Box Score

This day had been 12 years and 363 days in the making: For the first time since Oct. 7, 2000, North Park walked off the football field with a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) victory on Saturday. The Vikings held off visiting Carthage College 22-20 before a capacity crowd at the Holmgren Athletic Complex Saturday afternoon, a game that lasted into the evening due to a severe storm delay.

First-year head coach Mike Conway had to fight back tears because of how much this meant not only to the seniors of the football team, but also to the student-athletes that came through the football program before them.

"I'm a little overwhelmed because we play every game to win," Coach Conway said. "Even though we lost our first three games there were little things along the way that taught us how to win, and that culminated here today. I can't say enough about our team in general, but especially our defense did an amazing job. Those guys fought so hard and fought through injuries. But this was something we set out to do, and we're definitely not finished yet."

The magnitude of Saturday's victory sent waves throughout the North Park community, the CCIW, and Division III athletics at a national level. North Park's football will soon be a program to be reckoned with.

"We played with heart and desire at a level that may have never been played here before," Coach Conway said. "Being a first-year guy, I don't know that for sure but we put together a complete game and this has to be the best football played here in the last (12 years)."

North Park's defense truly won the game as they held Carthage to under 300 yards of total offense and forced the Red Men to kick two field goals on a pair of scoring drives. The Vikings held a 10-0 lead through the first 20 minutes of the game after freshman quarterback T. D. Conway connected with his brother, Dakota, on a 17-yard touchdown pass, and Noah Moore added 20-yard field goal with 10:02 remaining the half. The Vikings then pushed their advantage to a 16-3 margin after Conway fired a 12-yard touchdown pass to senior Tyler Krebs with 12:53 left in the third quarter. A pair of Carthage touchdowns brought the visitors back to a comeback with a 17-16 edge just before the contest was delayed by lightning and rain for an hour and 18 minutes.

Carthage picked up right where it left off after the delay as it pushed its lead up to 20-16 on a 26-yard field goal from Brett Burkari with 2:40 left in the third quarter. But T.D. Conway made sure the Homecoming crowd wasn't going to be denied a victory as he led the Vikings down field 80 yards in eight plays and culminated the drive with a 20-yard scoring pass to senior John Barnabee. Carthage got the ball back with 4:21 left in the contest, but senior linebacker Bennett Dettlinger came up with a crucial interception to thwart the Red Men's chances on their third play of the drive.

"I'm just so proud of our team, our coaches, our kids—and I'm proud to be a Viking today," Coach Conway said. "Our 17 seniors could've picked up and quit after being beat down for their first three years with the team but none of them did. They didn't quit and we've given them everything we have to make this happen and we made it happen."

T.D. Conway finished the day completing 27 of 48 passes for 302 yards. Dakota Conway was on the receiving end of most of them, racking up 12 catches for 97 yards. Sophomore Drew Walkington led the Vikings' ground game with 10 rushes for 60 yards.

"This is an historic and monumental day for this program and our players," Coach Conway said. "I'm so proud of all the guys on this team and all the guys that stayed with us. This is something that's life-changing, maybe, but they'll never forget this and we made it happen because of them."