The Thunder football team remains undefeated with a 56-20 victory at Elmhurst

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 11th in this week's AFCA Division III Coaches Poll and 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 (PICTURED LEFT) caught six passes for 132 yards. Running backl Danny Puknaitis carried the ball 14 times for 105 yards, averaging 7.5 yards per carry.

Logan McRae (PICTURED RIGHT) 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.

Elmhurst struck first with a 71-yard touchdown pass by Camiliere to give the hosts a 7-0 lead with 13:58 remaining in the first quarter. Wheaton tied the game at 7-7 as Peltz carved his way through the Elmhurst defense on a 53-yard touchdown run with 11:02 remaining in the game. The Thunder defense stopped on Elmhurst's next drive, led by a 14-yard quarterback sack by Jared Todd. Wheaton gained the ball at the Elmhurst 32-yard line and three plays later Peltz connected with Andrew Lindquist for a 15-yard touchdown pass to give the Thunder a 14-7 lead with 8:05 remaining in the first quarter.

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 (PICTURED LEFT) 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.

Early in the third quarter the Thunder had a one-yard touchdown run by Peltz and a 23-yard touchdown toss from Peltz to Thorson that increased the guests' lead to 42-13 with 8:42 remaining in the third quarter. Josh Williams scored on a 23-yard touchdown run for the Bluejays that cut Wheaton's lead to 42-20 with 5:43 remaining in the third quarter. Peltz scored on a one-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter and again late in the fourth quarter on a 16-yard touchdown run to account for the 56-20 final score in favor of Wheaton.