Illinois Wesleyan defeated Wisconsin-Whitewater.
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan football team opened its 2017 season with a stunning 17-10 win over No. 3-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater at Tucci Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 2.
The Titans trailed 3-0 before taking a 7-3 lead on a 21-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Brandon Bauer to Jack Healy with 3:51 left before halftime. That capped a 12-play, 71-yard drive.
IWU went ahead 10-3 with a 40-yard field goal by Anthony Sciarini with 10:38 left in the third quarter but the Warhawks battled back to tie the game at 10-10 with 4:35 left in the third on a 21-yard pass play from Cole Wilber to Canton Larson.
The deciding score came with 8:02 to play in the game as Bauer connected with Healy again from five yards out and the extra point kick by Sciarini made the score 17-10 to hand Whitewater only its third nonconference loss since 2005.
Bauer completed 17 of 32 passes for 128 yards as IWU amassed 259 yards of total offense (131 rushing. Morgan Alexander rushed for 94 yards on 15 carries to pace IWU. Healy made five total catches for 61 yards.
Whitewater collected 300 yards of offense (258 passing and 42 rushing) as the Warhawks were stifled inside the 5-yard line on two occasions by bad snaps, losing 25 yards and 9 yards on two separate plays. Wilber finished with 22 completions in 37 tries for the 258 yards. Josh Ringelberg had 33 yards on six carries to lead UWW and Dylan Bernard had 63 yards on three carries.
