Naperville, Ill. – The Wheaton football team had a strong second-half rally, but came up short in a 35-25 loss at North Central College on Saturday night in the annual "Battle for the Little Brass Bell". Tonight's loss snaps Wheaton's school-record 27-game regular season winning streak.

Wheaton is now 6-1 overall and 4-1 in CCIW play. The Cardinals improve to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in conference action. Both teams entered tonight's matchup for outright possession of first place in the CCIW nationally ranked. Wheaton is ranked fifth in the most recent American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III Coaches Poll and 11^th in the D3football.com Top-25. North Central is ranked sixth in both Division III Top-25 polls.

Wheaton amassed 354 yards of total offense tonight as the Thunder ran for 108 yards and passed for 246 yards. North Central tallied 294 yards of offense with 238 passing yards and 56 rushing yards.

Thunder quarterback Andrew Bowers threw for 241 yards as he completed 15 of his 31 passing attempts, with one touchdown toss. Bowers also ran for 58 yards on 16 carries.

Sola Olateju (PICTURED LEFT) ran for 58 yards on 15 carries with one touchdown run. Trey Hanley caught six passes for 107 yards, with one touchdown catch to lead the Thunder receiving corps.

Linebacker Eric Stevenson (PICTURED RIGHT) led the Thunder defense with nine total tackles, including one sack of two yards. Luke Sahly tallied eight solo tackles on the night and senior linebacker Caleb Ashby registered six tackles, including a quarterback sack (-6 yards). Defensive back Tyler Sigler had a game-high three pass break-ups on the night.

North Central quarterback Broc Rutter completed 23 of his 39 passing attempts for 238 yards with three touchdown tosses. Alex Ulmer caught eight passes for 90 yards. Brandon Kibby led the Cardinals' defense with a team-high nine tackles.

North Central took the opening kickoff and the Cardinals marched the ball to the Thunder 22-yard line and had a first-and-10 at the Wheaton 22. The Wheaton defense stiffened on the drive and three NCC incompletions on the drive forced the Cardinals to turn the ball over on downs with the score tied at 0-0 with 10:56 remaining in the first quarter. Wheaton's first drive of the game stalled and the Thunder were forced to punt. North Central scored on the ensuing drive, culminating with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Rutter to Justin Shaw that gave the hosts a 7-0 lead with 5:39 remaining in the first quarter. A Thunder fumble on the first play of the ensuing drive led to a North Central touchdown three plays later on a nine-yard pass from Rutter to Ryan Kuhl that increased the NCC lead to 14-0 with 4:20 left in the first quarter.

Wheaton responded with a lengthy drive late in the first quarter and over the first four-plus minutes of the second quarter that saw Bowers throw three passes of 10 or more yards, and he added a run of 14 yards. The 16-play drive of 74 yards culminated with a 24-yard field by Stefan Knoerr that cut the Cardinals' lead to 14-3 with 10:58 remaining in the second quarter. North Central's Liam Crotty converted a 29-yard field goal to extend the hosts' lead to 17-3 with 4:35 left in the second quarter. Pat Cravens of North Central returned a punt 67 yards with just four seconds remaining in the first half to account for the Cardinals' 24-3 lead at halftime.

On the Cardinals' opening drive of the second half, the hosts drive stalled and NCC was forced to punt from its own 10-yard line. The snap sailed out of the end zone for a Thunder safety that made the score 24-5 in favor of the Cardinals with 9:26 remaining in the third quarter. On the third play of the drive that followed the safety, Bowers connected with freshman Phillip Nichols (PICTURED LEFT) on a 45-yard pass that brought Nichols to the NCC two-yard line. Olateju reached the end zone on a two-yard touchdown run on the very next play as Wheaton cut the Cardinals' lead to 24-12 with 7:52 remaining in the third quarter.

North Central's first points of the second half came on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Rutter to Dylan Warden with 8:41 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals followed with a two-point conversion after the touchdown to give the hosts a 32-18 lead late in the game. On the fourth play of the Thunder drive that followed Warden's touchdown, Bowers connected with Hanley on a 56-yard touchdown pass that saw Hanley knife his way through the Cardinals' defense and force his way into the end zone for the key touchdown. Wheaton converted the PAT kick after the touchdown to trim the Cardinals' lead to 32-25 with 7:49 remaining in the game. North Central followed Hanley's touchdown with a lengthy 12-play drive of 67 yards that culminated with a 25-yard NCC field goal that gave the hosts a 35-25 lead with 2:01 left in the game. The Wheaton drive that followed was stalled and North Central emerged with the 35-25 victory.

Wheaton will host North Park next Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. under the lights at McCully Stadium in a CCIW matchup with the Vikings.