BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Illinois Wesleyan football team got off to a sluggish start and was held scoreless in the first half, eventually falling by a 34-7 score to visiting North Central at Tucci Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 17.
Illinois Wesleyan is 1-1 and 0-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while North Central, ranked No. 9 in this week's D3football.com poll, improved to 3-0 and 1-0 in the CCIW. It is the Cardinals' 13th win over IWU in the last 14 games.
North Central built up a 24-0 lead by intermission, outgaining IWU, 231-43, in total offense while limting the Titans to three first downs. IWU didn't cross midfield until midway through the second quarter.
"It was a championship game, but it wasn't for a championship. When you play your first conference game you've got to understand that one game does not make a season," IWU coach
Norm Eash told Jim Benson of
The Pantagraph. "I told our players look at the positives. We played much better the second half, but we didn't make enough plays in first half to put us in a position to win the game."
Freshman quarterback
Brandon Bauer completed 7 of 19 for 79 yards as he took over for
Jack Donegan and played the second half, taking the Titans to their only score.
Bauer led a 75-yard, 11-play drive, finding
Adam Muellers for a 10-yard TD pass to cut North Central's lead to 27-7 with 2:07 left in the third quarter.
Donegan completed three of nine attempts for 15 yards with two interceptions in the first half and Bauer was intercepted four times, tying an IWU game record last done by Rob Gallik against Monmouth in an NCAA game on Nov. 19, 2011.
Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore had 51 yards rushing on 15 carries as the Titans were limited to 57 rushing yards. North Central had a 401-151 edge in total offense, amassing 274 in the air and 147 on the ground. IWU had 94 passing yards.
The Cardinals went ahead 7-0 when freshman quarterback Broc Rutter hit Alex Ulmer for a 16-yard TD with 8:18 left in the first quarter. North Central's Liam Crotty's 26-yard field goal put North Central ahead, 10-0, and Dylan Warden's 2-yard run early in the second quarter boosted the Cardinal lead to 17-0. North Central went up 24-0 late in the first half with an 86-yard, 11-play drive, finished by Rutter's 20-yard TD pass to Nolan Brannick.
On the first series after halftime, the Cardinals marched 77 yards to set up a 27-yard field goal by Crotty for a 27-0 lead with 8:24 left in the third quarter.
Oshayne Brown's seven-yard run with 1:30 left capped the Cardinal scoring. Brown led North Central with 89 rushing yards on 16 carries.
Rutter completed 19 of 37 attempts for 274 yards and two touchdowns.
Defensively, senior linebacker
Sean Garvey had eight solo and six assisted tackles for a total of 14 and senior
Kyle Venhuizen had seven total tackles.
A bright spot for the Titans came early in the game when
Andrew Iwaszkiewicz had the 10th longest punt in IWU history with his 65-yarder.
What's Next?
Illinois Wesleyan travels to Chicago to face North Park at 1 p.m. next Saturday, Sept. 24.
