NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Augustana’s Nick Welch, along with North Central’s Joey Michals and Nick Dace were named the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Football Players of the Week Monday.

Welch, a senior quarterback from Oswego, Illinois and Oswego High School (Secondary Education & History major), completed 18 of 22 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns during the Vikings’ 34-10 win over Loras on Saturday. His first completion of the game was a 78-yard scoring strike to Nick Krantz on the second play from scrimmage. He also had touchdown passes of 24 yards to Torre Harrell and one yard to Kyle Snow. The touchdown to Harrell came on a third and goal play from the 24 and made the score 24-0.

Michals, a senior linebacker from Frankfort, Illinois and Providence Catholic High School (English-Literature major), led North Central in tackles for the second time in three weeks during a 37-10 victory over Wisconsin-Stout on Saturday. Michals totaled 11 tackles including seven solo and two tackles for loss as the BlueDevils were limited to just 187 total yards of offense. Wisconsin-Stout gained just nine rushing yards, the fifth-lowest total ever by a North Central opponent.

Dace, a junior kicker from Freeport, Illinois and Freeport High School (Sport Management major), was 3-for-3 on field goals and 4-for-4 on PATs during the Cardinals’ win over Wisconsin-Stout. He kicked a 53-yard field goal with 7:45 left in the fourth quarter (breaking the previous record of 50), and then kicked a 55-yarder with six seconds left. Dace also added a 41-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, tying his own single-game school record for most field goals made. He became the fourth player in North Central history to score 200 career points and currently ranks second with 211.

2012 CCIW Football Players of the Week

Offensive Players of the Week
Nick Welch – Augustana (9/17/12)
Nick Kukuc – North Central (9/10/12)
Scottie Williams - Elmhurst (9/5/12)

Defensive Players of the Week
Joey Michals – North Central (9/17/12)
Marquette Moore – Millikin (9/10/12)
Connor Klein - Illinois Wesleyan (9/5/12)

Special Teams Players of the Week
Nick Dace – North Central (9/17/12)
Michael Kelley – Illinois Wesleyan (9/10/12)
Brett Bukari - Carthage (9/5/12)



The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services eight member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), Carthage College (Kenosha, WI), Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, IL), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL), Millikin University (Decatur, IL), North Central College (Naperville, IL), North Park University (Chicago, IL) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL). During the 2011-12 academic year, the CCIW honored 1,323 academic all-conference recipients, 16 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 1 CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year, 89 all-Americans and three national championship teams.