Game Leaders
Team Stats
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Time of Poss.
DOVER, Del. – Wesley College's fourth-ranked football team scored 42 points in the opening quarter and cruised to a 52-7 victory over Hampden-Sydney (7-4) in the first round of the NCAA playoffs on Saturday afternoon at Scott D. Miller Stadium. The Wolverines (10-1) will take on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (10-0), who defeated Husson in overtime for its first playoff win in as many tries, in the second round on Saturday, November 29 in a 12 pm start.
Quarterback Joe Callahan threw four of his five touchdown passes in the opening quarter with three of them going to Steve Koudossou. Callahan also hit Koudossou for a touchdown strike in the second quarter as Callahan and Koudossou broke records on the play. With his fifth touchdown pass, Callahan broke Wesley's single-season record for touchdown passes with 39 and Koudossou set the Wolverines career record for points (310) and total touchdowns (51).
For the day, Callahan completed 14-of-28 passes for 336 yards while all four of Koudossou's catches went for touchdowns, resulting in 238 receiving yards. Koudossou also went over 200 career catches (202) and now has 52 receptions for 1,100 yards and 14 touchdowns on the year.
The Wolverines went on top 14-0 with 9:14 left in the first quarter with a pair of quick strikes from Callahan to Koudossou. Then on the Tigers' second play, Sosthene Kapepula intercepted Nash Nance and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. The pick was one of a school-record six passes intercepted by Wesley on the afternoon with Brenton Barnes also returning one 18 yards for a touchdown with 5:00 remaining in the first quarter to put the Navy & White on top 35-0.
Koudossou found the endzone one more time in the first quarter with 1:04 left to extend the lead to 42 points after 15 minutes.
Hampden-Sydney finally got on the board with 11:24 remaining in the second after taking advantage of great field position when Nance hit Joey Kernan for a 13 yard score. That would be all the points that Wesley would allow on the day as Koudossou recorded one more catch-and-run for a 79 yard touchdown with 4:02 left in the half.
Only three points were scored in the second half, coming on a 31-yard field goal by Eric Speidel but Ben Martin managed to run for 103 yards on just 12 carries in the third and fourth quarters.
Nance closed out his career going 17-of-43 for 181 yards with Austin Perryman grabbing three catches for 57 yards.
Kapepula and Payton Rose had nine tackles each to lead the Wolverines while Rose also broke up three passes at the line of scrimmage and shared a sack with Aamir Petrose, who also intercepted a pass. Defensive backs Derrick Bender, Leon Jones and De'Vaughn Trader also picked off Nance who came into the game throwing nine interceptions all season.
Making the start at outside linebacker, Julian Jones also was credited with a pair of TFLs and a sack.
The victory gives Wesley 10 wins for the sixth-straight season and ninth overall.