It hasn't been a good month for Homecoming games, as the Carthage College football team (2-4, 1-2 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) lost its second Homecoming game in two weeks, this time to CCIW-opponent and No. 12 North Central College (5-1, 3-0 CCIW), 53-23, on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in Naperville, Ill.  The Red Men lost their Homecoming contest last week, 49-42 in double-overtime, at Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis.  North Central was aided by five quarterback sacks, four interceptions and four field goals by Dom Zavaglia.
 
North Central scored on its first possession, going 43 yards on six plays, with Dylan Warden' connecting on an eight-yard touchdown pass to Matt Randolph at 12:48.  The Cardinals made it 14-0 at 9:56 on a six-yard touchdown pass from Warden to Peter Sorenson.  A 31-yard field goal by Carthage's Thomas Brannen at 5:48 made it 14-3.  Zack Pattat scored from the one-yard line at 1:01 to cap a four-play, 35-yard drive, and the Cardinals led, 21-3.  A 30-yard scamper by Warden at 5:44 second period put North Central up by 25 points, 28-3.  Warden's run capped a four-play, 87-yard scoring drive.  A three-yard keeper by the Red Men's Nick Anzelmo at 1:35 second period cut the lead to 28-9.  The Carthage drive covered nine plays and 61 yards.  The Cardinals closed out the half with a 32-yard field goal by Dom Zavaglia as time ran out, and North Central led, 31-9.
 
Quarterback Nick Anzelmo was intercepted for the third time on North Central's first possession of the second half, setting up a 24-yard field goal by Zavaglia at 13:15 that upped North Central's lead to 34-9.  A 39-yard field goal by Zavaglia at 8:13 third period made it 37-9.  The Red Men cut the lead to 37-15 at 2:24 third period on a 10-yard pass touchdown pass from Anzelmo to Derek Bellamy that capped an 11-play, 75-yard drive.  The Cardinals came right back with a 35-yard TD pass from Warden to Sorenson with 37 seconds to go in the third period to make it a 43-16 contest going into the fourth quarter.
 
Anzelmo was sacked and fumbled the ball at his own 14-yard line on the next series, and that set up a 34-yard Zavaglia field goal, his fourth of the game, and a 46-16 lead at 13:18 fourth period.  Carthage was intercepted for a fourth time late in the game, with Brandon Kibby picking a Bobby Suchecki pass an returning it 86 yards for a touchdown at 4:39 and a 53-16 lead.  Suchecki hooked up with Marcus Hines Jr. on a five-yard touchdown pass with 25 seconds remaining game to close out the scoring at 53-23.
 
North Central rolled up 391 total offensive yards, 152 rushing and 239 passing, while Carthage had 383 total yards,216 on the ground and 167 in the air.  The Cardinals collected 24 first downs to 17 for the Red Men and had a 38:00 to 22:00 advantage in time-of-possession.  Cardinals quarterback Dylan Warden ran for 115 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries and completed 10-of-23 passes for 163 yards and three other TDs.  Peter Sorenson caught six passes for 95 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
 
Carthage quarterback Nick Anzelmo (So., Schaumburg, Ill.) completed 16-of-25 passes for 201 yards, with James Cobbs III (Fr., Urbana, Ill.) catching four passes for 89 yards.  Tailback Derek Bellamy (Sr., Sacramento, Calif./Monterrey Trail) ran for 64 yards on 16 carries. 
 
"We had plenty of offensive opportunities," said Carthage coach Mike Yeager, "and we did a good job of moving the ball down the field.  Turnovers killed us and dropped balls killed us.  We ran the ball pretty well, we moved the ball, but you can't make the kind of mistakes we made.  We had guys open, and Nick Anzelmo, for the most part, put the ball on the money.  We didn't make the catches when we needed to.  We also did poor job of tackling, particularly when their quarterback was scrambling. We also need to do a better job of limiting our penalties.  Next week with Augustana will be another battle, and we just have to find a way to win them in the end.  We have go back to work and fix the things that went wrong today."
 
Carthage plays host to Augustana College (Ill., 2-4, 1-2 CCIW) next Saturday, Oct. 25 in a 1 p.m. game at Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis.  The Vikings were a 7-2 winner over Illinois Wesleyan University on Saturday in Bloomington, Ill.