To anyone who thought that the Washington University football team had reached its defensive pinnacle in its last game against Carthage College, the Bears’ matchup against the North Park University Vikings on Saturday was a major sign that Wash. U. still had heads to turn. Limiting the Vikings to a measly 152 yards of total offense and forcing them to punt the ball nine times throughout the course of the game, the Bears’ defense continues to make headway, making the team a force to be reckoned with. With its 35-10 win against North Park, Wash. U. moved to 3-1 overall on the season with a 2-1 record in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while North Park failed to get their first win of the season, falling to 0-4 overall with an 0-3 record in the conference.

After a relatively uneventful first quarter in which both teams remained gridlocked and scoreless, quarterback senior Johnny Davidson found fellow senior wide receiver Nick Watts for an 11-yard touchdown to give the Bears an early 7-0 lead after the extra point by freshman kicker Chris Vartanian went through the uprights. Watts had a career game, finishing the afternoon with a total of 64 yards (tying his career high) and scoring two touchdowns, both of which came as a part of the 21 point outburst in the second quarter.

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Senior linebacker Jeff Marek wraps up a North Park University wide reciever in the open field for a tackle. The Bears steamrolled the Vikings 35-10 to improve to 3-1 on the season.

“He’s now starting to get into the stride that he had last year, and you saw the plays, they were not just good football plays, they just took your breath away,” head coach Larry Kindbom said.

The juggernaut that was the Wash. U. defense only allowed the North Park offensive unit to get in a favorable enough field position to score once in the game. Besides the 32 yard field goal by senior kicker/punter Alex Santillan, the Vikings were given close to no room to breathe in terms of their offense. In fact, the Red and Green’s defense was so good that they only allowed a grand total of 10 first downs. Compared to Wash. U.’s 32 first downs, North Park struggled all game to find holes in their opponent’s defense.

There was a total of four sacks and 13 tackles for loss. Leading the charge was sophomore linebacker Alex Harvey, who recorded a career high 10 tackles, with one and a half tackles for loss. Not trailing too far behind was junior defensive lineman Peter Pigatti with six tackles and one and a half tackles for loss, followed by senior defensive lineman Clayton Farris, who recorded six tackles and three tackles for loss in his efforts. Junior defensive back Will Hurley contributed an interception off of the North Park’s junior quarterback Grant Borsch, which ended up paving the way to give Davidson and Watts their aforementioned second passing connection to end the half at 21-3 in favor of the home team.

While the Wash. U. defense was front and center and by far the main story of the ballgame, Johnny Davidson and his offense did a good job of punishing the holes in the opposing North Park defense. Davidson passed his career 6000-yard passing mark by adding 227 passing yards with three total touchdown tosses in his afternoon of football. Junior quarterback Tim Tague got in on the action, piling up 98 passing yards with a momentus 54 yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Brendan Morrissey late in the third quarter.

“Tim’s a good football player…Our thing is that we’re going to keep putting guys on the field, and he certainly earned the right to be out there,” said Kindbom.

Sophomore running back Matt Moore did a great job filling in for senior running back John Fisher, who was ruled out with an injury prior to the game. Moore piled on 73 rushing yards, averaging 9.3 yards per run over 8 rush attempts.

“Matt’s just getting started…He did well [and] I know it’s a great experience for him to have to move forward the next time,” said Kindbom.

Despite all the optimism and good football they have been playing, Kindbom and the team knows that they still have things to work on and consider in order to get to the next level.

“We obviously made a lot of mistakes today, but I think some of it is to hone in on the mistakes. We got a little sloppy with the football. We hadn’t fumbled the ball this year, so we have to take a couple of minutes to get past that part of it, and we will,” Kindbom said.

The squad will look to add a third win to their current streak next weekend hosting Elmhurst University at 1:00 p.m.