LAKE FOREST, Ill.- In the first women's flag football game in Illinois Wesleyan University history, the Titans prevailed 22-6 over the College of Dupage at Halas Hall, Sunday, March 8. In the championship game, IWU defeated Illinois College 27-19. The victories open the Titans' inaugural season at 2-0. 

Game One: Illinois Wesleyan 22, College of DuPage 6

After conceding a first down, the Titan defense forced the Chaparrals (1-1) to punt. Both defenses held strong, obtaining stops on fourth down to round out the first quarter at 0-0. 

On the first play of the second quarter, after an interception coupled with a completion, COD punched it in on a one-yard quarterback run to take a 6-0 lead nine seconds into the second quarter. A sack by freshman Keilyn Navarro (Glendale Heights, Ill.-Conant) on the two-point try kept it at a six point margin. 

With IWU starting at its own 14-yard line on the ensuing drive, freshman Emma Caniglia (Addison, Ill.-Addison) completed an 11-yard pass to fellow freshman Claire Anderson (North Aurora, Ill.-West Aurora) to kickstart a seven play drive for the Green and White. The drive ended with the first touchdown in program history, a six-yard fade from Caniglia to freshman Layah Glover (Gurnee, Ill.-Round Lake). The failed try following the touchdown made it a 6-6 contest with 11:34 to play in the first half.

Freshman Zoey Vazquez (Independence, Mo.-William Chrisman) caught the first IWU interception midway through the second quarter. The defensive stop set up a Caniglia pass to freshman Maylin Nunez (Chicago, Ill.-Taft) to give Illinois Wesleyan its first lead at 12-6. A two- point pass to freshman Natalyia Stallings (Rockford, Ill.-Guilford) extended the lead to 14-6. 

An illegal forward pass penalty on COD wiped out a long touchdown run, allowing the IWU defense to force a three-and-out and a punt to end the half. 

In the third quarter, back-to-back picks, including the second of the day for Vazquez, launched another scoring drive for the Titans. With IWU at the one-yard line at the end of the third quarter, Caniglia found Glover for her second touchdown of the morning. The two connected on the first play of the fourth quarter, which grew the advantage to 20-6. Stallings followed with another two-point reception to make it 22-6. The IWU defense buckled down the rest of the way, forcing a stop at the 12:13 mark. With just over two minutes left, a pass breakup by Glover on fourth and medium for COD put the Titans in victory formation.

Caniglia led IWU in passing, completing 21-of-38 attempts for 202 yards with three touchdowns. Glover closed with five receptions for 70 yards with two touchdowns. Three Titans ran for five yards. Defensively, freshman Kennedy Murray (Evanston, Ill.-Evanston Township) had seven flag pulls. Glover followed with six flag pulls and two pass breakups, and Vazquez notched two interceptions.

Game Two: Illinois Wesleyan 27, Illinois College 19

After a strong defensive start on both ends, IC struck first following a fourth down conversion that put the Lady Blues at the four yard line. They punched it in on the next play along with the one-point pass to take a 7-0 lead.

The Titans answered with a completion to Stallings for a first down. Caniglia played pitch-and-catch to Glover and put IWU in plus territory at end of the first quarter down 7-0. A completion to freshman Lily Greenfield (Lake Villa, Ill.-Lakes Community) followed by a Caniglia scamper got IWU another first down near the endzone. However, the Green and White was unable to score, giving IC the ball back four minutes into the second.

Illinois Wesleyan's defense forced a three and out. A pass from Caniglia to Anderson gave the Green and White a first down across midfield. The next play, Glover ran through a traffic jam to find the end zone on a 34 yard score coupled with a spot on throw from Caniglia on the one-point try to even the score at 7-7 midway through the second. 

IC marched down the field as the half expired, but with the ball on the 17 yard line, the Titan defense forced an incompletion to go into the half tied at 7-7.

Out of the half, Nunez hit Glover for a first down at their own 26 yard line. An illegal contact flag on IC along with two completions teed up third and five for IWU.
Caniglia scored on a reverse to give IWU the 13-7 lead with 9:33 to play in the third. Nunez found Caniglia in the back of the endzone to grow the lead to 15-7 on the two-point try.

Illinois Wesleyan forced a punt. On the ensuing Titans' possession, Nunez found Glover on the far sideline on fourth down to put them up 21-7 with 2:25 left in the third.

Illinois College quickly answered on its next drive only needing two plays on the drive to strike back, cutting the margin down to 21-13 after the two point try failed. A Nunez pick on the first play of the next drive put the Lady Blues at the IWU one-yard line, but a false start pushed them back to the six. Two plays later, with time expiring in the third quarter, IC punched it in, but a drop on the two point try kept Illinois Wesleyan ahead 21-19 with 15 minutes left in regulation. 

The Titans embarked on a drive picking up multiple third down conversions, but the drive stalled at the IC 30 yard line with 9:30 to go. The IWU defense forced a three-and-out to get possession back at the 40 yard line with 6:10 on the clock.

The Green and White melted the clock down to 2:30, but turned the ball over on downs at the IC 25.

On third down, Caniglia picked off a double pass to give the Titans the ball back with just over a minute left, but Illinois College burned all three timeouts, giving themselves another chance with under two minutes left. Caniglia then earned her second interception of the day, this time taking it in for six to put the Titans up 27-19.

Caniglia and Nunez split time at the quarterback position, with Caniglia going 9-for-16 with one passing touchdown. She also added a rushing touchdown. Nunez completed 9-of-16 passes with one touchdown, while rushing for 41 yards on seven attempts. Glover added on to her stellar day, catching six passes for 95 yards with two touchdowns. Defensively, Murray led the team for the second straight game with seven flag pulls while Caniglia hauled in two interceptions.

Official stats will be made available as soon as possible and this story will be updated accordingly.

Illinois Wesleyan takes its 2-0 record to the north side of Chicago, Friday, March 13 against North Park University. Action is scheduled for 2 p.m.