St. Norbert Back in MWC North Contention After Shutout of Lawrence

From Sports Information Director, November 1, 2014 | Football
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

APPLETON - St. Norbert College jumped back into contention for the Midwest Conference North Division title following a 42-0 win over Lawrence University in a rare November night game at Banta Bowl.

The Green Knights were able to get back into the mix atop the North Division following Macalester College's 34-17 win over Carroll University earlier in the day. Macalester (7-1, 4-0 MWC North), which plays St. Norbert at 1 p.m. Saturday at Schneider Stadium, sits atop the MWC North. St. Norbert (5-3, 3-1) and Carroll (7-1, 3-1) could also both win the division. A three-way tie would result in a quarters-led tiebreaker being used.

St. Norbert snapped a scoreless deadlock with 9:39 left in the second quarter on a Zach Broberg 6-yard touchdown run. The Green Knights doubled their lead just nine seconds later after Ryan Grandlic scooped up a Lawrence fumble on the ensuing kickoff return and raced 10 yards for a touchdown.

The Green Knights held Lawrence to a three-and-out on the Vikings' next possession, and St. Norbert scored again on a 30-yard touchdown pass from James Tringali to Brett Olson on a fourth-and-6 conversion. Randy Hill's 30-yard field goal with 17 seconds left in the half led to a 24-0 halftime lead.

St. Norbert pulled away in the third quarter when Tringali hit Olson on a 22-yard touchdown with 10 minutes left in the third quarter. Another three-and-out stop by the St. Norbert defense led to a 14-play, 46-yard drive culminating in a 26-yard field goal by Hill.

Hill's two field goals were enough to move him to the top of the St. Norbert career leader board with 24, passing Chris Griffin's 23 from 2000-03.

St. Norbert closed out the scoring when a bad Lawrence snap led to a safety early in the fourth quarter, and Cole Patterson hit Sean Berendes for an 11-yard touchdown with 3:42 to go. It was Patterson's first career touchdown pass, and the first career touchdown for Berendes.

The Green Knights outgained Lawrence 425-190 in total offense. Tringali completed 12 of 29 passes for 212 yards and two touchdowns, and also led the team with 43 yards rushing. Olson caught five passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns.

Chance Byrd completed 10 of 27 passes for 80 yards for the Vikings, and also rushed 20 times for 55 yards.

Jacob Finegan led St. Norbert defensively with seven tackles and four tackles-for-loss. Stuart Kwaterski had five tackles and three quarterback sacks.