Green Knights Clinch MWC North Division Title

From Sports Information Director, October 31, 2015 | Football
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College captured the championship of the Midwest Conference North Division following a 63-6 rout of Lawrence University at Schneider Stadium.

The Green Knights (8-0, 4-0 MWC North) clinched the North Division after Carroll University defeated Macalester College 25-21. St. Norbert leads Carroll by one game in the standings heading into next week's division finale, and the Green Knights hold the head-to-head tiebreaker on the Pioneers. St. Norbert will host Monmouth College at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 at Schneider Stadium in the MWC Championship Game.

St. Norbert took the mystery out of the decision against Lawrence early. Jack Becker scored the game's first touchdown when a scramble ruptured into a 51-yard touchdown run just 1 minute 49 seconds into the game. The Green Knights had an 11-play, 77-yard drive lasting 6:29 to pull ahead 14-0 on an Elijah Fort 2-yard run. Becker then had a 44-yard run with 47 seconds left in the first quarter for a 21-0 lead.

The Green Knights scored 25 second-quarter points. Fort had touchdown runs of 11 and four yards, while Brandon Carter scored on a 1-yard run for a 43-0 lead just 3:03 left before halftime. Lawrence scored its only points 28 seconds left before halftime on a Jacob Berman 4-yard touchdown run, but the Green Knights got half of those points back when Spenser Thompson-Meyers boomed a school-record 51-yard field goal as time expired for a 46-6 lead.

Curtiss Arndt collected a pair of 4-yard touchdown runs in the third quarter, while Thompson-Meyers hit a 21-yard field goal with 8:45 remaining for the game's final points.

St. Norbert rushed for a school-record 508 yards, breaking the only mark of 461 yards set on Sept. 28, 1968 against UW-River Falls. The Green Knights also had three 100-yard rushers: Carter had 136 yards on nine carries, Becker 130 yards on five carries and Arndt 108 yards on 10 carries. It marked the first time in school history the Green Knights had three 100-yard rushers in the same game.

The Green Knights rushed for eight touchdowns. Fort finished with three, Arndt and Becker two and Carter with one. J.T. Crosby completed 7 of 10 passes for 78 yards, while Becker was 6-for-9 for 65 yards. Five different Green Knights caught two passes apiece.

St. Norbert outgained Lawrence 664-188 in total offense. The 664 yards is the fourth-highest total in school history.

Terrence Simon led Lawrence with 64 yards rushing on 11 carries. Kemani Pittman caught 5 of 10 passes for 59 yards. Cole Erickson caught four passes for 53 yards for the Vikings.

Wyatt Veseth had seven tackles to lead the St. Norbert defense, which had 10 tackles-for-loss. Alec Swanson added five stops.