FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

A couple articles on the IWU @ Alma game today (noon CST)...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/football/article_baec106a-db43-11e0-9a7a-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2011/09/10/sports/doc4e6a9bb3d12b8282111181.txt

[Titan Q]

Final from Michigan...

IWU 17
Alma 9

[Stagg Again!!]

I do believe that North Central is who we thought they were.  TOTAL domination of the same team that put up 400 yards while defeating UW-Eau Claire last week.  The Wildcats WRs have gotten NO separation and NCCs DL is living in the backfield (8 sacks midway through the 3rd Quarter).  I would say that Redlands would not have scored more than 7 against this week's Cardinals.  The officials are looking a bit rusty tonight, but they are a LOT better than the jokers wearing stripes that we saw last week in California.  I have watched the video and others have watched the tape numerous times this past week, and I stand by my comments from last week -- the SCIAC officiating was amongst the worst we've ever seen!  Freshman Ryan Kent just broke one for 75 yards. 

[Mugsy]

These 1st games for Wheaton always scare me.  Their first opponent always has a game under their belt.  Overall Wheaton had a decent 1st half, but just gave up the big play.  Hopefully this is the last year Wheaton has the late start to the season.

Wheaton leads 26-21 at half, but the defense has played well.  Albion truly has some dangerous offensive skill positions.  RB Orr is a pre-season All-American and they have some scary WR's.

Orr has a 93 yard kickoff return and the Albion defense sacked Meador, who fumbled, and a 5'9" 294lb DT scooped it up for a TD.  Albion had one long pass for the other TD.  3 plays... otherwise Wheaton has a comfortable lead. But they don't, and it has me pressing a bit.

[Mugsy]

Wheaton starting to put it together now.  Leading Albion 40-21 with 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.  Defense causing turnovers and Meador is looking very solid filling in for Roberts at QB.  He is looking very confident, making smart decisions and is hurting Albion both on the ground and through the air.  Meador is spreading the ball out to a bunch of different receivers.  Really nice to have multiple targets over 6'4" - puts a lot of pressure on defenses.

[Mugsy]

Wheaton wins 54-34.  Albion gets a last second TD with the 2nd/3rd team players in.

Some really nice things for a first game, some things Wheaton needs to work on (kickoff coverage was horrible!).

Wheaton offensive line looked solid, which was a big question coming into the game.  Wheaton played a freshman center that the coaching staff is very high on - he looked really good.  Wheaton played a lot of double TE and the TE's did an excellent job of blocking.  Meador was very solid at QB - good yardage running the ball and spread the ball out to all his receivers.

Wheaton defense looked outstanding at times, and not very good at others.  Tackling wasn't real sharp at times.

Overall a good win.

[matblake]

Different year, same problem for Wheaton. Too many stupid penalties!!!!!!!!!!

Offense appears to be pretty steady.  Defense has some kinks to work out, they seemed to lack that killer mentality, especially when they had the chance to slam the door and they allowed a long Albion drive.  I was disappointed in much of the tackling, but credit to the amazing Clinton Orr. 

I also realize that I'm spoiled with Wheaton.  A 54-34 win where you could argue that 14 of the opponents points were mistakes that are correctable shouldn't have made me as upset as it did.  Also 7 points against your second team defense.

Clinton Orr is amazing.  I just couldn't believe how that guy runs. 

[mr_b]

North Park topped Benedictine, 38-20, to register their second win of the year.  It was 38-13 late when Benedictine scored on a long pass play.  Nice work, Vikings!

[Mugsy]

Different year, same problem for Wheaton. Too many stupid penalties!!!!!!!!!!

Offense appears to be pretty steady.  Defense has some kinks to work out, they seemed to lack that killer mentality, especially when they had the chance to slam the door and they allowed a long Albion drive.  I was disappointed in much of the tackling, but credit to the amazing Clinton Orr. 

I also realize that I'm spoiled with Wheaton.  A 54-34 win where you could argue that 14 of the opponents points were mistakes that are correctable shouldn't have made me as upset as it did.  Also 7 points against your second team defense.

Clinton Orr is amazing.  I just couldn't believe how that guy runs.

If you look at all games against Albion, Wheaton rarely totally dominates.  I attribute it to the fact every year Albion has already played a game and it is Wheaton's first.  As you point out, a lot of mistakes by Wheaton (penalities, poor tackling, poor kick coverage).  All things that Wheaton can fix.

I've gotten to the point that as long as Wheaton wins against Albion and stays healthy, it is a good start to the season.

I was impressed with Wheaton's OL play and Meador.  I was concerned about Meador from what I saw last year when he played.  Thus far he looked very comfortable. 

Blocking by TE's was outstanding (J.J. Clark and Hunter Thorson).  Thorson plays with some attitude (like his dad).

Hiben (the freshman WR) had 3 catches and a TD.  He will make a big impact this year to compliment Watkins (the senior, captain WR).

[WahooThunder]

The Wheaton/Albion box score is posted now: http://athletics.wheaton.edu/custompages/football/fb_stats/whe1.htm

Garrett Meador threw 6 TD passes for Wheaton to tie Keith Bishop's school record. Good to see him have a strong performance tonight. Hopefully they can polish things up on defense and special teams and build on this win.

[Mugsy]

The Wheaton/Albion box score is posted now: http://athletics.wheaton.edu/custompages/football/fb_stats/whe1.htm

Garrett Meador threw 6 TD passes for Wheaton to tie Keith Bishop's school record. Good to see him have a strong performance tonight. Hopefully they can polish things up on defense and special teams and build on this win.

Watching the game online, I knew Meador was have an outstanding game.  Because I couldn't get LiveStats to work, I didn't realize how good.

22-29 for 259 yards, 6TD's and 0 INT's.  Um... that'll do!  Throw in another 61 yards on the ground (before sacks).

Teddy Watkins had a huge game as well. 9 catches for 136 yards, 1 TD, plus he was very successfully running the wildcat offense (3 carries for 27 yards).

Albion had 289 yards total offense, so the defense played well.  Wheaton held RB Clinton Orr to only 64 yards on 23 carries - very solid against a pre-season All-American. 1 TD on a 93 yard kick return, another on a 33 yard fumble return, 1 TD as time expired with subs in.

One absolutely disgusting stat: 10 penalties for 180 yards!!!!  Albion was 3 for 3 on 4th down, including one that was for 15 yards.

[CCIW]

Different year, same problem for Wheaton. Too many stupid penalties!!!!!!!!!!

You are correct.  Wheaton had 180 yds in penalties.  If that is not fixed, it will be a tough season against the CCIW's best.  Let's hope it was first game jitters.

[formerd3db]

79jaybird and gs:

Wow, NP at 2-0? I guess the next two weeks will be a more telling sign in the games against Washington U and your (79jaybird's) Elmhurst.   

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 38
Benedictine 20

Aurora and Benedictine tend to be roughly on par with each other, at least in recent seasons, and that proved true last night as NPU handled the Bennies as easily as it handled BU's arrchrivals last week. No matter what BU tried to muster against them, the Vikings never blinked and never looked back. Sam Cochiaro ran back the opening kickoff 88 yards for a TD, Benedictine came back and scored on the ensuing drive, set up by a short field caused by a couple of post-score penalties on the Vikings' TD runback, and missed the extra point to make it 7-6. But then NPU simply marched down the field, kicked a field goal after a five-minute drive, and then busted the game wide open with three second-quarter rushing TDs. The Vikings went into the locker room after 30 minutes with a 31-13 lead, and, since BU's best weapon is star running back John Borsellino's ground game, the game was over for all practical purposes.

The second half was pure ugliness. The Vikings lost their sharpness on the offensive end, in part because chippy play by the Bennies led to a handful of unsportsmanlike conduct and roughing penalties by both teams, as NPU seemed to be doing a lot of extracurricular retaliating to BU cheap shots. Also, the Vikes had a number of holding penalties that took some of the shine off of the offensive performance in the second half. But even though the NPU offense bogged down, BU never threatened to make a game of it. Their only second-half score came on a late TD against the NPU second-stringers, and BU gained almost a third of its 413 total yards for the day against the Vikings' backups in the late stages of the fourth quarter.

The North Park option was terrific again. The Vikes gained 377 yards on the ground, at an average of seven yards a carry, and John Barnabee had a breakout game with 162 yards and a TD on 11 carries. His fellow sophomore slotback Chris Broadway rushed for 72 yards and a pair of scores on 9 carries, while Tyler Krebs had 78 yards and reached paydirt once on 12 carries.

Nobody's going to sit up and take notice when a CCIW team beats a NAthCon team, which is as it should be, although NPU's now handily smacked both NAthCon powers in their own stadia on successive Saturdays. But it's a nice lift for a Vikings team that's slowly building both confidence and competence as it gets ready for the CCIW grind.

The Park has next week off, and will face Wash U (2-0) in two weeks in the NPU home opener.

[formerd3db]

Gregory S:

Do you think that having the "bye" weekend so early in the season will be a detriment to NP?  I realize that "someone" i.e. some teams have to have their "bye" weekends early in the season, however, I personally prefer when those are at mid or late season.  The later dates for a break usually tend to be more needed for rest, recouping from injuries, staleness, etc.; conversely, it also seems to me that having the break early would have the possibility to derail some building confidence, etc.  Yet, again, obviously, every team can't have their "bye" later in the season.   I was just curious as to how you see this might affect NP after your observations/assessment of their first two wins.