PICTURED ABOVE: Jaelin Goldsmith tallied three touchdowns in Saturday's victory.
Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder football team, ranked seventh in this week's D3football.com Top-25 poll, improved to 2-0 on Saturday with a 60-6 victory at home against Kalamazoo College. Wheaton will open up conference play next Saturday at Carthage in a 1:00 p.m. kickoff in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Wheaton's scoring started early with four first-quarter touchdowns as Wheaton led 28-0 at the end of the opening quarter. Junior running back
Sola Olateju scored on a 59-yard touchdown run and sophomore
Stone Watson scored on a three-yard run.
Jaelin Goldsmith had a 21-yard touchdown catch in the quarter and
Carson Lien caught a 14-yard touchdown pass with six-seconds remaining in the quarter to account for the hosts' 28-0 edge.
Wheaton added two more touchdowns in the second quarter as Goldsmith had a five-yard touchdown run and
Christian Bolhuis reached the end zone on a 51-yard touchdown pass as the Thunder led 41-0 at halftime.
A Kalamazoo holding penalty in its own end zone on the opening drive of the second half created a safety for the Thunder. Goldsmith reach the end zone for a third time on a 46-yard touchdown catch early in the quarter to extend Wheaton's lead to 50-0. Kalamazoo reached the end zone on a 19-yard touchdown pass with 2:24 remaining in the third quarter for a 50-6 Wheaton lead.
The final touchdown of the day was a 13-yard touchdown catch by
Adam Sandy in the fourth quarter. The final points of the game came on a 24-yard field goal by
Griffin Bowes with 7:48 left in the game to account for the 60-6 final score.
Wheaton tallied 618 yards of total offense today as the Thunder passed for 364 yards and ran for 254. The Hornets ran for just 49 yards on the day and tallied 147 passing yards for 196 yards of total offense.
Thunder quarterback
Johnny Peltz (PICTURED LEFT) completed 16 of his 21 passing attempts today for 265 yards with four touchdown passes and one interception. Peltz also ran for 40 yards on six carries.
Jesse Furrow was 6-of-11 passing, for 99 yards, with one touchdown toss.
Watson carried the ball 11 times for 100 yards with one touchdown run and Olateju had 71 rushing yards on four carries, including the 59-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Wheaton had 12 players catch at least one pass today, led by Bolhuis, Watson.
Jon Furrow, and
Tyler Pace with three receptions apiece. Bolhuis led the Thunder with 73 receiving yards with one touchdown catch.
Ben Shaw (PICTURED RIGHT) and
Patrick O'Connell each had six total tackles to lead the Wheaton defense. O'Connell had a team-high two quarterback sacks (-15 yards) and 3-1/2 tackles for loss (-17 yards).
Kody Thornburg tallied five total tackles, including two for lost yardage (-7 yards).
Chase Greenlee recorded 2-1/2 tackles for lost yardage (-10 yards) and
Eric Stevenson had two tackles for loss (-12 yards).
Kalamazoo starting quarterback Alex White was 5-of-16 passing for 35 yards and Zach Van Faussien was 9-for-11 for 66 pasing yards and Brock Rucinski was 4-for-8 with 46 passing yards. Van Faussien was the Hornets' leading rusher with 35 yards on six carries. Lorenzo Redmond led the Hornets with four catches. Jakob Frederick had a team-high nine total tackles for the Hornets.
