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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The No. 13-ranked Illinois Wesleyan football team was shutout for the first time since 2005, losing a 24-0 decision to No. 6-ranked North Central before a Homecoming crowd of 2,400 at Tucci Stadium on Saturday (Oct. 22).

The Titans lost for the first time in four College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin games to dip to 3-1 and are 6-1 overall while North Central won its sixth straight game to improve to 6-1 and is 4-0 in league play.

The last IWU shutout came at the hands of Wis.-Eau Claire, 46-0, in the 2005 season and the last time the Titans were blanked at home was in 1990 in a 21-0 setback to Augustana.

"North Central is a great football team and we did not play our best game this afternoon," said IWU head coach Norm Eash. "We had some opportunities but the playmaking just wasn't there today."

The Cardinals took the opening drive 58 yards on nine plays to score with 10:10 to play in the first with a 2-yard run by Jordan Tassio. Nick Dace added the first of his three extra point kicks.

North Central took a 14-0 lead when freshman quarterback Tyler Dicken connected with Alex Haan on a 6-yard pass play to finish an 11-play, 82 yard drive, and added three more points with just four seconds left in the half on a 44-yard field goal by Dace.
 
The Cardinals' Joey Michals ran an interception back 49 yards for a score with 7:48 to play in the third quarter for the only second half scoring, leaving the final at 24-0.

North Central collected 334 total yards to 215 for IWU. The Cardinals had 199 on the ground and 135 in the air as the Titans had only 61 rushing yards and sophomore Rob Gallik accounted for 154 passing yards, going 18 of 39 with three interceptions.

"(North Central) has some hard runners," Eash said. "We were there for the initial contact but they got a lot of 'yards after carry' yardage. Our defense was better in the second half, not allowing their offense to score, and I thought we moved the ball better after halftime."

Junior Cameron Blossom led IWU with 41 running yards on 10 carries and Joe Musso made seven catches for 45 yards while senior Mike Sloboda had seven grabs for 61 yards.

Nick Kukuc ran 19 times for 127 yards to pace the Cardinals and Dicken was 11 for 20 for their 135 yards in the air.

Senior linebacker Ryan Gresko had 16 tackles (12 solo) and senior safety Scott Wenzel had 11 total stops. Defensive back Will Jenkins and linebacker Michael Whittington each had nine tackles and senior safety P.J. Cummings had an interception with a return of six yards.

The Titans are on the road for the next two weekends, playing at Millikin next Saturday (Oct. 29) at 1 p.m. in Decatur. "We need to have some great resolve, make sure everybody's on board after this loss to a ranked team and finish strong the final three games of the season," said Eash.