Box Score Illinois Wesleyan 20, Hope 16 - Box Score

HOLLAND, Mich. - The Illinois Wesleyan football Titans trailed, 10-0, at halftime and rallied to win a 20-16 nonconference game over Hope College in Holland, Mich., on Saturday, Sept. 4.

Senior quarterback Brien Rooney threw for two touchdowns and ran for one more in the season-opening win. Trailing 10-0 with 11:53 to play in the third quarter, Rooney found Michael Sloboda on a 12-yard touchdown pass, capping a six play, 60 yard drive. The extra point kick was no good and IWU trailed, 10-6.

With 11:28 to play in the game, Rooney connected with Joseph Driver on a 38-yard TD pass on the third play of a drive following an interception by Aaron Moody. Freshman Tim Hollowed made the extra point kick to put IWU ahead 13-10.

After Hope put together a 12 play, 72 yard drive to score with 7:20 left to play on an 8-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Dietrich from Chris Feys (their second TD play of the game), the Titans got the final score of the day on a Rooney 3-yard run with just 1:35 left. Hollowed added the extra point to provide the final score of 20-16.

Hope had 25 first downs to only 15 for IWU and the Flying Dutchmen hammered out 401 yards of total offense to 325 by the Titans. Rooney was 13 of 22 passing for 155 yards and led the Titans with 91 rushing yards. Feys completed 22 of 42 passes for 231 yards and was intercepted by Moody twice and by Scott Wenzel.

Ryan Gresko was the Titans' leading tackler with 11 total stops (four unassisted) while Dan Rogers made eight and Michael Whittington had seven with three solo.

The Titans host Alma at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11. The Scots, like Hope from the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, were 42-23 losers to Heidelberg in their season opener Sept. 4.