 seconds of each other and gave the Cardinals the separation they needed on the scoreboard -- making it 28-10 and creating needed momentum.

Fiedorowicz's touchdowns of 32 and 12 yards, respectively, came from quarterback Brad Crackel (6 of 15 for 117 yards and three touchdowns in the first half) and increases his season total from the tight end position to three TDs.

And utilizing the wildcat formation as a threat, Crackel's backfield teammate, Jordan Tassio, rushed for 70 yards on 10 carries in the first.

"Obviously, we didn't want to start the season 0-2," Fiedorowicz said. "All this week we were practicing much more intense. We started the game a little slow, but obviously we finished with a lot of intensity."

North Central's offense benefited from its defense, which recorded two fumble recoveries and two interceptions in the first half. Charles Stewart's 30-yard interception for a touchdown gave the Cardinals a 14-0 lead. Manny Juarez started all the scoring with a 37-yard untouched catch-and-run touchdown along the left sideline. He left the game injured.

Cardinals running back Nick Kukuc joined the fun in the second quarter, finishing drives with touchdown runs of 18 and 7 yards, respectively, to increase the team's lead to 42-10. Kent Ryan capped the first-half scoring with a 15-yard run with 1:04 left in the half and led everyone with 176 yards rushing and three touchdowns.


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