Covenant News

Busy Sports Weekend for North Park

CHICAGO, IL (October 3, 2005) - The North Park Viking's defense was ranked second against the rush among NCAA Division III teams going into Saturday's game against Augustana. Unfortunately for the Vikings, Augustana demonstrated why it is the top rushing team in the country as it ran to a 50-6 victory.

The loss ended North Park's three-game winning streak and dropped the team to 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin. Augustana raised its record to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the CCIW.

Playing at home, Augustana rushed for 410 yards on 71 carries against the North Park defense, which previously had been nearly impenetrable on the ground. Quarterback Matt Roe threw the ball only twice, completing one for 28 yards.

Augustana's defense also stymied quarterback Mike Haehn, who had entered the game with the second best rating in the CCIW. He was limited to 118 passing yards while finishing 12 of 33 for the day. Augustana held the Vikings to 62 rushing yards on 33 carries. Augustana controlled the time of possession 33:56 to 26:04.

Augustana scored at 12:11 of the first quarter on a five yard run by Aaron Kuzniar, who paced the team's ground game with 146 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. The kick was good to put Augustana up 7-0. Augustana scored again at 9:25 on Kuzniar's second touchdown, but the extra-point attempt failed. A 26-yard run put another six points on the board at 10:48 of the second quarter.

North Park followed with a 10-play, 52-yard drive that finished with a four yard touchdown pass from Haehn to William Toussaint. The two point conversion failed and left the score at 19-6. Augustana added 28 unanswered points in the second half. North Park defensive leaders were Charles Thomas (7 tackles, 6 assists) and Tim Rotenberry (7 tackles, 2 assists). Donte Cummings and Thomas McCray each recovered fumbles.

Ahkeem Waterford led North Park rushers with 40 yards on 15 carries. Sherman Gant led receivers with three receptions for 46 yards. Brandon Watts, who was a recent CCIW special teams player of the week recently, continued to shine, punting three times for an average of 41.7 yards with a long of 54.

North Park returns home to play Elmhurst at 1 p.m. Saturday. Elmhurst is 4-0 for the first time since 1983 after beating Illinois Wesleyan 20-15.

In other sports news, the Lady Vikings rowing teams made strong showings at their first home regatta over the weekend. In the varsity 8 event, North Park finished in second of three crews, defeating Northwestern University, but falling to Washington University by 15 seconds. Members of the women's varsity eight include Annika Safstrom, Alli Koubsky, Kari Anderson, Kelly Burke, Jenna Stromquist, Heidi Rosasen, Amanda Donnelly, Becky Burright and coxswain Erikka Treatch.

The novice 8 team, who were rowing in their first race, soundly defeated Washington University. Starting a minute after their counterparts, the novice rowers not only caught up and passed the Bear crew, but added to their time by finishing thirty eight seconds ahead of them. The women's novice 8-person crew consisted of Lauren Harrison, Kristen Engebretson, Britta Haussman, Rosalina Cintron, Marlise King, Stephanie Feijoo, Heidi Bronczyk, Tia Gomez and coxswain Jill Ptaszyski.

The women's varsity 4 person team finished second to Washington University, but defeated crews from Northwestern, the University of Chicago, and a second crew from Washington University.

The women's second varsity 4 person boat finished second of three crews, like their teammates falling to Washington University, but defeating Northwestern University and a second entry from Washington University. Members of the second varsity four include first year student Amanda Donnelly, Heidi Rosasen, Heather Sowl, Becky Burright and coxswain Linnea Nelson.

The Viking rowers wrap up their fall season next weekend, racing on Saturday at the Quad Cities Classic Regatta in Moline, Illinois, and rowing again on Sunday at the Head of the Rock Regatta in Rockford, Illinois.

Both Vikings soccer teams won their recent games.

After struggling to find the net despite numerous shots over recent weeks, the men's soccer team defeated North Central 2-1 on a late goal Saturday. Matt Moncada easily put the ball in the net after getting an assist from Kevin Gathje with four minutes left in the game.

North Park scored first on a header by Elvis Fikic in the 19th minute of the first half. Coach John Born credited Adam Sinovic with a "perfect cross." North Central tied the game with just under nine minutes left when Mike Martino blasted a rebound.

The Vikings improved their record to one victory, no losses and one tie in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) and 3-5-1 overall. North Central dropped to 0-3-1 in the CCIW.

The Vikings play powerhouse Wheaton (10-1, 3-0-1) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Wheaton. On Thursday, the women defeated Rockford 5-0 in a non-conference contest. Abbie Frank had two goals and two assists, and Abby Infante scored her first collegiate goal. Also scoring were Grace Jops and Carly Thomforde.

The Vikings improved their record to 6-3-1 overall and remained 0-2-0 in the conference. They travel to Milwaukee Tuesday to take on the Milwaukee School of Engineering. That game is at 7 p.m.

The cross country teams competed at the 33rd Annual Sean Earl Loyola Lakefront Invitational in Chicago on Saturday.

The North Park University women's cross country team placed 15th out of 37 schools. The Vikings competed against schools that represented NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, and Junior College categories. Individual finishers for the 5 kilometer race were junior Shannon McInnis who ran a personal best of 19:39 to place 39th out of 310 runners. Seniors Kari Thompson, Becky Gritter, and Allison Weller placed in the top 100 with times of 20:30, 20:50, and 21:02. Newcomer Britta Nylen placed 167th with a time of 23:37 to round out the top five. Other North Park finishers include freshman Laura Papageorgiou (170th 24:34), newcomer Donna Domingo (180th 28:17), and junior Amy Peters (181st 28:43).

"All in all it was a pretty good day for us." "We've had a hard week of training and we were missing some of our top seven runners so I was pleased that our team was able to compete so well," said Coach Tracey Murnane. The Lady Vikings will be back in action 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Benedictine University Eagle Invitational.

The men's cross country team finished 25th out of 35 teams competing. First year runner Sidney Dichoso led the Vikings with 31:51 for the 8K course. Senior and team captain Luke Johnson fought back after being hit in the eye with a branch during the first mile. He finished second for the team with 32:07. Rounding out the top five, sophomore Marcus Simmons crossed the finish line in 33:15, freshman Daniel Jones finished in 34:40, and Joel Ylagan ran 35:42. Other North Park finishers included Anthony King at 36:12, Daniel Michel at 37:15, and Matt Cappetta at 42:05.

The volleyball team dropped both of its matches at the Lake Forest Quadrangular in Aurora, Illinois. The women fell to Aurora 3-2 on Saturday and then lost 3-0 to Lake Forest.

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