The University of Northern Iowa moved from the Northern Lights Conference to the WIIL looking for tougher competition, but still with the desire to win games - so far they’ve got everything they wanted.

Saturday UNI shut out Loyola 33-0 despite missing five starters to move to 4-0 and remain in a tie with Lindenwood-Belleville at the top of the WIIL South.

“It feels great,” said UNI’s Chris Aguero. “We’re happy to see a lot more competition in the WIIL South. We liked playing against the Minnesota teams, but we only saw stiff competition for a couple of weeks.”

Without some senior leadership, UNI needed their younger players to step in, and indeed they were able to do that. 

“We still had a forward pack that could play tough, hard-nosed rugby, and we were also able to swing it to the wings and play good team defense,” said Aguero. “So that was really good.”

Senior Jared Kracke led the charge with his work in the breakdown, but really it’s been a team approach. Several alumni have stepped in to help the UNI team, with Jesus Ramirez doing most of the coaching. But Ramirez plays on the weekends, and so the UNI team is usually on its own on game day. Some alumni step in to get them situated, but it’s an interest juxtaposition between how Northern Iowa has to deal with things and how new varsity program Lindenwood-Belleville is doing it, with a paid coach and a former Eagle as a graduate assistant.

And that juxtaposition will be shown in full relief on about a week-and-a-half when UNI visits the Lynx in Illinois October 16 for what should be the game to decide the top spot in the South. UNI is much more experienced, and certainly has the desire, but Lindenwood-Belleville, with a squad of mostly freshmen, has been getting better every week and shut out DePaul 36-0 with some starters missing.

UNI and L-B have played against three common opponents, and in those games, the Lynx are 3-0, scoring 132 and giving up 25, while the Panthers are 3-0 while scoring 101 and giving up only 7 points. The points difference are essentially the same, with Lindenwood-Belleville scoring more and UNI’s defense the stingiest in the division.

WIIL Standings