Nov 21, 2015

The Thunder football team earns a snowy 55-6 win against Lakeland to open the NCAA Playoffs

Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton football team handled the weather conditions and the opponent on Saturday in a 55-6 victory against Lakeland College in the First Round of the 2015 NCAA Division III Football Playoffs. Wheaton improves to 11-0 on the year and will face UW-Whitewater next Saturday at noon in a Second Round matchup. Today's game was played during a snowstorm in the Chicagoland area with noticeable snow accumulation before and during the matchup.

Wheaton took the opening kickoff and Noah Roberts returned it 55 yards to the Muskies' 36-yard line to setup a short field for the Thunder. Sophomore Sola Olateju broke through the Lakeland defense on the second play of the drive to reach the end zone on an 18-yard touchdown run. Olateju's touchdown quickly gave the hosts a 7-0 lead with 14:13 left in the first quarter. The ensuing Lakeland drive bounced off a player and into the arms of Wheaton linebacker Adam Dansdill (PICTURED LEFT) who returned it 35 yards for a touchdown. Dansdill's touchdown return gave the Thunder a 14-0 lead with 13:58 left in the first quarter.

Both teams exchanged a series of short drives over the remainder of the first quarter. Wheaton put together a 10-play drive of 58 yards early in the second quarter that culminated with an 11-yard touchdown run for Olateju to increase the Thunder lead to 21-0 with 9:09 remaining in the second quarter. The Thunder added a one-yard touchdown run by Jackson Fain and a three-yard TD run by Danny Puknaitis in the second quarter to give the hosts s 28-0 lead at halftime.

Quarterback Andrew Bowers increased Wheaton's lead to 41-0 with 9:13 remaining in the third quarter as the ball was initially bobbled by the quarterback, but he scooped it up and ran into the endzone on a 26-yard TD run. The Muskies' Fred Fielding intercepted a Thunder pass late in the third quarter and Lakeland capitalized seven plays later when Michael Whitley threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Kezlow Smith. Smith's touchdown made it a 41-6 lead for Wheaton with 1:44 remaining in the third quarter.

Thunder quarterback Curtis McWilliams connected with Carson Lien for a 46-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter and Fain reached the end zone on a 38-yard TD run with 12:20 left in the fourth quarter to account for the 55-6 Thunder victory.

The Thunder defense held Lakeland's high-octane passing game to just 38 yards through the air today. The Muskies gained just 31 yards on the ground as the Wheaton defense held the guests to just 69 yards of total offense. The Thunder defense amassed eight sacks with three interceptions on the afternoon.

Logan McRae (PICTURED RIGHT) made five total tackles, including 2-1/2 quarterback sacks (-19 yards) with one quarterback sack (-14 yards). Marcus Smith and John Clark each had four total tackles. Bobby Pugsley tallied two sacks for the Thunder with interceptions for Dansdill, Caleb Ashby and Wes Cannonier.

Wheaton ran for 291 yards and threw for 71 yards with 362 yards of total offense on the day.

Fain carried the ball 12 times for 77 yards with two touchdown runs. Puknaitis ran the ball 18 times for 69 yards with one touchdown and Olateju (PICTURED LEFT) had eight carries for 61 yards and two trips into the end zone. Bowers completed two of his passing attempts for 25 yards and he ran for 65 yards on seven carries with one touchdown run. Curtis McWilliams threw for 46 yards, all on the touchdown pass to Lien in the fourth quarter.Print Friendly Version