BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois Wesleyan improved to 2-0 with a 35-14 win in its home opener over Alma on Saturday, Sept. 11. The Titans got 125 rushing yards on 12 carries from Bo Lanter and quarterback Brien Rooney threw for 224 yards as IWU amassed 465 total yards of offense.

The Titans scored early in the contest, at the 11:57 mark of the first quarter, when Lanter rambled 42 yards for a score and freshman Tim Hollowed made the first of his five extra point kicks to give IWU a 7-0 edge.

The Titans scored again with 14:24 to play in the half when Joseph Driver recovered a Rooney fumble in the end zone for a TD, capping a nine-play, 66 yard drive, and made the score 21-0 when Driver caught a 15 yard pass from Rooney in the end zone with 21 seconds before intermission.

Senior Eli Williams caught a 16-yard pass from Rooney with 11:36 left in the third to put Wesleyan up, 28-0, before Alma got their first score of the game. That came with 9:14 to play in the third quarter when Andrew Schaar was on the receiving end of a 48 yard pass from Ross Richard.

The Scots made the score 28-14 with 11:53 to plat in the contest when Brian Halas returned an interception 25 yards for a score, but the finishing touch on the scoring was put on by IWU when Rooney connected on his third TD pass of the game, this one to Michael Sloboda from 4 yards out to make the final score 35-14.

Rooney completed 21 of 31 passes and added 25 rushing yards. Williams also had 77 running yards on 12 carries. The Titans were led in tackling by Ryan Gresko with 11, including four solo, Senior Dan Rogers had seven total tackles and Scott Wenzel made six.

Richard finished with 146 passing yards for the Scots, going 12 for 25, and Matt Ruhlman led the team with 74 rushing yards on 18 carries.
The Scots were led defensively by Mike Veney II, Anthony Sabatella and Conrad Bovee with eight tackles each.

The Titans end their nonconference season with a 2 p.m. game next Saturday, Sept. 18, at Aurora.