So close.
So agonizingly, maddeningly close.
North Central College’s dream of winning a second straight NCAA Division III national football championship and third in four seasons ended Friday night with a 38-37 loss to SUNY-Cortland in the Stagg Bowl game in Salem, Virginia.
The Cardinals (14-1) scored with 1 minute, 20 seconds left in regulation play and second-year coach Brad Spencer elected to aggressively go for a two-point conversion attempt to take the lead and put pressure on Cortland (14-1) rather than tie the game with a kick.
But quarterback Luke Lehnen, a Chatham Glenwood graduate, was stopped by the Dragons defense and the Naperville school’s nation-leading 29-game winning streak was snapped.
There was plenty of Saturday morning quarterbacking about Spencer’s decision. But he had his reasons.
“I felt like it was a game of momentum, and I thought our offense was having success,” Spencer said at the postgame news conference. “We had 583 yards of offense, and you can’t say they were stopping us. We were stopping ourselves.
“I don’t regret going for two. I do wish I would have made a better call. That’s on me as a head coach. At the end of the day, you want to go out swinging and fighting and being who we are and putting trust in our players.”
Spencer, who took over the job from Jeff Thorne in 2022, suffered his first loss as a head coach and put the blame squarely on his shoulders.
“At the end of the day, I didn’t get it done as a head coach — it’s my fault,” he said. “I needed to be better for these guys. That’s on me and that’s something that I’ll live with and work on for however many months so that next time we take the field that it doesn’t happen again.
“The guys deserve to be national champions. I believe that.”
Lehnen threw for 179 yards and two touchdowns while St. Edward graduate Joe Sacco ran 14 times for 157 yards and a score to bring his season total to 1,818 yards and 20 touchdowns.
The Cardinals were not accustomed to games that ping-ponged back-and-forth. Eleven of their games were won by 36 or more points.
“It was fun obviously until the end when we lost the lead,” Lenhan said. “It was fun seeing the guys get all excited. We had a bunch of huge plays.
“Those are really intense and super fun going back and forth.”
The Cardinals led 7-3 at halftime and Spencer thought they should have been up 21-3 but there were a few problems in the red zone.
“I thought our guys battled their butts off and I’m proud of all three phases,” Spencer said. “Were we at our best? Were we perfect? Probably not. But that’s going to happen when you play good football teams.”
More Top Picks Repel Windproof Travel Umbrella Review
Seniors such as Lehnen and receiver DeAngelo Hardy from Lakes have been to four national championship games in their four years on the team.
“The program grown a lot from my freshman year player-wise, coach-wise,” Hardy said. “It’s been nothing but a blessing.”
Despite the sting and heartbreak of a one-point loss, Spencer was able to look at the big picture and note that the program and the school is in a great position even through some small colleges are suffering from financial strain.
The Cardinals had a sizable contingent of fans at the championship game.
“That’s not unique to our sport,” Spencer said. “It’s all the sports at North Central. It’s a microcosm when you see fans in our stands at football games of what North Central is about. And we’re fortunate to be in the position we are.
“There are a lot of schools that are struggling right now and having to bend over backwards and do some odd things to bring students in the door and we’re not doing that.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.