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| SportsMonday, October 23, 2006 3:03 AM CDT |
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IWU football falls to 2-5
ELMHURST -- Another fourth-quarter comeback spelled defeat once again for the snake-bitten Illinois Wesleyan football team. Elmhurst staged a 13-play, 92-yard scoring drive in the final three minutes Saturday to go ahead before returning a fumble for a last-second score and sending IWU to a 25-13 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin loss before a crowd of 3,479 at Langhorst Field. The Titans dropped to 2-5 overall and 1-2 in the CCIW after a finish that was painfully similar to their 31-28 home loss to Carthage two weeks ago. Carthage scored 22 points in the final six minutes of that game to pull out a 31-28 win. “We feel the same way we felt after Carthage,” said IWU coach Norm Eash. “Those were two ballgames where we were right there. We just have to finish ballgames. We have to hang in there and keep working to get better. That’s what our season has been like with these hard-luck games. We could easily be 5-2.” IWU opened a 13-12 halftime lead but couldn’t pad the advantage after forcing two fourth-quarter turnovers. Elmhurst (5-2, 2-2) took over at its own 8-yard line with 3:14 remaining and marched downfield before going ahead 18-13 with 32 seconds left on a 2-yard touchdown run by David Wilharm. The Bluejays failed on the two-point conversion. On the second play following the ensuing kickoff, Jake Mobley returned a Nick Panno fumble 23 yards for the final score. “We did a lot of good things and we couldn’t hang on at the end,” Eash said. “They executed their two-minute offense pretty well. At the end our defense came up with two big turnovers for us and we didn’t do anything offensively. That’s our job offensively, to do something when we get a turnover.” The Titans were stung early in the fourth quarter when a 72-yard TD pass from Panno to Martin Ceisel was nullified by an illegal procedure penalty. “They said Martin wasn’t on the line of scrimmage,” Eash said. “I was standing right here and couldn’t see why they called it. We would have went up 20-12 at that time. There were several questionable calls in the game that really hurt us.” After a scoreless first quarter, Elmhurst got on the board first on an 8-yard TD run by Kyle Grimes with 12:53 left in the half. Charlie Welke blocked the extra-point kick to keep the score 6-0. IWU tied it at 6-6 at the 7:59 mark of the quarter on a 26-yard pass from Panno to Marcus Dunlop. Mike Berry missed the point-after try for the Titans. Elmhurst went ahead 12-6 with 3:02 remaining on Jeremy Rivers’ 1-yard run. Brian Smith then blocked the extra-point kick for IWU. The Titans pulled even with 13 seconds left in the half on Panno’s 15-yard TD pass to Ceisel. Berry converted the kick this time to give IWU a one-point halftime lead. Elmhurst outgained IWU 273-231 and had a 19-12 edge in first downs. Elmhurst quarterback Mike LaFleur completed 22 of 35 passes for 188 yards and one interception. Wilhard rushed for a team-high 64 yards on 15 carries. Panno was 12 of 18 for 150 yards and no interceptions. Dunlop was IWU’s leading rusher with 72 yards on 16 attempts. Ceisel had a team-high five receptions for 84 yards. IWU set the tone on the first play of the game by running a reverse. The Titans also had an unsuccessful fake punt and onside kick. “Coming into the game we were going to be aggressive and try to set the tone, and overall we did that,” Eash said. The Titans will host North Park at 1 p.m. Saturday at Wesleyan Stadium. Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.
Move on IWU wrote on Oct 23, 2006 10:47 AM:
I remember wrote on Oct 23, 2006 10:41 AM:
pockets wrote on Oct 23, 2006 6:51 AM:
PANNO NO NO wrote on Oct 22, 2006 6:31 PM:
Time for a change.... wrote on Oct 22, 2006 11:30 AM:
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