Elmhurst, Ill. – The Thunder football team continued its undefeated season on Saturday with a 56-20 victory at Elmhurst College (5-4/4-1 CCIW). Wheaton is now 8-0 on the year and 5-0 in CCIW play. Today's victory against the Bluejays gave Elmhurst its first CCIW loss of the year and puts Wheaton alone in first place atop the CCIW standings at 5-0 in league action.
The Thunder will host Illinois Wesleyan next Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in Wheaton's final home regular season of the year. Wheaton is ranked 13th in the D3football.com Top-25 poll.
Sophomore quarterback Johnny Peltz completed 18 of his 22 passing attempts for 289 yards with four touchdown tosses. He also ran for 119 yards on 16 carries with four TD runs. Luke Thorson caught eight passes for 120 yards, including three TD catches. Keegan Kemp caught six passes for 132 yards.
Logan McRae led the Thunder defense with eight total tackles, including two quarterback sacks (-8 yards) and a forced fumble. Josh Aldrin, Alex Mendez and Adam Dansdill each recorded seven total tackles. Senior captain Jared Todd tallied five total tackles, including a sack (-14 yards) and 2-1/2 tackles for lost yardage (-20 yards). Mendez forced a fumble with a fumble recovery.
Elmhurst quarterback Joe Camiliere completed 16 of his 27 passing attempts for 219 yards with a touchdown pass. He also ran for 72 yards on 17 carries.
Wheaton tallied a season-high 548 yards on 63 plays today. The Thunder ran for 259 yards, with 289 passing yards on the day. Elmhurst tallied 351 yards of offense with 132 rushing yards and 219 passing yards.
The Bluejays responded in the second quarter with an eight-play drive of 46 yards that concluded with an 11-yard touchdown run. The PAT attempt following the touchdown failed and Wheaton led the hosts 14-13 with 14:14 left in the first half. Wheaton responded on the next drive as Peltz threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Thorson to extend Wheaton's lead to 21-13. Thorson's touchdown sparked 28 unanswered points for Wheaton. Peltz connected with Thorson for a 27-yard touchdown pass with 6:19 remaining in the first half as Wheaton led the Bluejays 28-13 at halftime.