Wheaton opens playoffs with a 55-45 win over Hope College (Boxscore)

Wheaton, Ill. (11/22) - The Wheaton College Thunder earned

a 55-45 victory over Hope College (7-4) this afternoon in the opening round

of the NCAA Division III Football Playoffs at McCully Field. Today's game was

the second meeting of the season between the two teams, with Wheaton winning

a 43-26 game against the Flying Dutchmen on September 27. Wheaton improves to

3-2 all-time in the playoffs, as the Thunder has never lost a first round game.

Hope now has a 0-3 all-time record in the postseason.

Wheaton (11-0), the second-seeded team in the North Region, advances to the

second round of the playoffs and will face Baldwin-Wallace (10-1) next Saturday

afternoon. Number three-seeded Baldwin-Wallace was a 54-32 victor over #6-seeded

Hanover College earlier today. Saturday's game will be played at Wheaton's McCully

Field at noon CST. The gates to McCully Field will open at 11 AM and tickets

will be available only when the gates open.

Wheaton

jumped out to a 24-0 lead with 14:11 left to play in the second quarter when

fullback Drew Thornfeldt recorded his second touchdown run of the afternoon.

Hope scored two-second quarter touchdowns, while Wheaton ran one more into the

end zone, and ended the half with a 40-yard field goal for a 34-13 Thunder lead

at halftime. The Thunder were able to jump out to the early lead thanks largely

to strong field position in the opening half and throughout the game. Quarterback

Chad Bradley said of the job his defense did in the first half to help out

the offense, "The field position in the first half was huge. The odds of scoring

just go up when you get on their side of the field."

Wheaton opened the second half scoring when senior Andrew King caught

a 22-yard touchdown pass from Bradley to give the hosts a 41-13 lead with 9:26

left in the third quarter. Hope quarterback Phil Butler threw touchdown

passes of nine and 15-yards near the end of the third quarter to cut the Thunder

lead to 41-26 entering the final quarter. Wheaton tailback Garrett Granberg

scored on a three-yard touchdown run for a 48-26 Thunder lead with 12:45

to play in the game. Hope wasted no time in countering when Butler connected

with Jake Schrock on a 30-yard touchdown pass for 48-33 Wheaton lead

with 11:48 to play in the game. Granberg's third touchdown run of the game came

on a two-yard scamper with 6:05 left to play, giving Wheaton a 55-33 lead. Butler

threw two more touchdowns in the final quarter, but the Flying Dutchmen could

not recover from the deficit as Wheaton emerged with the 55-45 win.

Wheaton racked up 531 yards of offense on 87 plays for an average of 6.1 yards

per play. The Thunder passed for 344 yards and ran for another 187. Bradley

completed 21 of his 35 passing attempts for 344 yards and two touchdowns. King

caught nine passes for a career-high 139 yards, with one touchdown reception.

Musso caught eight passes for 156 yards and returned four punts for 50 yards.

Granberg was the game's leading rusher with 15 carries for 69 yards and three

touchdowns. Senior Dan Price carried the ball 19 times for 57 yards.

In addition to his two touchdown runs Thornfeldt had an eight-yard touchdown

reception.

Senior

safety Ty Gose made a team-high eight total tackles with two key interceptions

inside Wheaton territory to lead the Thunder defense. Gose said of the game,

"We knew once we got a big lead that Hope would start to throw more. They had

a lot of success doing that the first time we played them, so we were ready

for that." Senior cornerback Michael Drach made seven tackles with an

interception and linebacker Jason McDearmon added seven tackles with

1-1/2 quarterback sacks (-13 yards). Junior cornerback Caleb Walters

made six tackles with four-passes broken-up. Linebacker Tom McAndrews

(Pictured left with McDearmon) made five total tackles with 1-1/2 tackles for

lost yardage of six yards.

Hope quarterback Phil Butler completed 34 of his 65 passing attempts

for 500 yards with seven touchdowns. Receiver Scott Jeschke set a new

Hope College record for catches in a game with 14 receptions for 205 yards and

two touchdowns. Joe Verschuren caught eight passes for 105 yards with

two touchdowns and Schrock grabbed four receptions for 109 yards with two touchdowns.

Jason Misner made a game-high 13 total tackles and Dan Schofield added

11 tackles. Joe Diekevers made 10 total tackles with a forced fumble

and Mitch Cumings recorded 10 tackles with a tackle for lost yardage.

Wheaton head coach Mike Swider commented on the game, " I'm proud of

our guys. We live another week and go to the next round. The team learns to

rally around each other and we go on." He added, "Hope started out a little

slow, and that happens, sometimes. Hope is a very good football team. They were

in the playoffs for a reason, but don't count us out."

Hope head coach Dean Kreps said of the contest, "I'm proud of our kids.

They played hard until the end, and we had a lot of players step up. Wheaton

is a very good team, and they showed that, especially in the first half. We

couldn't run the ball against them like we hoped, and that's real credit to

their guys up front. Their defensive line played great. Wheaton is an exceptional

ball club, and we wish them the best." Kreps continued, "We were hoping that

we had made greater strides than they had when we played them in week three,

but I think they've just gotten better. We think our passing game is as good

as anybody in the country, but we thought we had to run on Wheaton to win. Wheaton

also had better field position than we did in the first half, and that hurt

us."