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| Photo by Dan Poel, d3photography.com |
After a few years of playoff frustration, North Central finally won its way into the Division III national semifinals in 2013, and its reward, like it was for many in that era was a trip to Mount Union.
Snow started about an hour before kickoff and intensified as the game continued, into a fourth quarter which saw 32 points scored and four lead changes.
In the days before the Refuse to Lose mantra took hold at North Central, the Cardinals nonetheless came back from a two-score deficit in the second half. Down 27-16, Spencer Stanek led a 14-play drive that finished with a Matt Randolph TD run to make it 27-22, and Shane Dierking followed a three-and-out by returning a punt all the way to the Purple Raider 5. Randolph's TD run made it 28-27 as the game headed into the fourth quarter.
North Central took the lead when Kolton Kuczynski recovered a mishandled punt snap in the end zone for a TD which put his team up 34-27. But four unmade PATs in the snow haunted them as Mount Union responded with a Logan Nemeth touchdown run and a Kevin Burke two-point conversion run to go up 35-34 with 5:00 left. The Cardinals got a key catch which was upheld on review, with Peter Sorenson catching a ball inbounds at the 1. Randolph again for the short TD run and another two-point attempt failed, leaving North Central up 40-35 with 1:38 remaining. But that was more than enough time for Burke, as he took the Purple Raiders 65 yards in three plays, finding Mike Collichio for the first touchdown catch of his career, a 26-yard with 1:07 left.
The Cardinals got as far as the Mount Union 45 before the Purple Raiders got the stop and escaped with the 41-40 win.