BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Head coach
Norm Eash won his 200th career game at Illinois Wesleyan as the Titans tied for the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin championship with a 31-6 win over Millikin at Tucci Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 11.
The "dean" of league coaches and winningest coach in school history, Eash has a career overall record of 200-102-1 and a career CCIW mark of 142-81-1. The CCIW win ties Eash for the most in league history, tied with his former head coach Don "Swede" Larson, who was 142-89-6 in 33 seasons.
In tying North Central for the CCIW title, it is IWU's 15th overall outright or shared league title and first since 2009. Other conference championships have come in 1948, 1951, 1964, 1965, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2009.
Getting to nine wins in a season has only happened six other times in Illinois Wesleyan football history - the Titans finished with 10 wins in 1992, 1996 and 2009 and also got to the nine-win mark in 2000, 2011 and 2013.
By virtue of its win over Illinois Wesleyan, North Central (9-1, 7-1 CCIW) earned the CCIW automatic bid into the NCAA postseason tournament so the Titans will await a potential at-large berth when the field is announced at 4:30 p.m. Central time on Sunday, Nov. 12 via NCAA.com or D3football.com.
Two touchdowns in 46 seconds at the end of the first half boosted the IWU lead from 10-0 to 24-0 at intermission. After a 56-yard interception return by
Trevor Staley, IWU scored on a 5 yard TD pass from sophomore
Brandon Bauer to
Zach Walsh with 56 seconds left in the half. Then a Millikin fumble game IWU the ball back and junior
Morgan Alexander scored on a 2-yard run with 11 seconds left in the half.
Bauer threw for 233 yards and three touchdowns, completing 22 of 30 passes. Walsh made six catches for 112 yards and two TDs while
Jack Healy had five receptions for 67 yards.
Alexander rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries and now has 964 rushing yards this season, a total that is fifth-most in an IWU single season behind only Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore (1,143 yards in 2016), Kurt Swearingen (1,079 in 1977), Devonte Jones (1,035 in 2013) and Chris Humbles (1,012, 1991).
Alexander's 217 rushing attempts this season is third most in an IWU season, behind 223 by Swearingen in 1977 and 222 by Britt Travis in 1980.
Jordan Hassan led IWU with seven total tackles with a quarterback sack of 9 yards while
Brinton Wilkey had a quarterback sack of nine yards and four total tackles.
The Titans amassed 371 yards of total offense (244 passing, 127 rushing) compared to 304 for the Big Blue with only 7 of those yards coming on the run. Millikin quarterback Nico Stepina threw for 297 yards, completed 26 of 42 passes with one fourth quarter TD.
SENIORS' DAY: Illinois Wesleyan honored 21 senior football players and their families in the final regular season home game. The seniors on the 2017 team are
Josh Akin,
Andrew Apel,
Dennis Bresingham,
James Burnell,
Chris Collins,
James Edmond,
Jeremy Giderof, Hassan,
Brian Johnson,
Justin Krzeczkowski,
Erich Lieser,
Connor Melvin,
Nicholas Monferdini,
Mike Mulcrone,
John Nolan,
Rodney Quansah,
Jake Robbins,
Anthony Sciarini,
Kieron Swain,
Jack Warner and Wilkey.Â
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