Naperville, Ill. – The No. 2 ranked Wheaton football team defeated No. 1 North Central on Saturday night to spoil the Cardinals' Homecoming and return the Little Brass Bell Trophy Back to Wheaton for the first time since 2019. The win tonight ended North Central's 53-game win streak in CCIW play that dates back to a 35-21 Wheaton victory at McCully Stadium on October 5, 2019. This was Wheaton's first victory at Benedetti-Werhli Stadium since a 52-30 Thunder victory in 2018. Tonight marked the first time in the 109 meetings between the two rivals that the matchup featured the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the country.
Wheaton impressed in all phases of the game tonight. Defense for both teams shine in the first half. The Wheaton defense forced North Central to a three-and-out on the opening offensive drive of the game. On third-and-six, defensive end
Rex Kroger recorded a sack to force a Cardinals' punt. A failed snap on the punt went through the end zone as Wheaton recorded the first safety against North Central since 2022. The safety gave Wheaton a 2-0 lead with 13:10 left in the first quarter. It was Wheaton first lead against North Central since a 7-0 Thunder lead of the Cardinal's 20-7 victory on September 18, 2021 at McCully Stadium.
The Thunder drive that followed the safety stalled after seven plays and Wheaton turned the ball over on downs at the Cardinals' 44-yard line. The Cardinals' next drive stalled after eight plays and hosts turned the ball over on downs at the Wheaton 27-yard line. Thunder linebacker
Zeke Harris (PICTURED LEFT) had tackles for loss of-1 yard and -5 yards on the drive. Wheaton's next drive ended at the NCC 44-yard line after six plays as the guests turned the ball over on downs. The Cardinals' next drive was their second three-and-out of the game as Harris had his third tackle for loss of the first quarter as he registered a TFL for -5 yards. The next Thunder drive ended at the Cardinals' 21-yard line when a Thunder reception was overturned and ruled incomplete as Wheaton turned the ball over on downs. The two teams continued to trade scoreless drives in the second quarter as Wheaton maintained its 2-0 lead at halftime.
The scoreless third quarter saw the teams run 28 plays. Wheaton's opening drive of the second half ended with a 31-yard punt by
Josiah Smith. The NCC drive that followed Smith's punt started at their own 10-yard line. The Cardinals marched into the red zone. On second-and-three at the Wheaton 13-yard line, Thunder defensive back
Colin Moore picked up a TFL for a two-yard loss and on third down the Cardinals threw an incompletion. North Central kicked a 32-yard field goal to take a 3-2 lead with 3:07 left in the third quarter. The two teams traded quick drives on the next two drives.
North Central intercepted a Thunder pass at the Cardinals' 18-yard line with 13:18 left in the fourth quarter. The hosts had an 11-play drive of 82 yards that concluded with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Garret Wilson to Jack Rummel. The touchdown pass and the ensuing PAT kick gave the Cardinals a 10-2 lead with 6:43 left in the game.
The Wheaton offense responded with an effective drive. The drive started with Forcucci (PICTURED RIGHT) passes of 11 and 26 yards to
Luke Crawford and
Caleb Titherington, respectively. On second-and-eight at the NCC 29-yard line, Forcucci connected with Luke McFadden as McFadden got to the NCC four-yard line.
Matt Crider reached the end zone on the next play with four-yard touchdown run (
VIDEO). Wheaton converted the two-point conversion attempt that followed as Crider again reached the endzone as Wheaton tied the game at 10-10 with 3:50 left in the game.
North Central started the ensuing drive at its own 29-yard line. The drive started with an incompletion, and then Harris and
Maison Haas combined for a TFL of (-1 yard) on an NCC carry. A incompletion for the Cardinals on third down setup a NCC punt of 38 yards that landed at the Wheaton 32-yard line.
On third-and-six at the Wheaton 36-yard line Forcucci connected with Yorke on a 35-yard pass that moved Wheaton to the NCC 29-yard line. The Wheaton drive stalled and the ball was turned over on downs at the Cardinals' 30-yard line with 1:11 left in the game. On North Central's first play of the drive that followed, Wilson stepped back to pass, and the pass was deflected and picked off by Harris at North Central's 40-yard line on a brilliant play by the All-American linebacker.
On the Thunder drive that started with 1:05 left in the game, Forcucci connected with
Seth Kortenhoeven on a deep 34-yard pass that moved Wheaton to the NCC six-yard line. Three carries by Crider pushed Wheaton the Cardinals' one-yard line. Senior
Caleb Ryan (PICTURED LEFT), in his first year with the Thunder football team calmly booted the 18-yard field goal with five-seconds left to give Wheaton the 13-10 lead. North Central had a delay of game penalty on the drive that followed and the Wheaton defense stopped the hosts on the final play of the game to emerge with the dramatic victory, recovering from the 10-2 deficit late in the fourth quarter.
Wheaton's effectiveness on both sides of the ball shined tonight. The Thunder amassed 354 yards of total offense, with 272 passing yards and 82 rushing yards. The Wheaton defense held North Central to 165 yards of offense as the Cardinals passed for just 129 yards and ran for 36 yards. The 165 yards of total offense is the fewest for North Central in a game in at least 10 years.
The Thunder defense was led by Harris' 18 total tackles (eight solo), the most tackles by a Wheaton player in game since Adam Dansdill tallied 19 tackles against UW-Eau Claire on September 20, 2014. Among his stellar tackle total was 6-1/2 tackles for loss (-28 yards), including 1-1/2 quarterback sacks (-12 yards). He also registered the critical interception in the fourth quarter. Fellow linebacker
Caleb Coburn had 11 total tackles (three solo).
Brett Dieter added seven tackles, and Kroger had six total tackles, including a quarterback sack of eight yards.
Forcucci completed 18 of his 33 passing attempts as he threw for 272 yards. The Thunder quarterback was also Wheaton's leading rusher with 36 yards on nine carries. Crider carried the ball 16 times for 35 yards with one touchdown run. Kortenhoeven caught five passes for 67 yards and Crawford added three catches for 49 yards.
Wheaton returns to McCully Stadium next Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff against Carroll University.
