Wheaton 49, Central College 13 · Wheaton Football History

Nov 30, 2019 · 12:00 PM · Wheaton, Ill. · Attendance 1,180 · Second Round

Head coach Mike Swider · Official box score ↗ · Recap ↗

Line Score

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Central College	0	7	0	6	13
Wheaton	35	7	7	0	49

Wheaton Player Statistics

Passing

Player	Cmp	Att	Pct	Yds ▾	TD	Int	Long	Rating
Luke Anthony	12	18	66.7%	265	5	0	69	282.0
Dave Beamer	0	3	0.0%	0	0	1	0	-66.7

Rushing

Player	Att	Yds ▾	Avg	TD	Long
Stone Watson	10	100	10.0	1	57
William Smith	10	45	4.5	0	11
TJ Williams	9	42	4.7	1	9
Sam Singleton	10	35	3.5	0	9
Luke Anthony	3	12	4.0	0	6
Bert McJunkin	1	0	0.0	0	0
Dave Beamer	4	-5	-1.2	0	3

Receiving

Player	Rec	Yds ▾	Avg	TD	Long
Phillip Nichols	3	88	29.3	2	55
Matthew Tucker	1	69	69.0	1	69
Bert McJunkin	3	54	18.0	1	34
Carson Lien	1	21	21.0	0	21
Adam Terrini	2	17	8.5	0	12
Stone Watson	2	16	8.0	1	10

Scoring

Player	TD	PAT	PATA	Pts ▾
Stone Watson	2	0	0	12
Phillip Nichols	2	0	0	12
Griffin Bowes	0	7	7	7
TJ Williams	1	0	0	6
Bert McJunkin	1	0	0	6
Matthew Tucker	1	0	0	6

Defense

Player	Solo	Ast	Tot ▾	TFL	Sacks	Int	PBU	QBH	FF	FR	Blk
Wyatt Lee	5	3	8	3.0	1.5	0	0	1	0	0	0
Caden Sigler	5	1	6	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jake Holaday	6	0	6	2.0	2.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ryan Schwartz	4	0	4	0.0	0.0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Patrick O'Connell	4	0	4	1.0	1.0	0	0	1	1	1	0
River Shindledecker	2	2	4	0.5	0.5	0	0	0	0	0	0
Corey Kennedy	3	0	3	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Peyton Estes	3	0	3	1.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Nate Gerze	3	0	3	1.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Robby Schwartz	1	1	2	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Spencer Rowland	2	0	2	0.0	0.0	0	3	0	0	0	0
Kyle Carter	2	0	2	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Brayden Anthony	2	0	2	1.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Matthew Tucker	1	0	1	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Luke Gammichia	0	1	1	0.5	0.0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Ezra Nitz	1	0	1	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Phillip Barbar	1	0	1	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dallas McRae	1	0	1	0.0	0.0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Grant Miller	1	0	1	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bert McJunkin	1	0	1	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Eli Odell	1	0	1	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jorge Ibarra	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	0	1	0	0	0	0

Interceptions

Player	No ▾	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
Ryan Schwartz	2	18	9.0	0	16

Punting

Player	No ▾	Yds	Avg	Long	In20	TB	Blk
John Bickle	5	184	36.8	50	1	1	—

Kickoffs

Player	No ▾	Yds	Avg	TB	OB
Griffin Bowes	8	425	53.1	3	0

Punt Returns

Player	No	Yds ▾	Avg	TD	Long
Phillip Nichols	1	9	9.0	0	9
Matthew Tucker	1	-3	-3.0	0	0

Kick Returns

Player	No	Yds ▾	Avg	TD	Long
Nate Magnusson	1	30	30.0	0	30

Scoring Summary

1st 12:38	WHEATON - Watson, Stone 57 yd run (Bowes kick), 5 plays, 75 yards, TOP 2:22
1st 09:03	WHEATON - Williams 1 yd run (Bowes kick), 5 plays, 27 yards, TOP 1:42
1st 05:36	WHEATON - Nichols 55 yd pass from Anthony, Luke (Bowes kick) 5 plays, 77 yards, TOP 1:38
1st 05:12	WHEATON - McJunkin 34 yd pass from Anthony, Luke (Bowes kick) 1 plays, 34 yards, TOP 0:09
1st 03:10	WHEATON - Nichols 19 yd pass from Anthony, Luke (Bowes kick) 3 plays, 18 yards, TOP 0:55
2nd 09:31	CEN - Ross Norem 4 yd pass from Blaine Hawkins (Jon Alberts kick) 5 plays, 19 yards, TOP 1:35
2nd 03:41	WHEATON - Tucker, Matthew 69 yd pass from Anthony, Luke (Bowes kick) 3 plays, 78 yards, TOP 1:21
3rd 04:54	WHEATON - Watson, Stone 6 yd pass from Anthony, Luke (Bowes kick) 13 plays, 96 yards, TOP 6:17
4th 00:36	CEN - Hunter Robinson 44 yd pass from Blaine Hawkins (Team rush failed) 3 plays, 50 yards, TOP 0:46

Team Statistics

Statistic	Wheaton	Central College
Total	23	11
Rushing	13	4
Passing	9	6
Penalty	1	1
Total (Net)	209	53
Attempts	49	32
Avg. Per Rush	4.3	1.7
Rushing TDs	2	0
Yds. Gained	245	108
Yds. Lost	36	55
Total (Net)	265	200
Comp.-Att.-Int.	12 - 21 - 1	18 - 32 - 2
Att.	12.6	6.3
Comp.	22.1	11.1
TDs	5	2
Yards	474	253
Plays	70	64
Play	6.8	4.0
Fumbles - Lost	1 - 0	1 - 1
Penalties - Yds.	2 - 18	4 - 35
Punts - Yds.	5 - 184	7 - 340
Punt	36.8	48.6
Inside 20	1	2
50+ Yds.	1	3
Touchbacks	1	0
Fair Catch	1	0
Total - Yds.	8 - 425	3 - 157
Kickoff	53.1	52.3
Touchbacks	3	1
Punt: Total - Yds. - TDs	2 - 6 - 0	3 - 13 - 0
Return	3.0	4.3
Kickoff: Total - Yds. - TDs	1 - 30 - 0	4 - 40 - 0
Return	30.0	10.0
INT: Total - Yds. - TDs	2 - 18 - 0	1 - 5 - 0
Fumble: Total - Yds. - TDs	0-0-0	0-0-0
Misc. Yards	0	0
Poss. Time	34:39	25:21
3rd. Down Conv.	6 of 12	4 of 17
4th. Down Conversions	0 of 1	2 of 4
Red-Zone: Scores - Chances	3 - 3	1 - 2
Sacks: Total - Yds.	5 - 32	0 - 0
PAT: Total - Made	7 - 7	1 - 1
2PT Conversion: Total - Made	0 - 0	0 - 1
Field Goals: Total - Made	0-0	0-1

Game Recap

Wheaton College Athletics

The Thunder football team advances to Quarterfinals of NCAA Division III Playoffs with 49-13 victory against Central

Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton Thunder football team defeated Central College (Iowa) 49-13 on Saturday at McCully Stadium. Wheaton improves to 12-0 for only the second time in school history and advances to the Quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Playoffs for the fourth time in program history. The Thunder will face St. John's (Minn) next Saturday in a Quarterfinal Round game of the Division III Playoffs. Central concludes the season with a 10-2 record.

Wheaton scored five times in the first quarter to jump out to an early 35-0 lead. Wheaton tallied 474 yards of total offense in the game, with 265 passing yards and 209 rushing yards. Central tallied 253 yards of offense as the Dutch passed for 200 yards and ran 53 yards.

Quarterback Luke Anthony (PICTURED LEFT) completed 12 of his 18 passing attempts. He threw for 265 yards with five touchdown passes. Phillip Nichols caught three passes for 88 yards, with two touchdown receptions. Bert McJunkin had three receptions for 54 yards with one touchdown catch. Stone Watson carried the ball 10 times for 100 yards with one touchdown run. Will Smith ran the ball 10 times for 45 yards.. T.J. Williams ran for 42 yards on nine carries with one touchdown run.

Wyatt Lee led the Thunder defense with eight total tackles, including three tackles for loss (-11 yards), with 1.5 sacks (-8 yards). Jake Holaday registered six solo tackles, including two sacks (-13 yards). Caden Sigler registered six total tackles. Ryan Schwartz recorded two interceptions and made four solo tackles. Patrick O'Connell made four solo tackles, including an eight-yard quarterback sack, and he forced a fumble. River Shindledecker (PICTURED LEFT) recorded four total tackles, including one half tackle for loss of -3 yards.

Wheaton received the opening kickoff of the game. Five plays into the first drive of the game, Watson (PICTURED LEFT) broke free for a 57-yard touchdown run (VIDEO) to give Wheaton a 7-0 lead with 12:38 remaining in the first quarter. The Dutch were three-and-out in their opening drive. Central's punt attempt was stymied by Wheaton, as the Thunder started their next drive at the Central 27-yard line due to the key special teams play. Five plays later Williams reached the end zone on a one-yard touchdown run to increase the hosts' lead to 14-0 with 9:03 remaining in the first quarter (VIDEO).

Wheaton blocked a Central field goal attempt (VIDEO) on the next drive for the Dutch as Wheaton started its next drive on the Wheaton 23-yard line. Five plays later, Anthony connected with Nichols for a 55-yard touchdown pass (VIDEO) as Wheaton increased its lead to 21-0 with 5:36 left in the first quarter. Central's first play of the ensuing drive was intercepted by Schwartz (VIDEO) as Wheaton started its next drive at the Dutch 34-yard line. Anthony connected with Bert McJunkin for a 34-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the drive (VIDEO) to increase the Thunder lead to 28-0 with 5:12 remaining in the opening quarter. O'Connell's strip sack late in the first quarter was recovered by Dallas McRae at the Central 18-yard line to give Wheaton terrific field position on the next drive for the hosts. Anthony linked up with Nichols on a 19-yard touchdown pass on the third play of the drive (VIDEO) to extend Wheaton's lead to 35-0 with 3:10 remaining in the first quarter.

Central reached the end zone thanks to a four-yard touchdown pass from Blaine Hawkins to Ross Norem. Norem's touchdown catch with 9:31 remaining in the second quarter cut Wheaton's lead to 35-17. Anthony threw a 69-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Tucker with 3:34 left in the first half (VIDEO) to increase the Wheaton lead to 42-7. The Thunder maintained the 42-7 lead at the halftime intermission.

Watson caught a six-yard touchdown pass from Anthony with 4:54 remaining in the third quarter to increase Wheaton's lead to 49-7 (VIDEO). Hawkins threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Robinson with 36-seconds left in the fourth quarter for a Central touchdown to account for the 49-13 final score.

PLEASE NOTE: This story will be updated throughout the evening.