Kenosha, Wis. (11/4) – The Wheaton Thunder football team, ranked 20th in Division III by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), earned a 52-3 victory at CCIW rival Carthage College on Saturday afternoon. Wheaton improves to 8-1 on the season and 5-1 in the CCIW; while Carthage is now 6-3 overall and 3-3 in conference play.

With todays win Wheaton remains tied atop the CCIW at 5-1 win along with Augustana and North Central. Augustana was a 31-0 victor at home today against North Park and North Central earned a 47-21 win at Illinois Wesleyan. Each team will conclude the regular season next Saturday at 1 PM, with Wheaton hosting Illinois Wesleyan in its regular season finale. If the three teams remain tied at the conclusion of the regular season, each team would earn a share of the conference championship and North Central would earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Playoffs based on the conference's tiebreaker rules.

In today's win at Carthage Wheaton jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead with a one-yard touchdown run by Chaz Black and a 53-yard touchdown pass from Jeremy Chupp to Chris Fossum. Carthage reached the scoreboard early in the second quarter when the Red Men kicked a 24-yard field goal to cut the Thunder lead to 14-3. Wheaton would hold a 28-3 lead at halftime with a 60-yard touchdown pass by Zach Ullrich to Joe Chupp and a nine-yard toss from Jeremy Chupp to Noah Dreyer.

In the third quarter Jeremy Chupp threw a two-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jordan Kemper and sophomore tailback Andrew Hershey reached the endzone on a two-yard touchdown run for a 42-3 Wheaton lead. In the fourth quarter Ullrich scored on a 13-yard run and Tim Ellingsen kicked a 30-yard field goal to account for the 52-3 final score.

Wheaton tallied 512 yards of total offense, with 260 rushing yards and 252 passing yards. Wheaton held Carthage to just 162 yards of total offense, with 104 rushing yards and 58 yards through the air.

Thunder quarterback Jeremy Chupp completed 11 of his 18 passing attempts for 170 yards, with three touchdown tosses. Ullrich completed three of his eight passing attempts for 82 yards with one touchdown and he ran for 34 yards, with one touchdown scamper. Hershey carried the ball 16 times for 73 yards with one touchdown and Black ran for 68 yards on 14 carries, with one touchdown. Fossum caught four passes for 95 yards, with a touchdown and Dreyer recorded 52 receiving yards on four receptions, with a touchdown.

Kirk McKenney led the Thunder Wheaton defense with seven tackles and he added one tackle for lost yardage (-2 yards). Linebacker Mike McKinney recorded five tackles, with a tackle for loss (-1 yards). Pete Ittersagen snatched his team-high fourth interception and Shane Woodward also picked off a Carthage pass. Junior defensive end Andy Studebaker recorded one quarterback sack for -8 yards.