BOXSCORE
Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder football team, ranked sixth in this week's D3football.com Top-25 poll, opened conference play on Saturday with a 56-28 victory against North Park University in front of a large Homecoming crowd. Wheaton is now 4-0 on the season (1-0 CCIW) and North Park is 1-3 overall (0-1 CCIW).
Today's win marked the 100th career victory in the tenure of head coach Mike Swider. Swider has compiled a career record of 100-29 since taking the helm of the Wheaton football program in 1996. With today's win Swider, a 1977 graduate of Wheaton, becomes only the second football coach in Wheaton history to earn 100 career victories at the school, joining longtime head coach Harve Chrouser who guided Wheaton to 104 wins, 34 losses and eight ties in his 17 seasons (1946-60) at the helm of the program. With his 77.5% winning percentage he is tied for sixth among active Division III head coaches in winning percentage, a mark that is also 18th among active NCAA head coaches at all levels.
Junior quarterback Sean Norris (PICTURED RIGHT) set a new Wheaton single-game record in the victory as he completed 17 of his 18 passing attempts for 239 yards, with three touchdown tosses. Norris' 94.4% completion percentage is the highest ever in a single-game by a Wheaton quarterback (with 10 or more passing attempts), surpassing the mark of 87.5% (21-24) by Chad Bradley against North Park on November 8, 2003.
Thunder sophomore tailback Rocky Gingg (PICTURED LEFT) carried the ball 19 times for 118 yards, with three touchdown runs as he averaged 6.2 yards per carry. Senior Andrew Hershey ran for 60 yards on nine carries, with one touchdown. Senior receiver Alex Pokorny caught seven passes for 85 yards, with two touchdown receptions. Tight end Mike Berttucci caught two passes for 62 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown reception.
Defensive end Ben Kuenzle led the Wheaton defense with six total tackles, including 1-1/2 tackles for lost yardage of five yards. Defensive tackle Grant Roszkowiak tallied five total tackles. Linebacker Jon Ryan tallied a quarterback sack, while Cory Hart and Tyler Langs (PICTURED RIGHT) each had an interception.
North Park running back Jacob Mueller carried the ball 21 times for 60 yards. Quarterback Shelby Wood completed 22 of his 39 passing attempts for 346 yards, with four touchdowns. Sam Cochiaro caught eight passes for 197 yards, with three touchdown grabs. Defensive backs Nick Pantaleo and Joe Cullotta each recorded nine total tackles to lead the Vikings' defense.
The Thunder offense tallied a season-high 519 yards of total offense as Wheaton averaged 7.7 yards per play. The balanced Thunder attack passed for 290 yards and ran for 229 yards. North Park amassed 405 yards of total offense, with 346 passing yards and 59 rushing yards.
Wheaton led 14-0 after one quarter of play as Gingg scored on one-yard touchdown run and Bertucci (PICTURED LEFT) broke free for a 49-yard touchdown pass from Norris. North Park cut the Thunder lead to 14-7 when Wood connected with Cochiaro on a 95-yard touchdown pass with 12:14 left in the second quarter. Wheaton held a 35-7 lead at halftime thanks to three touchdowns, including a pair of 12-yard touchdown tosses from Norris to Pokorny and a one-yard run into the end zone by Gingg.
Wheaton's lead increased to 42-7 with 10:58 left in the third quarter when Norris scored on a three-yard run and then Gingg gave the hosts a 49-7 lead when he scored on an 11-yard run with 7:06 left in the third quarter. Cochiaro caught a 58-yard pass from Wood with 4:54 left in the third quarter for North Park's second touchdown of the game. Hershey reached the end zone on a 22-yard touchdown run with 1:21 left in the third quarter to extend Wheaton's lead to 56-14. Cochiaro's third touchdown catch of the game was on a five-yard pass from Wood with 11:44 left in the game and Wood threw an eight-yard touchdown toss to Jeremy Dybdahl with 5:49 left in the game to account for the 56-28 final score.
Wheaton will travel to Augustana (3-1/1-0) next Saturday for a 1 PM kickoff in Rock Island, Illinois. Next Saturday's game will be broadcast on WETN radio at 88.1 FM in the Wheaton area and on the internet at www.wetn.org. Live in-game statistics will be provided courtesy of the Augustana College Sports Information office at this LINK.
