ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The No. 17-ranked Illinois Wesleyan football team held off a furious late rally to hang on for a 27-21 win over Washington U. at Francis Field in St. Louis, Mo., on Saturday night, Oct. 20.
The Titans won for the sixth straight week and are 6-1 overall and remain in first place at 6-0 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while the Bears are 5-2 overall and 4-2 in their first season in the CCIW.
Illinois Wesleyan junior quarterback
Brandon Bauer rushed for touchdowns of 1 yard, 1 yard and 3 yards and completed 26 of 32 pass attempts for 254 yards and a touchdown of 2 yards to senior running back
Morgan Alexander. Bauer's 81.3 accuracy is the eighth best in an IWU single game.
Alexander ran for 110 yards on 29 carries as the Titans rolled up 363 yards of total offense with 109 coming on the ground and 254 in the air. WashU had 351 yards of offense with 85 rushing and 266 passing. IWU had a 37:40-22:20 advantage in time of possession, and the Bears were called for a season-high nine penalties and had two turnovers.
Juniors
Zach Walsh and
Dean Zigulich each made seven receptions with Walsh getting 84 yards and Zigulich 69 receiving yards. Junior
Jack Healy also had five catches for 76 yards.
Defensively, sophomore linebacker
Keenan Scott had 13 total tackles and junior linebacker
Ryan Swift made 10. Sophomore lineman
Mike Murphy made the Titans' only quarterback sack and senior safety
Trevor Staley had six tackles and made his fourth interception of the season (11th of his career).
Senior defensive end
Eric Dubose had a tackle for a loss of -18 yards along with forcing and recovering a fumble.
The Titans built up a 21-7 halftime lead before WashU rallied to tie the game with two third quarter scores. Bauer's third TD run came with 14 seconds left in the third quarter to cap a 15-play, 64-yard drive.
Needing a touchdown to tie the game, WashU took over on their own 8 yard line with just 1:11 to play in the game but advanced no farther than the IWU 32 yard line before time expired.
WashU quarterback Johnny Davidson, who missed much of the first half with an ankle injury, completed 28 of 41 passes for 206 and a TD and John Fisher was their leading rusher with 61 yards on 13 carries. The Bears' defense, which sacked Bauer four times, was led by the 16 tackles from linebacker Jake Coon and 15 from defensive back Ben Marcus. The loss snapped a WashU five-game home winning streak.
Titan Notes
Bauer's three rushing TDs give him 16 for his career, tied for 10th most in an IWU uniform ... His 11 running touchdowns this year is fourth best in an IWU season ... Bauer has completed 183 passes this season and is well within reach of the IWU single season record of 204 set by Rob Gallik in 2003 (204 of 326) ... With three regular season games left, Bauer has 2,131 passing yards, 434 yards from tying the season record of 2,565 set by Tom Monken in 1992 ... Alexander is No. 11 all-time at Illinois Wesleyan with 1,824 career rushing yards ...
Go here to see IWU career, season and game records ...
What's Next?
Illinois Wesleyan is on the road again next Saturday to meet Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., at 6 p.m. The Big Blue is 6-1 overall and 5-1 in the CCIW after a 14-13 come-from-behind win at Elmhurst College on Saturday.
