BOXSCORE
Holland, Mich. – The Wheaton College football team earned a 47-7 win at Hope College on Saturday night under the lights at Hope's Holland Municipal Stadium. The Thunder, ranked seventh in this week's D3Football.com Top-25, improves to 3-0 on the year. Wheaton will return home next Saturday to host North Park for a 1 PM Homecoming kickoff. Hope, now 0-4 on the season, has lost seven straight games to the Thunder, with the last Flying Dutchmen win against Wheaton coming in 2001.
With tonight's victory Wheaton closes out the non-conference portion of its schedule with its 20th consecutive non-conference win in the regular season. Wheaton's streak dates back to a season-opening loss at Alma College to open the 2002 season.
Wheaton scored a pair of touchdowns in each of the first two quarters to hold a 27-0 lead at halftime. Wheaton's two second quarter touchdowns were the result of touchdown passes from quarterback Sean Norris (PICTURED RIGHT) to Alex Pokorny for 41-yard and 17-yard touchdown connections. Wheaton led 40-0 at the conclusion of the third quarter as the Thunder scored two more touchdowns in the period. Both of Wheaton's trips into the endzone in the third quarter were by tailback Rocky Gingg who scored on five-yard and two-yard touchdown runs. The Flying Dutchmen put points on the board with a one-yard touchdown run by Jon Rodriguez with 9:38 left in the game. Wheaton extended its lead to 47-7 on a one-yard touchdown run by senior Andrew Hershey to account for the final score.
Wheaton accumulated 460 yards of total offense, rushing for 251 yards and passing for 209. Hope tallied 247 offensive yards, with 188 passing yards and 59 rushing yards.
Gingg carried the ball 20 times for 119 yards, with two touchdowns as he averaged 5.9 yards per carry. Norris completed 11 of his 14 passing attempts for 172 yards and three touchdown passes. He also ran for 63 yards on seven carries. Pokorny (PICTURED LEFT), the reigning CCIW “Offensive Player of the Week” caught six passes for 114 yards, with two touchdown catches. Freddy Ellis caught four passes for 53 yards with a touchdown.
Defensive tackle Nick Theobald (PICTURED RIGHT) and Daniel Meeh led the Thunder defense with four total tackles each. Nic O'Neal and Ben Kuenzle each recorded a quarterback sack for the Thunder.
Rodriguez carried the ball 15 times for 25 yards, with one touchdown. Quarterback Jake Manning was 18-for-40 passing, with 177 yards through the air. Receiver Scott Snyder caught nine passes for 69 yards. Chris Batterbee led the Hope defense with 12 total tackles, including a quarterback sack of six yards.
