Wheaton wins a portion of CCIW Title with 37-30 win at Augustana in two overtimes (Boxscore)

Rock Island, Ill.

(11/11) - It took

two overtimes, 865 yards of total offense and seven missed extra points and

field goals, but Wheaton (8-2/6-1) was a 37-30 victor over Augustana College

(7-3/4-3) today in Division III football action. It was Wheaton's first victory

in Rock Island since 1996 and only its second since a 27-3 Wheaton win in 1978.

With the Wheaton concludes the regular season with its third consecutive winning

season and nine in the last 10 years.

With the win on the Vikings'

home field Wheaton secured a piece of the College Conference of Illinois and

Wisconsin Championship. Wheaton is part of a three-way tie with Millikin University

(9-1/6-1) and Illinois Wesleyan (9-1/6-1) for the league championship. Illinois

Wesleyan defeated Millikin 10-8 today in Bloomington to create the three way

tie and give Wheaton a piece of its first CCIW Title since 1995. Despite the

three-way tie Millikin wins the tie-breaker that determines who will receive

the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Playoffs.

The Thunder overcame several

injuries throughout the season including the losses of team captains Greg

McMillin at linebacker, last week, and running back Brian Pastermack

(Merritt Island, Fla./Merritt Island) late in the game today. Wheaton head coach

Mike Swider said of his team's effort in the difficult environment of

Ericson Field, "Before we won here in 1996 our last win was in the 1970's".

He continued, "We managed to win here without nine of our 22 starters that we

began the season with. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season

that we could have been conference champs with as many injuries as we have had

I wouldn't have believed you. If we would have stayed healthy then sure I believed

we would have won this, but not with the injuries we have had. This win and

this conference title is a credit to our players, our coaching staff and our

whole organization."

The Vikings jumped out to

a 7-0 lead with 11:36 to play in the first half when quarterback Brad Wendell

found Chris Sally on a 10-yard touchdown pass. Wheaton cut the lead to

7-6 with 7:01 to play in the first half with a 38-yard touchdown catch by Chris

Boddy (San Antonio, Texas/Alamo Heights) from sophomore quarterback Josh

Anderson (Claremont, Calif./Claremont), however the point-after attempt

failed. The Vikings held a 7-6 advantage at halftime due in part to two missed

field goal attempts and a missed extra point by the Thunder in the first half.

Wheaton

took the lead when Anderson found senior wide receiver Jeremy Amos (Austin,

Texas/Westlake) on a 31-yard touchdown toss that saw the ensuing two-point conversion

completed as the Thunder owned a 14-7 advantage with 9:54 to play in the third

quarter. Wheaton went up 21-7 with 1:57 to play in the third quarter when Pastermack

scored on a 16-yard run, however the extra point attempt missed. Augustana began

a fourth quarter scoring barrage with 12:50 to play in the game when Sally caught

a 17-yard touchdown pass from Wendell. Sally tied the game at 20-20 with 7:15

to play when he caught a 13-yard pass from Wendell in the end zone, however

the extra point attempt was blocked by Wheaton. Amos (PICTURED RIGHT) gave the

guests a 27-20 lead with 4:34 to play in the game when he caught a 33-yard pass

from Anderson. Wheaton registered the extra point when freshman Grant Tillotson

(Wheaton, Ill./North) came on for the first placekicking duties of his young

collegiate career. The Vikings again tied the game at 27-27 when Sally caught

a 29-yard pass in the end zone from Wendell. The catch gave the Viking receiver

a school-record four touchdown catches in the game.

In the first overtime Augustana

owned the first possession and JJ Hazelett connected on a 25-yard field

goal attempt to give the Vikings a 30-27 advantage. On Wheaton's possession

the Thunder got the ball to the Augustana 15-yard line where it was forced to

kick a field goal on fourth down. Tillotson, the freshman punter/defensive back,

made a 33-yard field goal in his first collegiate attempt. In the second overtime

Wheaton got the ball first and made it into the end zone in eight plays when

sophomore JE McKissic (Arlington, Texas/Martin) scored on a one-yard

touchdown run that gave the Thunder the 37-30 advantage it would hold onto.

In Augustana's final possession the squad got to the 10-yard line in eight plays,

but two incomplete passes to Sally ended the game and gave Wheaton the victory.

Pastermack led the Wheaton

offense with 158 yards on 31 carries and one touchdown run, before leaving the

game late in the fourth quarter with an injured ankle. The Wheaton team captain

ends the season with 1,082 yards on the year and 2,494 rushing yards in his

career. He ends his four-year career in third-place on the school's all-time

rushing yardage list. Amos had seven receptions for 121 yards and two touchdowns

to give him 76 catches for 1,171 yards on the season. His effort this year ranks

him in third-place on Wheaton's single-season receiving yards list. He is just

behind Steve Thonn who tallied 1,174 yards in 1983 and Mark Loeffler

who had 1,256 receiving yards in 11 games during the 1995 season. He is

sixth on Wheaton's all-time receiving yards list with 2,171 yards in his career

on 151 receptions for an average of 14.4 yards per catch. Anderson was 13-25

on the day with three touchdown passes and an interception.

(PICTURED LEFT) Senior linebacker

JD Leman (Champaign, Ill./Central) led Wheaton with 17 total tackles,

including two for lost yardage (-7 yards), one quarterback sack (-5 yards) and

a fumble recovery. Sophomore defensive tackle Jeff Darnauer (Goodland,

Kan./Goodland) made 15 total tackles with one sack. Junior Bryan Ittersagen

(Wheaton, Ill./North) made 14 total tackles with a fumble recovery. Augustana's

offense was led by Corey Ungaro with 108 rushing on 21 carries, while

David Chorney ran for 75 yards on 20 carries. Wendell was 8-18 passing

for 99 yards and four touchdown tosses. Sally had all four touchdown catches

with seven receptions for 95 yards.