BOXSCORE
Wheaton, Ill. – The Thunder football team opened conference play on Saturday afternoon with a 29-7 victory against Millikin in front of a full Homecoming crowd at McCully Stadium. Wheaton has now won the last six meetings between the Thunder and Millikin.
Wheaton, ranked sixth in this week's AFCA Division III Top 25, is now 4-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play. The Thunder will be at North Central next Saturday night with a 7 PM kickoff in Naperville. Millikin is now 1-3 overall and 0-1 in league play.
Junior placekicker Tim Ellingsen (PICTURED ABOVE) gave the Thunder a 3-0 lead with 1:10 left to play in the first quarter, when he booted a 22-yard field goal to cap a seven-play drive of 56 yards. Wheaton's Sean Norris punted to Millikin with 1:27 remaining in the first half and the ball went out of bounds at the Big Blue seven-yard line. On the opening play of Millikin's ensuing drive the Thunder defense clamped down for a quarterback sack and a safety of the Big Blue to increase the Wheaton lead to 5-0 with 1:21 left in the first half. Wheaton's lead increased to 12-0 on the ensuing drive, with 38-seconds left in the first half when Norris threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Alex Pokorny.
Millikin cut the Wheaton lead to 12-7 when Big Blue quarterback Justin Levingston connected with Chris Katzmark on a 37-yard touchdown pass with 12:51 remaining in the third quarter. Wheaton's lead increased to 19-7 when Kyle Bradley threw an 11-yard pass to tight end Kirk Sundberg (PICTURED RIGHT) with 7:51 left in the third quarter.
Sundberg collected another touchdown catch with 10:17 left in the game when he collected an eight-yard touchdown reception from Norris for a 26-7 Wheaton lead. The final score of 29-7 was the result for 22-yard field goal by Ellingsen with 4:56 left to play in the game.
Wheaton tallied 398 yards of total offense, with 239 passing yards and 159 rushing yards. Millikin collected 298 yards of offense, with 203 passing yards and 95 rushing yards.
Thunder tailback Brett Jackson (PICTURED LEFT) carried the ball 16 times for 132 yards. Norris completed nine of his 13 passing attempts for 143 yards, with two touchdowns. Kyle Bradley had eight completions, on 14 attempts, for 96 yards, with one touchdown. Chris Fossum had nine receptions, for 72 yards and Noah Dreyer also had five catches for 60 yards. Sundberg had four catches for 41 yards, including the two touchdown grabs.
All-American corner back Pete Ittersagen made a team-high 12 total tackles, including 10 solo tackles, with a forced fumble and four passes broken-up. Senior defensive back Kirk McKenney and junior linebacker Steve Pagh each recorded eight total tackles. Pagh added a fumble recovery and McKenney broke-up two passes. Ben Kuenzle (PICTURED RIGHT) had 1-1/2 tackles for lost yardage of -17 yards, including a 16-yard quarterback sack.
Levingston, the Millikin quarterback, completed 24 of his 46 passing attempts, for 203 yards, with a touchdown. Levingston was also the leading rusher for the Big Blue with 13 carries, for 54 yards. Chris Katzmark caught a game-high 11 passes for 119 yards, with one touchdown. Will Earlywine led the Millikin defense with 13 total tackles, including 2-1/2 tackles for lost yardage (-7 yards). Sam Jordan had nine total tackles, while Stefen Edwards made eight stops.
Saturday's game also saw the debut of a new state-of-the art scoreboard and sound system at McCully Stadium (PICTURED LEFT). The scoreboard is the third new addition at McCully Stadium, since 2004. In 2004 a new FieldTurf playing surface was installed, along with a re-surfaced synthetic track around the playing surface. Lights were installed at McCully Stadium in 2005. The Thunder has made the most of playing at home, with a sensational record of 30-1, winning 96.7% of the games it has played at McCully Stadium, since 2002.
