No. 5 Wheaton football defeats Augustana 45-0 in front of Homecoming crowd

Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton football team shut out Augustana, 45-0 on Saturday afternoon in front of a large Homecoming crowd at McCully Stadium. Today's win was only the fourth time in the past 65 meetings that Wheaton has shut out the Vikings. Along with a 40-0 victory against Augustana in 2019 in the previous meeting, this marks the first time Wheaton has ever recorded back-to-back shutouts against Augie. Wheaton is now 4-1 on the season, including a 3-1 record in conference play.

The Thunder offense recorded 498 yards of offense today, while the Wheaton defense held Augustana to just 145 yards of offense. Wheaton ran for 257 yards and passed for 241. The Wheaton defense held the Vikings to a mere 15 yards on the ground on 29 attempts. The guests passed for 145 yards, with the Thunder defense recording five sacks.

Thunder quarterback Luke Anthony completed 20 of his 28 passing attempts for 237 yards, with two touchdown passes. Adam Terrini caught six passes for 68 yards, with a touchdown catch and a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Running back Giovanni Weeks ran for 91 yards, with three touchdown runs and he caught six passes for 46 yards.

Linebacker Ryan Schwartz led the Wheaton defense with eight total tackles, all solo. Among his tackles was a tackle for loss (-1 yards) and he registered a forced fumble. Daniel Herber (PICTURED LEFT) tallied eight total tackles, including six solo stops. Dallas McRae registered five total tackles, including four solo, with 1-1/2 tackles for loss (-8 yards). Wyatt Lee tallied two quarterback sacks (-11 yards) and River Shindledecker tallied one (-4 yards).

Wheaton scored on its second offensive drive of the game, a lengthy 15-play drive that went for 86 yards. The scoring drive culminated with a three-yard touchdown run for Weeks with 1:05 remaining in the first quarter. Tommy Gallagher converted the PAT kick to give the hosts a 7-0 advantage.

Anthony threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Spencer Peterson with 8:07 remaining in the second quarter to extend Wheaton's lead to 14-0. On Wheaton's next drive, running back Sam Singleton scampered to the Augie one-yard line on a 21-yard run, however, he fumbled the ball. Terrini quickly recovered the ball in the endzone for a touchdown for a 21-0 Wheaton lead with 5:49 left in the second quarter. The Thunder led 21-0 at halftime.

Weeks (PICTURED RIGHT) scored a pair of Thunder touchdowns on the first two offensive drives of the second half for the hosts. He reached the end zone on a three-yard run with 12:58 remaining in the third quarter and he had a six-yard touchdown run with 8:28 left in the third to increase the hosts' advantage to 35-0. Later in the third quarter, Anthony threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Terrini for a 42-0 Wheaton lead with 2:06 left in the third quarter.

Senior kicker Tommy Gallagher booted a 52-yard field goal with 13:24 remaining in the game. Gallagher's long field goal was one-yard short of tying Wheaton's school record for the longest field goal, a 53-yarder by Sam Cote on October 26, 2016 against Illinois Wesleyan. Gallagher's kick accounted for the 45-0 final score.

Wheaton travels to Carroll next Saturday at 1:00 p.m. to face the Pioneers.