Decatur, Ill. (9/30) – The Thunder football team earned its fourth consecutive victory on Saturday with a 20-7 win at Millikin University. Wheaton, ranked 21st in the most recent D3Football.com Top 25 Poll, improves to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the CCIW. Millikin falls to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in league play. The Thunder will host North Central next Saturday at 1 PM as a part of Wheaton 's Homecoming festivities. Saturday's game will be the 88 th annual meeting for “Little Brass Bell” that is on the line every year when the Thunder meets the Cardinals.
Wheaton took a 7-0 lead with 5:04 left in the first quarter when quarterback Jeremy Chupp threw a four-yard touchdown pass to his twin brother Joe. The touchdown capped a lengthy 14-play drive of 82 yards. The Thunder lead increased to 14-0 when senior Chris Fossum caught a 51-yard touchdown pass from Jeremy Chupp with 14:15 remaining in the second quarter. The Wheaton lead remained 14-0 into the intermission at halftime and for the entire third quarter.
Fossum bowled into the endzone on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Jeremy Chupp to increase Wheaton 's lead to 20-0 with 9:08 left in the game. The ensuing point after attempt failed as the touchdown capped a seven-play drive of 66-yards. Millikin reached the scoreboard with 7:17 remaining in the game when quarterback Joe Albin hit Tim Vettell on a 38-yard touchdown pass cut the Wheaton lead to 20-7. The Thunder defense remained strong for the rest of the game. Junior defensive end Andy Studebaker stalled the Big Blue offense on its final drive of the game when he blasted through the Millikin defense for a quarterback sack of -16 yards to force the hosts to punt. Wheaton held onto the ball for the final 3:40 of the game using eight plays to close out the games.
The Thunder defense was strong throughout the game as the unit held the Big Blue to 240 yards of total offense, with 178 passing yards and 62 rushing yards. Wheaton ran for 163 yards and passed for another 207 yards to tally 370 yards of total offense. Wheaton averaged 44 yards per punt behind the effort of punter Sean Norris as the Thunder averaged 37.5 net yards per punt.
Thunder linebacker Steve Pagh made 11 total tackles, with a tackle for lost yardage. Senior captain Jonathan Toal made six tackles on the day. Safety Shane Woodward made five tackles, with a pass interception return of 26 yards. Andy Studebaker made four tackles with two quarterback sacks (-28 yards).
Thunder tailback Chaz Black carried the ball 32 times for 146 yards. Jeremy Chupp completed 12 of his 28 passing attempts for 207 yards with three touchdowns. Fossum caught five passes for 144 yards with two touchdown grabs. Joe Chupp caught three passes for 30 yards with one touchdown.
Millikin running back Nathan Wallick , who entered the game as the leading rusher in the CCIW , carried the ball 20 times for 94 yards. Albin completed 17 of his 34 passing attempts for 178 yards with one touchdown. Matt Kormelink caught seven passes for 83 yards. Big Blue linebacker Sam Jordan made a team-high eight total tackles.
