Thunder gridders open CCIW schedule with a hard fought 17-7 win over North Central (Boxscore)

Wheaton, Ill. (10/2) The Wheaton Thunder football team, ranked third in this week's American Football Coaches Association Division III Top 25, was a 17-7 victor over North Central today in front of a capacity crowd for Homecoming at McCully Field. Wheaton is now 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in the CCIW, as the Thunder improved its school-record regular season winning streak to 23 games, in addition to an 18-game winning streak against CCIW opponents. Today's victory helped the Thunder retain posession of the "Little Brass Bell" trophy that is on the line when the two teams meet.

North Central is 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the CCIW. Today's win was the seventh Thunder victory in a row over the Cardinals and 16 th win in the last 17 meetings between the two teams. Wheaton owns a 49-35-3 advantage in the all-time series. Wheaton is at Millikin next Saturday, while North Central will host Illinois Wesleyan.

North Central returned the opening kickoff of the game 60 yards to the Wheaton 32-yard line, but the Cardinals' opening drive stalled at the Thunder 13-yard line and kicker Mike Augustine's 30-yard field goal attempt with 12:24 to play in the first quarter went wide left. Wheaton 's second drive of the game started at the North Central 32-yard line and the Thunder used the good field position to its advantage with a seven-play scoring drive of 35 yards. The drive culminated with a six-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Jeremy Chupp to senior receiver Colin Sinclair (PICTURED LEFT) to give Wheaton a 7-0 lead with 4:07 to play in the first quarter. North Central tied the game at 7-7 when quarterback Adam Duerr and Chuck Earnest connected on a 50-yard touchdown pass with 4:52 to play in the first half.

The defenses started the second half by stopping the opposing offenses when they needed to, until Wheaton scored on the seventh drive after halftime with 1:09 to play in the third quarter. Chupp connected with a wide open Sinclair on a 53-yard touchdown pass to give the Thunder a 14-7 lead. Sinclair's touchdown concluded a six-play drive of 96 yards. Junior kicker Andrew Day kicked a career-long 48-yard field goal with 2:20 to play in the game to extend Wheaton 's lead to 17-7. With 44-seconds left in the game Wheaton free safety Todd Travis intercepted a Duerr pass at the Thunder 28-yard line to secure the victory for the hosts.

Wheaton amassed 401 yards of total offense on the day, with 218 passing yards and 183 rushing yards. North Central was held to a season-low 251 yards of offense with 145 passing yards and 106 rushing yards.

Wheaton tailback Garrett Granberg ran for 124 yards on 27 carries, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. Chupp completed 13 of his 32 passing attempts for 218 yards with two touchdown catches. Fullback Skip Ast ran for 28 yards on four carries and added one catch for 28 yards. Chupp completed 13 of his 32 passing attempts for 218 yards with two touchdown tosses. Sinclair caught four passes for 82 yards and the two touchdown receptions. Senior receiver Brad Musso caught six passes for 64 yards and returned three punts for 48 yards. Musso's 112 all-purpose yards in the game gives him 4,252 career all-purpose yards as he set a new school-record. The previous school-record for all-purpose yards in a career was 4,183 yards held by Dane Shaw (1993-96).

Senior linebacker Justin Boxley led a staunch Wheaton defense with eight total tackles and one tackle for lost yardage (-2 yards). Travis recorded six total tackles, with the interception late in the game. Linebacker Phil Montes made six total tackles with a quarterback sack, a pass-broken up and quarterback hurry. Marcos Gutierrez (PICTURED LEFT) also made six total tackles with 1-1/2 tackles for lost yardage (-8 yards), including a quarterback sack (-7 yards). Linebacker Nate Odom intercepted a pass and forced a fumble. Senior cornerback Caleb Walters recorded Wheaton 's third pass interception of the afternoon. Jason Isaacson made a team-high two tackles for lost yardage (-10 yards), including one quarterback sack (-7 yards). Punter Aaron Toly made six punts for 243 yards, averaging 40.5 yards with three punts inside the 20-yard line.

Duerr completed 10 of his 26 passing attempts for 145 yards with one touchdown pass, and he ran for another 33 yards. Receiver Tyke Spencer caught five passes for 60 yards and Earnest had three receptions for 60 yards with North Central's lone touchdown. Israel Brown was North Central's leading rusher with nine carries for 37 yards. North Central linebacker Lenny Radtke made 16 total tackles and Tim Bellazzini added 11 total tackles. Mario Smith intercepted two Wheaton passes and Chris Bazant also made an interception. North Central's Mike Augustine made eight punts for 324 yards, averaging 40.5 yards per punt with three inside the 20-yard line.