Buena Vista has updated their schedule: https://bvuathletics.com/sports/football/schedule

Road trip to Benedictine and a home game against Wisconsin Lutheran

4/23

St. Norbert at Wisconsin Lutheran (DH): Honestly it depends on which team for both sides show up in this one. WLC trending in the wrong direction while SNC has shown signs of life but found a way to split a series with Northland this week.

Concordia Chicago at Illinois Tech (DH): Scarlet Hawks are in desperation mode with their recent slide especially after St. Norbert swept them. CUC rolls here.

Aurora at Dominican (DH): See WLC vs St. Norbert comment as that applies here as well. AU has their top end of the rotation going here but the Stars pitching shut down WLC over the weekend.

Lakeland at Edgewood (DH): Muskies are playing out the string at this point. Eagles keep their hopes alive here.

Marian at Rockford (DH): Could go either way. Rockford has been playing good ball to this point but I can't count out Marian here.

MSOE at Concordia Wisconsin (DH): Raiders can't be caught looking ahead here to their showdown with Aurora Saturday. CUW has shown that they can be a thorn in the side of the front runners this year.

Rest of the week's games:

4/23

St. Norbert at Wisconsin Lutheran (DH)
Concordia Chicago at Illinois Tech (DH)
Aurora at Dominican (DH)
Lakeland at Edgewood (DH)
Marian at Rockford (DH)
MSOE at Concordia Wisconsin (DH)

BYE: Benedictine

4/24

Marian at Ripon (NC)
Elmhurst at Dominican (NC)

4/26

Concordia Chicago at Wisconsin Lutheran
Dominican at Edgewood
Benedictine at Marian
Aurora at MSOE
Rockford at St. Norbert
Illinois Tech at Concordia Wisconsin

BYE: Lakeland

4/27

Aurora vs Webster (at Illinois Wesleyan)

Yesterday's Scores

St. Norbert 4-10 Northland 13-0 (What is this St. Norbert team again? Sweep Tech and split a series against 3-27 Northland?)

MSOE 14 North Park 5
#25 Chicago 11 Illinois Tech 3

UW-Platteville vs Edgewood was postponed.

NACC Standings as of 4/22

MSOE 18-13 (12-4)
Aurora 17-14 (12-6)
Concordia Chicago 20-13 (11-7)
Benedictine 19-13 (11-7)
Marian 15-15 (9-7)
Rockford 18-12 (8-8)
Concordia Wisconsin 16-15 (8-8)
Edgewood 14-16 (8-8)
Wisconsin Lutheran 13-16 (8-8)
Dominican 14-16 (6-10)
Illinois Tech 10-21 (6-10)
St. Norbert 11-19 (5-11)
Lakeland 10-23 (4-14)

Still gonna be a crazy dash to the finish I feel.

Quote from: RFMichigan on April 08, 2025, 02:08:59 PM

Quote from: Gregulator316 on February 21, 2025, 12:36:07 PMI saw that Charlie Drewek moved from DC at St. Norbert to DC at Concordia chi. 
Interesting move going from the Best Defense in the conference to the worst. I'm curious to see how much the Cougars can improve in his first year running that D.

I am pleased to see this. CUC's defense literally has nowhere to go but up as they had the worst scoring defense in the country last year. I'm curious what lured him to River Forest.

And that's with Eureka (and they still allowed 27 points to them) on the schedule. Big woof on that D

Dominican held on to beat Loras 10-8 Thursday.

Today's Matchups

St. Norbert at Illinois Tech (DH): Scarlet Hawks badly need a sweep here after getting ran off the diamond by Aurora Tuesday to drop five of six games. St. Norbert does not strike me as a team that is a basement dweller with how competitive they have been in most of their losses so it wouldn't shock me that they could earn a split here.

Marian at Aurora (DH): Which Aurora team shows up here? Will it be the one that has the ability to dominate or will it be the one that can't get out of it's own way at times. Marian has dropped four of six heading into this matchup but they aren't a team that isn't gonna go quietly here. This is an interesting matchup regardless.

MSOE at Rockford (DH): Offense was on full display Tuesday for the Raiders yet they only walked away with a split thus allowing Aurora to climb back to a game behind. Rockford executed wonderfully against a hot CUC team to sweep the Cougars. Can they do it again here?

Lakeland at Concordia Chicago: Muskies are skidding badly losing nine straight and 10 of 11 overall. Now they travel to face a ticked off Cougars team that got swept Tuesday by Rockford. The beatings might continue here.

Wisconsin Lutheran at Dominican (DH): Warriors already equaled the amount of conference wins they had the last two years combined before the BenU matchup. Then the Eagles came in and handed WLC their first sweep loss of league play to this point. Now they travel down to River Forest for a big series against Dominican. If they want to keep with the leaders, they need to get at least a split here. The Stars are struggling losing 10 of 12 but might be looking to play spoiler the rest of the way.

Edgewood at Benedictine: WI Eagles got a much needed split against MSOE Tuesday and now face the hottest team in the league in Benedictine who is hitting lights out. Gotta feel that Benedictine continues their march up the standings here.

Concordia Wisconsin at North Central (IL) (NC DH)

4/16 Scores

Beloit 13 MSOE 12
Marian 10 Carroll 3

Dominican up 4-0 on Loras in the 4th....looks like it might run into weather issues as well looking at the radar.

Good on Rockford yesterday.

Gonna do a quick rundown on what schedule each team has going forward. It might be 11 or 12 league wins might be the deciding factor on who gets into the conference tournament.

MSOE: at Rockford, at CUW, vs Aurora, vs WLC, vs Lakeland
Aurora: vs Marian, at Dominican, at MSOE, vs Edgewood
Edgewood: at Benedictine, vs Lakeland, vs Dominican, at Aurora, at St. Norbert
Marian: at Aurora, at Rockford, vs Benedictine, at Lakeland, vs WLC
WLC: at Dominican, vs St. Norbert, vs CUC, at MSOE, at Marian
CUC: vs Lakeland, at Illinois Tech, at WLC, at CUW
Benedictine: vs Edgewood, at Marian, vs Illinois Tech, vs Rockford
Rockford: vs MSOE, vs Marian, at St. Norbert, vs Dominican, at Benedictine
CUW: vs MSOE, vs Illinois Tech, at St. Norbert, at CUC
Illinois Tech: vs. St. Norbert, vs CUC, at CUW, at Benedictine, at Dominican
Dominican: vs WLC, vs Aurora, at Edgewood, at Rockford, vs Illinois Tech
Lakeland: at CUC, at Edgewood, vs Marian, at MSOE
St. Norbert: at Illinois Tech, at WLC, vs Rockford, vs CUW, vs Edgewood

Dominican still has an outside shot at a conference tournament bid but they have an steep uphill climb. Lakeland and St. Norbert will be playing spoiler from here on out but the former might be gravitating back to where they were predicted to finish. AU vs MSOE might decided the conference while Benedictine rise up the standings will be something to watch. WLC has two big series starting this weekend to rack up as many wins as possible to feel somewhat confident in their chances though like every team in that logjam, there are plenty of chances to pull off surprising results.

St. Norbert 11-2 Lakeland 9-0
Rockford 17-9 Concordia Chicago 8-7: What....
Aurora 18-10 Illinois Tech 3-0:
Benedictine 21-7 Wisconsin Lutheran 5-2
Edgewood 17-10 MSOE 20-0
Marian 10-7 Concordia Wisconsin 4-9

NACC Standings

MSOE 16-11 (11-3)
Aurora 16-13 (11-5)
Edgewood 14-14 (8-6)
Marian 13-14 (8-6)
Wisconsin Lutheran 13-14 (8-6)
Concordia Chicago 18-13 (9-7)
Benedictine 17-13 (9-7)
Rockford 17-11 (7-7)
Concordia Wisconsin 16-13 (8-8)
Illinois Tech 10-18 (6-8)
Dominican 11-16 (4-10)
Lakeland 10-21 (4-12)
St. Norbert 8-18 (3-11)

This league refuses to settle in some sort of tiers. We have 8 teams within two games of each other with 8-10 league games for all teams left on their schedules.

Today's Matchups

St. Norbert at Lakeland (DH): Battle of two teams most likely making up the bottom of the league this year. Was thinking this was Lakeland's for the taking but they have been struggling lately losing seven straight. St. Norbert also has a seven game skid but has shown to be a bit more competitive in their losses. Won't be shocked if SNC sweeps this.

Rockford at Concordia Chicago (DH): CUC is red hot at the moment. Regents got a much needed sweep over Lakeland Saturday to keep within shouting distance of the midpack. However this might be a bit too much for the Regents here against a CUC team showing flashes of their old form from years past.

Benedictine at Wisconsin Lutheran (DH): Eagles are mashing the ball very well as of late and look primed to continue their hot play as of late. WLC might be over their heads here but stranger things have happened during league play so far.

Aurora at Illinois Tech (DH): Spartans find themselves out of the league lead after getting swept at CUW Saturday. Tech got a split at WLC Saturday but still hasn't separated themselves from the logjam in the middle of the league. I want to say AU is favored but they haven't played up to their expectations at times.

Concordia Wisconsin at Marian (DH): CUW got a shocking sweep over then league leader Aurora Saturday in Mequon while Marian got swept by CUC. Still this will be a close DH and I could see it going either way.

MSOE at Edgewood (DH): Alright MSOE can you hold onto the NACC lead? Raiders are hot winning eight straight heading into this one. Eagles need a split here because Benedictine awaits after this one and can't afford to have a cold streak as league play winds down.

This week's schedule

4/15

St. Norbert at Lakeland (DH)
Rockford at Concordia Chicago (DH)
Benedictine at Wisconsin Lutheran (DH)
Aurora at Illinois Tech (DH)
Concordia Wisconsin at Marian (DH)
MSOE at Edgewood (DH)

4/16

MSOE at Beloit (NC)
Carroll at Marian (NC)

4/17

Loras at Dominican (NC)

4/19

Concordia Wisconsin at North Central (IL) (NC DH)
St. Norbert at Illinois Tech (DH)
Edgewood at Benedictine (DH)
Marian at Aurora (DH)
MSOE at Rockford (DH)
Wisconsin Lutheran at Dominican (DH)
Lakeland at Concordia Chicago (DH)

4/12 Scores

MOSE 11-14 Dominican Dominican 6-4
Concordia Chicago 4-14 Marian 2-7
Concordia Wisconsin 10-5 Aurora 0-4: Whoa
Benedictine 11-15 St. Norbert 9-9
Rockford 11-8 Lakeland 2-5
Wisconsin Lutheran 3-10 Illinois Tech 6-4
Wheaton 11-14 Edgewood 6-15

NACC Standings after 4/12

MSOE 15-10 (10-2)
Wisconsin Lutheran 13-12 (8-4)
Concordia Chicago 18-11 (9-5)
Aurora 14-13 (9-5)
Edgewood 13-13 (7-5)
Marian 12-13 (7-5)
Concordia Wisconsin 15-12 (7-7)
Benedictine 15-13 (7-7)
Illinois Tech 10-16 (6-6)
Rockford 15-11 (5-7)
Dominican 11-16 (4-10)
Lakeland 10-19 (4-10)
St. Norbert 6-18 (1-11)

Another day of league play, another round of chaos.

NACC Standings as of the morning of 4/12

MSOE 13-10 (8-2)
Aurora 14-11 (9-3)
Marian 12-11 (7-3)
Wisconsin Lutheran 12-11 (7-3)
Concordia Chicago 16-11 (7-5)
Edgewood 12-12 (7-5)
Illinois Tech 9-15 (5-5)
Concordia Wisconsin 13-12 (5-7)
Benedictine 13-13 (5-7)
Dominican 11-14 (4-8)
Lakeland 10-17 (4-8)
Rockford 13-11 (3-7)
St. Norbert 6-16 (1-9)

Roughly at the halfway point here in league play here is what I see so far.

Surprises: (WLC) WLC despite being picked 12th out of 13 has played above expectations so far. Though their schedule cranks up in the back half but sweeps over CUW, and Lakeland along with splits over Aurora, Edgewood and Rockford have sparked a bit of confidence for the Warriors.

Surprises but not in a good way: (The top two teams in the preseason poll.) Was expecting a bit more from Aurora so far but they have been rather pedestrian for the most part despite being at the top of the league and dropping league games against teams they shouldn't be losing to hasn't helped them get any more momentum behind them. Benedictine's stumbles to start league play opened up my eyes but they had to run the gauntlet against most of the contenders right away. The schedule in the second half should help them get back up the standings but it might be too late for them to claim an outright league crown unless chaos happens.

My predictions on who makes the conference tournament:

Locks: Aurora, Marian, MSOE, CUC, Benedictine

On the Bubble: WLC, Illinois Tech, CUW, Dominican, Edgewood

Outside looking in: Lakeland, St. Norbert, Rockford

4/11 Scores

Edgewood 4-9 Concordia Wisconsin 3-1
MSOE 10-10 Illinois Tech 1-0
North Central (IL) 11 Benedictine 0

4/12 Matchups

Dominican at MSOE (DH): Dominican better shake off that shell shock from the Benedictine DH because they travel to face a hot MSOE team.

Concordia Chicago at Marian (DH): Another good matchup here. CUC is playing great ball right now and should feel good about itself after coming away with a split against Aurora a few days back. Marian will be a stiff test for the Cougs.

Aurora at Concordia Wisconsin (DH): CUW is scuffling at the moment losing 5 of their last 6. Good opportunity for Aurora to maintain some separation on the rest of the league but they got to convert on scoring opportunities it seems.

Benedictine at St. Norbert (DH): Schedule does get easier here on out for the Eagles. A outright conference crown might be out of reach but a run up the standings isn't. St. Norbert is struggling right now though they still have WLC and Lakeland to play yet but those teams have shown that they can play with teams stronger than themselves to this point.

Rockford at Lakeland (DH): Is Lakeland gravitating back to the norm here? Dropping a DH to WLC hurts  (blowing an opportunity to split in game 2 definitely stings) but dropping a DH to Northland should be sounding alarm bells.

Illinois Tech at Wisconsin Lutheran (DH): Big litmus test for the red hot Warriors here. Schedule ratchets up in intensity the rest of the way so any opportunity to split or sweep has to be taken. Probably have to take 4 or 5 more league games to feel really safe about being in the tournament but this is the best team since the early part of Schwall's tenure at the school.

Edgewood at Wheaton (IL) (NC DH)