Wheaton's season ends in a 45-24 loss at Mount Union

Alliance, Ohio – The Wheaton College football team's tremendous playoff run ended on Saturday in a 45-24 loss at top-ranked Mount Union College in the Semifinals of the NCAA Division III Playoffs. Wheaton ends the season with an 11-3 overall record. Mount Union (14-0) has advanced to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl next Saturday morning in Salem, Virginia.

Thunder head coach Mike Swider noted following the game, “Give credit where credit is due, Mount Union beat us today. They [Mount Union] are the best. We are a good football team and we had a great year, but the best team won today.” He added, “I am immensely proud of our football team. After we lost two games earlier this season and thought we wouldn't get in the playoffs this team never quit. We won our last two regular season games and we won three road playoff games because these guys played hard and they never quit.”

The Thunder offense amassed 346 yards of offense today, which is the most any team has compiled against Mount Union's defense this season. Wheaton passed for 256 yards and ran for 90 yards in the game. Mount Union tallied 657 yards of offense, with 225 passing yards and 438 rushing yards.

Thunder quarterback Sean Norris (PICTURED RIGHT) completed 16 of his 34 passing attempts for 248 yards, with two touchdowns. Senior Kyle Bradley threw a touchdown on his one passing attempt. Senior Alex Pokorny caught six passes for 81 yards, with two touchdown catches in his final collegiate game. Freddy Ellis caught three passes for 66 yards, with one touchdown reception. Senior Andrew Hershey ran 15 times for 58 yards.

Linebacker Jon Ryan tallied 10 total tackles, with a sack of five yards. Defensive back Tyler Langs (PICTURED RIGHT) and Stephen Pagh (PICTURED LEFT) each made nine total tackles. Shane Woodward made seven tackles, including a tackle for lost yardage. Jordan Schirman made six total tackles, with an assisted tackle for lost yardage. Pete Ittersagen and Dave Lindberg each forced a fumble and Mike McKinney recovered a fumble.

Mount Union running back Nate Kmic carried the ball 29 times for 310 yards, with three touchdowns. Quarterback Greg Micheli completed 19 of his 26 passing attempts for 225 yards, with two touchdowns. Vince Petruziello caught nine passes for 133 yards. Chaz Jordan led the Purple Raiders' defense with a team-high eight total tackles Clantz Liggett made three tackles for lost yardage (-15 yards), including two quarterback sacks.

Mount Union took an early 3-0 lead thanks to a 29-yard field goal by Ryan Wilk with 10:41 remaining in the first quarter. Wilk's kick was setup by a 38-yard run by Micheli earlier in the drive. A Wheaton turnover on the ensuing drive resulted in the Purple Raiders gaining the ball on a short field at the Thunder 40-yard line and the hosts capitalized five plays later when Micheli threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Shorts to give Mount Union a 10-0 lead with 8:25 remaining in the first half.

The Purple Raiders extended their lead to 17-0 with 9:14 remaining in the first half when Micheli scored on a one-yard run. Kmic broke free of the Thunder defense for a 49-yard touchdown run to extend the hosts' lead to 24-0 with 6:20 remaining in the first half. A prolonged Thunder drive of nine plays and 58 yards culminated with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Norris to Pokorny to cut the Mount Union lead to 24-7 with 2:44 remaining in the first half. Mount Union scored a touchdown late in the first half when Micheli threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Claycomb to increase the hosts' lead to 31-7 with 1:05 remaining before the halftime intermission. Senior All-Region kicker Tim Ellingsen (PICTURED LEFT) booted a 45-yard field goal with three-seconds left in the first half, as Mount Union held a 31-10 lead at halftime.

Mount Union took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched it down to the Wheaton 18-yard line. However, the Thunder defense gave a solid stand, stopping the Purple Raiders on four downs, with Jordan Schirman tipping Micheli's pass in the end zone on fourth down to stall the hosts' drive. On the ensuing drive, Norris was back to punt from the Thunder 31-yard line and Wheaton pulled out the fake punt and the junior connected with Ittersagen on a 49-yard pass to the Mount Union 21-yard line. However, the Wheaton drive stalled and a missed field goal attempt with 6:36 remaining in the third quarter returned the ball to the Purple Raiders. The Purple Raiders' next drive ended when Kmic scored on a 17-yard touchdown run to extend their lead to 38-10 with 4:56 left in the third quarter. Norris connected with Freddy Ellis on a deep ball of 41 yards as Ellis scampered into the end zone as the Thunder cut Mount Union's lead to 38-17 with 3:36 remaining in the third quarter.

With 14:14 remaining in the fourth quarter McKinney recovered a Mount Union fumble at the Wheaton 25-yard line to stop a Mount Union drive. Wheaton marched the ball to its own 30-yard line; however, the Purple Raiders stalled the drive and gained the ball back with 7:43 remaining in the game. On the hosts' ensuing drive Kmic scored on a 42-yard touchdown run with 6:12 remaining in the game to extend the Mount Union lead to 45-17. Senior quarterback Kyle Bradley, a Thunder captain, threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Pokorny with 3:44 left in the game for a 45-24 Mount Union advantage.

Wheaton's tremendous season closed with numerous new school records. Among the records broken was the school's single-season receiving yards record, now held by Pokorny with 1,428 yards and he also set a new school records for touchdown receptions and total touchdowns scored in a season, with 19. He finished the year with 114 points, one point shy of the single-season scoring record. Norris set a new single-season record with 32 touchdown passes this year and also set a new single-season record for total offense with 3,383 yards. Ittersagen tied the school single-season records for punts returned for a touchdown and set the record for punt return yardage (464 yards). Ittersagen (PICTURED LEFT) also set career records for punt return yards (1,075), punt returns for a touchdown and total returns for a touchdown. Ellingsen kicked 14 field goals this season to set a new single-season record and with 30 career field goals he is second on the school's all-time list with 30, among other single-season and career records that were established this season.

Originally published by Wheaton College Athletics: /news/2008/12/13/fb-muc.aspx