Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
Lisle, Ill. – The Wheaton football team defeated Benedictine University (0-1) tonight 57-14 in the season season opener for both teams. The 57 points registered by the Thunder tonight is the highest point total Wheaton has ever had in a season opener. Wheaton (1-0), ranked sixth in the D3football.com Top-25 Preseason Poll, will travel to Kalamazoo next Saturday.
Wheaton scored the first 50 points in tonight's game. The Thunder used a 32-yard Stefan Knoerr field goal and a safety in the first quarter to take a 5-0 lead.
The Thunder scored 38 points in the second quarter to lead 43-0 at halftime. Knoerr kicked a 38-yard field goal to open Wheaton's second-quarter scoring. Senior running back Sola Olateju broke open for touchdown runs of 82 and 54 yards to give the Thunder a 22-0 lead. Wheaton's running game continued to impress when Stone Watson scored on a 42-yard touchdown run. Quarterback Curtis McWilliams had a pair of second-quarter touchdown passes with a 64-yard connection with Adam Terrini and an eight-yard touchdown pass to Zach Lindquist to account for Wheaton's 43-0 halftime lead.
Senior defensive back Tyler Sigler opened Wheaton's second half scoring when he picked off an Eagles' pass at the Thunder five-yard line and returned it 95 yards at the 11:09 mark of the third quarter for Wheaton's 50-0 lead. The Eagles tallied a six-yard touchdown pass and a seven-yard touchdown pass to make Wheaton's advantage 50-14. Freshman TJ Williams scored on a three-yard run late in the fourth quarter to account for the 57-14 final score.
The Thunder offense totaled 545 yards on just 56 plays, averaging an impressive 9.7 yards per play. The Thunder passed for 214 yards and ran for 331 yards tonight. The Eagles tallied 210 yards of offense as Wheaton held the hosts to just 22 rushing yards and 188 passing yards.
Olateju ran for 170 yards on just eight carries as he averaged 21.2 yards per carry – with the two touchdown runs. Williams ran for 67 yards on 11 carries with one touchdown and Watson racked up 62 yards on five carries with the one touchdown run.
McWilliams completed six of his 11 passing attempts for 183 yards with two touchdown runs. Trey Hanley led the Thunder in receiving yards with one catch for 75 yards.
Linebackers Eric Stevenson and Luke Sahly each recorded a team-high eight total tackles. Stevenson added two tackles for lost yardage of -6 yards and he had a pass break up. Sahly registered 2.5 tackles for loss (-13 yards). Corey Kennedy tallied six tackles and Sigler registered five tackles to go with his interception.