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| SportsThursday, October 25, 2007 10:15 PM CDT |
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Titans keep chopping toward a CCIW football crown
BLOOMINGTON — It started innocently enough. As his team surprisingly continued to rack up College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin victories, Illinois Wesleyan football coach Norm Eash tried to expound on the “one-game-at-a-time” approach. “He actually mixed two slogans together,” IWU senior nose guard Rob Hoyland explained Wednesday. “You can’t see the forest through the trees and if you’re going to chop down a forest, you take it one tree at a time. We knew what he meant.” Then Hoyland and senior defensive tackle Brock Collins had a brainstorm. “We decided to go out and get an ax and we painted ‘One tree at a time’ on it and we have all the logos of the CCIW teams on it,” Hoyland said. “It’s definitely the team philosophy right now. We have to go out every week and take care of business each game at a time.” With the ax safely “under lock and key” according to Hoyland, the CCIW co-leaders will continue to pursue their newfound interest in forestry in Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against last-place North Park at the Holmgren Athletic Complex in Chicago. IWU, riding its first four-game winning streak since the start of the 2002 season, is 5-2 overall and tied with Wheaton for the CCIW lead at 4-0. North Park (1-6, 0-4) has lost 21 straight to the Titans dating to 1985. Eash is sticking with the company line ahead of North Park, which kicks off a key three-game stretch that includes a road trip to North Central (5-2, 3-1) next week followed by the Nov. 10 regular-season finale against Wheaton (7-0, 4-0) at Wesleyan Stadium. The CCIW champion earns the league’s automatic playoff berth. “Our goal is to get to 5-0 in the conference and stay in the conference race,” Eash said. “The only thing we have to worry about is getting ourselves into position to play for a conference title. We have control over that because of our schedule. “It’s all in our hands. All we have to do is win three more ballgames. The magic letters are AQ (automatic qualifier). You win the conference and you get to go to the playoffs. No ifs, ands or buts, and that should be our focus right now.” Late-season push The Titans put together their most complete game of the season in last week’s 28-14 homecoming win over Elmhurst. IWU’s league-leading defense continued to set the pace by limiting Elmhurst to 254 yards, and the offense overcame two early turnovers to generate 444 yards (224 passing and 220 rushing). Eash hinted the best may be yet to come. “I like the fact we haven’t put that one game together because we have some games down the road where we’re going to need that,” Eash said. “We’re just practicing right now. One side of the ball is going one week and the other side is going the next week. We need to make sure both sides are making big plays for us.” Junior wide receiver Martin Ceisel and senior tailback Marcus Dunlop led a more diverse offense against Elmhurst. Ceisel earned CCIW Offensive Player of the Week honors with 12 receptions for 162 yards and two touchdowns. Dunlop rushed for a season-best 162 yards on 35 attempts. “We had more balance last week and we need to keep that going,” said Dunlop, who moved into fourth place on IWU’s all-time rushing list with 2,368 yards. “Our passing game and running game has been going back and forth a little bit.” Team of destiny? The Titans still are talking about fullback Jon Meacham’s freaky fumble near the goal line Saturday. The ball was knocked into the air as Meacham approached the end zone and flew forward into the hands of an unsuspecting Ceisel for a touchdown. “Those are plays that the last three years have always gone against us,” Dunlop said. “This year the ball is rolling our way. I think a lot of it is preparation. You prepare and make plays and then some good things start to happen to you.” 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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