After Win, Team Faces Next Foe on the Double

The clock showed noon when the opening kickoff cut through the still, crisp autumn air on Northwestern College’s cozy, leafy campus. The cloudless conditions were so nice, well, they could’ve played twice. And that’s exactly what the Eagles did.

After beating Trinity Bible College, 59-0, on Saturday afternoon to boost its Upper Midwest Athletic Conference record to 4-0, Northwestern took a two-hour break before a 6 1/2 -mile bus ride down Snelling Avenue -- where a 7 p.m. nonconference contest against Macalester College awaited.

“Stay off your feet,” Coach Kirk Talley bellowed after his team gathered at the 50-yard line to share thoughts on the game, the season and God.

They still had four more quarters to go too, when players began to trickle off the field to rest, rehydrate and refocus for the next opponent.

The Eagles (5-2), after shedding their black jerseys and switching to white, started the second game with plenty of pep -- building a 33-0 halftime lead and finishing with a 47-14 victory.

Northwestern, a nondenominational Christian school with about 2,600 students enrolled, was having trouble finding a 10th opponent without extending the season or busting the travel budget when the doubleheader idea was raised. It was OK with the NCAA, and the proximity to Macalester Stadium made the Scots a good fit.

“It didn’t seem like that big a deal to us at first, but then we started to hear we were going to be on ESPN and I was like, ‘Wow,’ ” said junior running back Ben Freedman.

If there’s an ideal opponent to open a doubleheader with, it may be Trinity. The Lions (1-5, 0-4), who brought only 22 players, drew national attention for a 105-0 defeat to Rockford College in Illinois in 2003.