Box Scores
St. Norbert College and off-and-on rain Saturday afternoon made it a tough day for the Prairie Fire in the team's home opener.
The Green Knights and quarterback Rob Berger made a host of big plays that led to a 49-0 St. Norbert victory. The win by the Knights snapped a rare two-game losing streak to open the season. St. Norbert (1-2, 1-1 MWC) hadn't started 0-2 since 1997, and the victory against Knox (0-3, 0-2 MWC) was the 12th straight for SNC, which is now 15-2 all-time against the Fire on the gridiron.
SNC running back John Weninger scored on a 5-yard run at the 10:24 mark of the first quarter to complete a nine-play, 80-yard game opening drive for an early 7-0 lead after the successful PAT. The Knights added one more score in the first quarter, three in the second to go up 35-0 at halftime, and two more over the final 15 minutes.
Weninger finished the game with 105 yards rushing and another 43 receiving. An even bigger thorn in Knox's side was Berger. The senior quarterback accounted for five of St. Norbert's touchdowns in the game. He rushed for 67 yards and three scores and threw for two more TDs while completing 16-of-19 passes for 284 yards.
The Green Knights racked up 683 total yards of offense to the Prairie Fire's 192. The Knox ground game churned out 146 yards, led by junior Luke Northam (Colorado Springs, Colorado) with a season-high 68 on eight carries. St. Norbert's defense kept the Knox passing game in check, allowing just seven completions and 46 yards.
Besides Northam's effort, other bright spots for the Fire were sophomore punter Doug Lillibridge (Byron, Illinois) and senior running back/kick returner Dan Kizior (Manteno, Illinois).
Lillibridge was busy, kicking away seven punts. He twice punted the football inside the Knights' 20 yard line and averaged 37 yards per kick on the afternoon. Kizior, one of the Midwest Conference's best kickoff return players last season, had another good day in that department. He ran back four kickoffs totaling 71 yards - including a long return of 30 yards - for an average of 17.8.
Knox has a tall task ahead on Saturday as the team travels to Beloit (1-2, 1-1 MWC) for another MWC contest.
The Buccaneers were riding high after beating St. Norbert during week two (34-31) of the season in DePere, Wisconsin. Week three was a different story for Beloit, which lost 33-21 at undefeated Carroll University.
