If you were at the DAC on Friday night to watch the Northmen square-off against the Bears, you were treated to quite the defensive showcase, unfortunately those sorts of games don't provide much entertainment value for the regular Ol' Joe Schmo sitting in the stands.  You have to appreciate the effort of the Oak Park Defense and what they accomplished blanking this Chrisman team. It might not have been very exciting in the moment, but once the game concluded, the numbers told a very interesting story.

By the Numbers:

151:

The total number of yards the Oak Park Defense gave up against the Bears of Chrisman on Friday night.  That's 65 yards passing, and 86 yards rushing.  Why is that important?  If you look at what the Bears have done versus their last two opponents, Blue Springs and NKC, Chrisman racked up 351 yards (232 Rushing) vs NKC, and 153 (All Rushing) vs Blue Springs.  The Northmen were able to do what the previous two had not, hold the Bears under 100 yards rushings, and lets not forget.  53 of the 65 yards in the air, came on one big play late in the 4th Q for the Bears.

7:
Total number of points scored by the Northmen...enough to grab the W this week in a key conference game for Oak Park.  It just happened to be on defense this week when CB '21 Logan Willmann grabbed the pick and took it 31 yards for the lone TD on the night.

0:
The Northmen pitched their first shut out of 2019, quite an accomplishment with a physical Chrisman team who was averaging 15 points per contest heading into week 3.

106:
Another 100+ yard night for RB Najib Alhakeem.  #1 carried the ball 25 times for the Northmen on Friday night.  Blake Bland accounted for 45 yards on 8 attempts, and Phil Corbin grabbed another 30 yards on his 7 attempts.  That's 181 total yards rushing if you're doing the math.

17:
Total number of tackles by LB #44 Colton Tisthammer.  Colton made some very important stops late in the game to help the Northmen keep their lead and slow down the Chrisman offense.  #33 Jet Sutton ('22) had 7 tackles and #21 Ardrace Hughes earned 5 more.  It was great to see some younger players contribute on Friday night.  The Northmen were coming off of two pass heavy offenses in Week 1 (Platte County) and Week 2 (Raytown), and the stats tend to look a bit different as a result.  It was also great to see #12 Jeffry Banks back in action anchoring down the edge.  It was very clear that the Bears were having a tough time going his way on Friday night, which doesn't equate to many tackles, but it was a big key to the Oak Park success.

2-1, 2-0
Season and Conference Record for 2019.  The Northmen have a winning record for the first time since the beginning of the 2010 season (3-1 through Week 4), and have a great opportunity to extend that streak if they can buckle down and finish drives.  Defense has been the highlight of this Northmen team these last two weeks, but the talented Oak Park offense is going to need to step up and fire on all cylinders if they expect to compete down the stretch.  The Northmen are on the road for the next two weeks versus conference opponents (Ruskin and Fort Osage).  Both games are tough road games, but can be winnable games for Oak Park before they come back Home vs Grandview (Homecoming) and Belton (Senior Night).  If things go well for the Northmen, we could see an Oak Park vs North Kansas City battle for the Conference Title, but Oak Park will need to keep their workman like attitude and keep grinding each week if they want that to become a reality.  If it happens, you have the makings of one heck of a high school football game, with conference and district implications on the line.

The Northmen travel to Ruskin this week to take on the 1-2 Eagles (beat Belton Week 1, 18-12).