Bloomington, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder football team improved to 5-0 on the season with a 48-24 victory at Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon for the Titans' Homecoming game. Wheaton's victory at Illinois Wesleyan is the 26th-consecutive regular season win for the Thunder, dating back to November 16, 2013; and it ties the school-record for longest regular season win-streak with a 26-game streak that ran from September 21, 2002 to October 23, 2004. The Thunder (5-0, 3-0 CCIW) entered today's matchup ranked 11th in the D3football.com Top-25. The Thunder will host Millikin next Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
The Titans led the Thunder 24-14 late in the second quarter, but Wheaton responded with 34-unanaswered points behind a strong effort from both the Thunder offense and defense in the second half. Wheaton passed for a season-high 351 yards in the game, with 191 rushing yards to record 542 yards of total offense. Illinois Wesleyan tallied 462 yards of total offense in the game, however, the Thunder defense held the Titans' offense to just 118 yards in the second half. IWU passed for 399 yards in the game and ran for 63 yards.
Head coach Mike Swider noted after the game, "Our offense came to play today. They did exceedingly well and our offense kept us in it. Defensively, other than a few deep balls in the first half we played well. We just misplayed a couple of deep balls."
Wheaton quarterback Andrew Bowers completed 28 of his 35 passing attempts on the day for an 80-percent completion percentage. Bowers threw for 351 yards and had four touchdown passes. Sola Olateju averaged 8.1 yards per carry as he ran the ball 21 times for 171 yards with one touchdown run.
Freshman Phillip Nichols caught 10 passes for 133 yards to set career highs in both categories. Chase White collected five receptions, including two touchdown catches, for 85 receiving yards. Senior tight end Zach Lindquist caught six passes for 42 yards with one touchdown catch. Trey Hanley grabbed four receptions for 64 yards, with one touchdown catch.
Defensive back Marcus Smith led the Thunder with nine total tackles, including six solo stops. Linebacker Eric Stevenson tallied eight total tackles and Luke Sahly recorded seven tackles, with five solo stops, including a quarterback sack of eight yards. Caleb Ashby registered six total tackles, including three tackles for loss (-16 yards), with a 33-yard interception return for a touchdown. Chase Greenlee made five total tackles, including four solos on the Thunder defensive line.
Illinois Wesleyan quarterback Brandon Bauer was 22-of-33 passing as he threw for 399 yards with three touchdown tosses. Adam Muellers was the Titans' leading receiver with five catches for 122 yards and a touchdown reception of 77 yards. Sean Garvey led the IWU defense with 11 solo tackles, including two tackles for lost yardage (-3 yards).
The Thunder started the scoring today when Wheaton scored just six plays into its first drive of the game. The drive ended when Bowers connected with Lindquist on a 22-yard touchdown pass to give Wheaton the 7-0 lead with 10:54 remaining in the first quarter. Illinois Wesleyan responded on the first play of the ensuing drive with a 77-yard touchdown pass from Bauer to Muellers to tie the game at 7-7 with 10:37 remaining in the first quarter. The Titans gained a 14-7 lead on a 29-yard touchdown pass to Austin Harrell with 1:59 remaining in the first quarter. The hosts led Wheaton 14-7 at the end of the opening quarter.
Wheaton tied the game at 14-14 on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Bowers to Hanley with 12:15 remaining in the second quarter. Hanley's touchdown catch capped an 11-play drive of 73 yards for the Thunder. Illinois Wesleyan regained the lead on a 26-yard field goal with 8:49 remaining in the first half to give the hosts a 17-14 advantage. Bauer completed a 46-yard touchdown pass to Austin Wagner with 3:04 remaining before the halftime intermission to increase the hosts' lead to 24-14. Wheaton started the final drive of the first half at its own 42-yard line and marched the ball to the Titans' 26-yard line with 26-seconds remaining in the half when Bowers completed an 11-yard pass to Nichols, giving Wheaton the ball at the IWU 15-yard line. Wheaton sent out field goal kicker Daniel Gray as the clock wound down in the closing seconds and Gray converted a 32-yard field goal to cut the Titans' lead to 24-17 at halftime.
Nichols returned the opening kickoff of the second half 19 yards to ignite an 11-play drive of 76 yards that culminated with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Bowers to White that tied the game at 24-24 with 10:22 remaining in the third quarter. White caught a 28-yard touchdown pass from Bowers with 5:13 remaining in the third quarter to give Wheaton a 31-24 lead. White's touchdown catch was setup on the three previous plays as Olateju put together runs of nine, 11 and 19 yards to move the Thunder into IWU territory.
Olateju reached the end zone on a three-yard touchdown run with 13:57 remaining in the game to increase Wheaton's lead to 38-24. The Titans' drive that followed Olateju's touchdown ended after three plays on an interception by Wheaton's Tyler Sigler. Wheaton's Griffin Bowes booted a 19-yard field goal on the ensuing drive with 8:53 remaining in the game to increase the guests' lead to 41-24. Wheaton's final score of the game came from the defense, as Ashby intercepted Bauer's pass at the IWU 33-yard line and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown with 2:39 remaining in the game to account for the 48-24 final score.