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Turnovers Plague Vikings in Loss to North Central
NAPERVILLE, IL (October 12, 2003) - North Central College scored two touchdowns
in a span of 1:06 and went on to defeat visiting North Park University
(NPU) 33-13 in a
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) game played Saturday
night at Cardinal Stadium.
The Vikings scored first just 1:41 into the game as Kevin Parker picked up
a loose ball on an errant North Central lateral pass and went 54 yards for
the touchdown. But the Cardinals were opportunistic on defense as well,
especially in the final two minutes
of the half, and the Vikings were unable to overcome four turnovers in the
contest.
Trailing just 10-7, NPU had held North Central on downs at the North Park
31 yard line and had gotten the ball back with 1:59 left in the second
period. NPU quarterback Phil DeWald overthrew his receiver on the next
offensive play and North Central's Bobby
Miller intercepted the pass and returned the ball to the North Park 2-yard
line. Steve Holden ran the ball for a score on the next play, putting the
Cardinals ahead 17-7 with 1:37 left in the half.
NPU got the ball back and Miller was the beneficiary of another Vikings
turnover. This time, DeWald fumbled the ball on an option play and Miller
picked the ball up and returned it 31 yards for a score with 31 seconds
left in the half, giving the home team a 24-7 lead.
A 29-yard field goal by Mike Augustine, his second of the game, and a Ryan
Buck 1-yard run ended the scoring for North Central. North Park scored its
other touchdown on a 66-yard pass from DeWald to Jon Harris in the fourth
period. Harris had four catches for 103
yards as DeWald finished with 6-of-16 passing for 125 yards to pace North
Park's offense.
Defensively, North Park managed to hold Holden, last year's conference
leader in rushing, to just 95 yards on 30 carries. However, Holden's
56-yard run led to North Central's initial score, a 9-yard pass from
quarterback Kam Kniss to Tyler Bell that tied the game at 7-7 with 10:25
left in the first period. An Augustine field goal of 25 yards put the
Cardinals up 10-7 after one period.
North Park, 2-3 overall and 0-2 in conference action, travels to Rock
Island on Saturday to play Augustana College in a 1 p.m. CCIW game.
In other NPU sports news over the weekend:
- Grace Conrad placed fifth individually in the women's race at the
Benedictine University Eagle Invitational cross country meet on Friday in
Lisle, running five
kilometers (3.2 miles) in 19:50.5, just behind the winning 19:18.9 effort
by Goshen College's Heidi Sanders. Kari Thompson was 15th, Becky Gritter
19th for the Vikings, which placed sixth as a team with 140 points. In the
men's race, North Park was 10th as a
team led by Luke Prince, who finished 24th by running eight kilometers in
28:12.
- Amanda Klufetos earned All-Tourney honors for the second straight year
at the Forester Invitational Volleyball tourney at Lake Forest College last
Saturday while her team won one of three matches overall. The Vikings, 7-18
overall, beat Principia College in three games before losing in five games
to Beloit College. In the third place match, NPU lost to Dominican College
in three games while Lake Forest won the title match over Beloit. NPU hosts
Concordia University of River Forest, Illinois, in a 7 p.m.
non-league match on Tuesday.
- The NPU men's and women's soccer teams played home matches against CCIW
rival Millikin University on Saturday afternoon as the men beat the Big
Blue 2-0 and the NPU women tied Millikin 2-2.
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