Perfoming mightily on offense for a second straight week, the North Central College football team led throughout a 32-19 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) victory over Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday, fending off a frantic comeback attempt and seeing one of its longest-standing school records toppled at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.
Cardinal quarterback Broc Rutter established a new benchmark for the program by completing 35 of his 47 passes, breaking the previous single-game record of 33, set in 1967 by North Central Athletic Hall of Famer Luther Selbo '68 against Illinois Wesleyan University. Rutter also established a career high with 379 passing yards as the Cardinals piled up 577 yards of total offense after tallying 633 in their season-opening win at Lake Forest College last week.
North Central (2-0, 1-0 CCIW) scored on four straight drives after punting on its first possession of the day. Kicker Derik Judka opened the scoring with 8:23 left in the first period, as his first collegiate field-goal attempt connected from 49 yards out. After Jake Beesley intercepted a pass on the ensuing possession, the Cardinals found the end zone for the first time as Rutter found Cory Hartema in the back of the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown pass.
Andrew Kamienski's 27-yard punt return set the hosts up with a short field for their next possession, and North Central traveled 36 yards in five plays to reach the end zone again. Kamienski capped off the drive as well, hauling in a 20-yard scoring toss from Rutter just before the end of the first period.
The Cardinals' final scoring drive of the first half ate up nearly 10 minutes of game time. Taking possession at its own four-yard line following a punt, North Central marched 96 yards in 19 plays, completing four third downs (including a 32-yard pass from Rutter to Hartema on third down and 21) and a fourth down before Dominick Muoghalu darted through the middle of the line for a six-yard touchdown run. The hosts headed into halftime with a 22-0 advantage, owning a 288-64 edge in total yards and maintaining possession for nearly 22 of 30 minutes of play.
The Bears (1-1, 0-1) struck quickly in their effort to narrow the deficit once play resumed, as quarterback Johnny Davidson hit wideout Jason Singer in stride sprinting down the left sideline for a 66-yard touchdown pass less than a minute into the third period. Washington's Justin DiCarlo recovered a fumble two plays later to give the visitors possession near midfield, but the drive stalled and the Bears were forced to punt. DiCarlo came up big again on North Central's next drive, intercepting a pass, but Beesley returned the favor with his second pick of the game, this time at the Cardinals' goal line, to prevent Washington from making any further progress.
North Central gained back some breathing room early in the fourth quarter when Judka concluded a 15-play, 84-yard drive with a 20-yard field goal. The Bears responded with a one-yard scoring run by Davidson on fourth-and-goal to leave the score at 25-13, and threatened to close further when kicker Matt Goldberg recovered his own onside kick. Once again, however, the Cardinal defense stiffened and forced a three-and-out. North Central took the following possession 80 yards in 12 plays, putting the game out of reach on Ethan Greenfield's five-yard TD reception from Rutter with 1:30 to play.
Washington managed to tack on a final touchdown when Davidson slung a 40-yard scoring pass to Singer with 43 seconds to play and lined up for an onside kick once again, but Michael Sfikas snagged the ball out of the air to call an end to the contest.
Rutter's passing yardage total ranks as the sixth-highest in North Central's history. He connected with eight different receivers, led by Kamienski (nine catches, 130 yards), Sfikas (seven catches, 87 yards) and Greenfield (seven catches, 40 yards). Greenfield also ran for 103 yards on 16 carries, while Muoghalu ran 17 times for 68 yards. DJ Warkenthien led the Cardinals' defense with 14 tackles (10 solo), while Matt Sutherland made nine stops and Beesley finished with eight.
Davidson completed 30 of 43 passes for 300 yards while rushing for 43 yards on 11 carries. Singer made eight grabs for 156 yards, while Ben Marcus led the Bears with 13 total tackles.
The Cardinals travel to face North Park University (1-1, 0-1) on Saturday. The Vikings opened conference play with a 48-27 setback at Millikin University. Kickoff at the Holmgren Athletic Complex is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.