Illinois Wesleyan at Millikin
Football Game Notes, October 14, 2006

THE GAME: Illinois Wesleyan (1-4, 0-2 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) plays at Millikin (2-3, 1-1 CCIW) in Decatur at Frank M. Lindsay Field at 1 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 14.

ON THE AIR: The IWU/Millikin game will be broadcast live via the Internet on www.wjbc2.com.

FOR THE RECORD: IWU is 69-38 in its last 107 games (.645) since 1995...The 38 losses have come to Wheaton and Augustana (7); Millikin (6); Carthage (4); North Central (3); Simpson, UW-Eau Claire and Elmhurst (2); and Coe, Mount St. Joseph, Mount Union, UW-LaCrosse, and Washington U. (1)...The Titans are 65-26 (.714) at home and 51-41-1 on the road (.554) under Eash...2005 and 2004 are the first back-to-back losing seasons for IWU since 1987 (4-5) and 1988 (4-5)...In 2004, IWU (3-7) had its first sub-.500 season since the 1993 team was 4-5. The Titans had been at .500 or better for 10 straight years.

AT WILDER FIELD: Illinois Wesleyan is 55-19 (.743) at Wilder Field in the last 15 seasons (1991-2006). The IWU football facility is the fifth oldest football stadium in the country (1893), behind Wesleyan [Conn.] (1881), Williams [Mass.] (1883), Sewanee [Tenn.] and Amherst [Mass.] (both 1891).

ON TO THE NEXT 500: IWU is 502-375-42 (.571) in 114 years of football...IWU’s 500th win came in a 23-14 win over Wheaton on Oct. 22, 2005.

THE SERIES VS. MILLIKIN: Dating back to 1904, Millikin has a 53-38-7 lead over IWU. IWU lost last year in Bloomington and the series is 3-3 in the last six meetings. Before that Millikin had won three straight. Prior to that, the Titans had won three in a row and five of the last six. Millikin won nine consecutive games from 1982-90. Despite being 96 games old, the rivalry isn’t in the top 15 of Division III longest series

LAST WEEK: Illinois Wesleyan led by a 28-9 margin with 9:43 to play but Carthage stormed back to score 22 points in a six-minute span to claim a 31-28 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin win in Bloomington on Oct. 7. IWU quarterback Nick Panno (Wheaton, Wheaton Warrenville So. HS) ran 51 yards for a TD on the second play of the game and the Titans led by a 7-3 margin at intermission. In the second half Marcus Dunlop (Maywood, Proviso East HS) scored on a 4-yard run and Martin Ceisel (Deerfield HS) caught a 13 yard TD pass from Panno as the Titans led, 21-3 after three quarters. The Red Men’s Tuson Mengel scored on a 5-yard run with 12:24 to play in the game to make it 21-9 and then, for IWU, Panno hooked up with Ceisel again with 9:43 to play in the game to make it 28-9. Mengel scored again on a 2-yard run with 6:52 to play and, after an onside kick, the Red Men got another score on a 3-yard run from Mengel with 5:05 to play. Ceisel made eight catches for 124 yards while Dunlop ran for 63 yards on 18 carries with a TD. Panno ran for 37 yards and passed for 193 yards in his first start. Bo Osburn (Morton HS) led all tacklers with 12 total stops while Rob Hoyland (Montgomery, Oswego HS) had 11 and Charlie Welke (New Lenox, Lincoln Way Central HS) had nine.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Chosen by Titan coaches to honor top players in the week’s game and practices. The “Titan Award” honors a player for work ethic, loyalty and spirit.

OFFENSE: Nick Panno. sophomore, quarterback, Wheaton (Wheaton Warrenville So. HS); Martin Ceisel, sophomore, receiver, Deerfield (HS)

DEFENSE: Rob Hoyland, junior, line, Montgomery (Oswego HS)

SPECIAL TEAMS: Bryan Kelly, junior, quarterback, Evanston (HS)

SCOUT (Offense): John Meacham, freshman, fullback, Oak Park (Oak Park-River Forest HS); Todd McCain, freshman, back, Oak Forest (HS)

SCOUT (Defense): Joe Vanchieri, freshman, linebacker, Darien (Benet Academy); Nick Nikolich, freshman, linebacker, Libertyville (HS)

TITAN AWARD: Mike Stephens, senior, end, Orland Park, Providence Catholic HS)

MARCUS DUNLOP: Junior Marcus Dunlop (Maywood, Proviso East HS) now has 1,571 career rushing yards, making him 14th all-time at IWU. He is immediately behind Deon Hornsby (1,583, 1993-96).

THE COACHES: Norm Eash (Illinois Wesleyan, 1975) is in his 20th season as head coach at IWU and has an overall record of 117-67-1 (.647) and a CCIW mark of 87-52-1 (.634) with league titles in 1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2001. Eash, the CCIW “Coach of the Year” in 1992, 1996 and 2001, is fourth in all-time CCIW coaching wins, behind IWU’s Don Larson (142 wins), Bob Reade of Augustana (112) and Carthage’s Art Keller (105). Eash is second in victories at IWU, behind Don Larson (166 wins in 33 years, 1954-86). . .Doug Neibuhr (Millikin, 1974) is in his 11th year at Millikin and has an overall mark of 115-56-1 and is 65-38 (.639) overall and 44-28 (.609) CCIW at Millikin alone. He was 50-18-1 at Wittenberg in seven years prior to Millikin and led the Tigers to a playoff appearance in 1995.

SCOUTING THE BIG BLUE: After suffering losses to ranked opponents (all of two TDs or less) in each of its last three games, Millikin cruised to a 36-6 win at North Park last Sat. Millikin was strong on defense with four interceptions, a safety and Millikin limited North Park to –19 rushing yards in the game while tallying 153 yards rushing of its own. North Park passed for 121 yards to Millikin’s 91 but the Big Blue won the battle with 244 yards of total offense to North Park’s 102. Millikin scored twice in the second quarter, both set up by errant Vikings passes. Nathan Wallick rumbled in from 12 yards out with 9:29 remaining in the first half after a 39-yard interception return by Darrion Cockrell. The Big Blue scored again with 4:58 left in the half, this time on a 1-yard run by Jake Polich after Joel Goldstone hauled in a Vikings pass. In the third, Millikin picked off two more Vikings passes and sacked the quarterback for a safety. The offense also got involved on the first drive, going 52 yards in five plays. Wallick capped the drive with an 8-yard TD run. With 5:14 left in the third, Polich got another 1-yard touchdown run and a safety with 13:36 remaining in the game put Millikin up 29-6, but Devi Greer picked off a Vikings pass and ran it back 70 yards for the final score of the game. Wallick had 21 carries for 110 yards and two TDs. Joe Albin was 6-of-10 passing for 91 yards. Bruce Jeffrey led Millikin defensively with eight tackles. Sam Jordan finished with seven tackles, but picked up a team-high four tackles for losses of 27 yards including two sacks for 21 yards...After passing the 4,000-yard career rushing mark last week, Wallick needs just five TDs and 47 points to tie Millikin career records.

THE RANKINGS: Four IWU foes have earned national rankings. In D3football.com this week, Wheaton (5-0) is No. 19, Coe (5-1) is No. 25, Mt. St. Joseph (5-0) is No. 26, and Augustana (3-2) is No. 39. In Don Hansen’s Football Gazette, Wheaton  is No. 14, Mt. St. Joseph is No. 29, Coe is No. 31 and Augustana is No. 36.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Titans stay on the road for next week’s league game at Elmhurst on Sat., Oct. 21 in a 1 p.m. start. The Titans return home for a 1 p.m. game on Sat., Oct. 28 against North Park and play the annual “Seniors’ Day” game at 1 p.m. on Sat., Nov. 4 against North Central before ending the regular season at Wheaton on Sat., Nov. 11.

HOMECOMING: After losing to carthage on Oct. 7, the Titans are now 27-15 in their last 42 Homecoming games and have been 9-10 in the last 19 years, preceded by a six-game winning streak from 1982-87.

CCIW PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior kicker Mike Berry (Crystal Lake, Prairie Ridge East HS) was chosen “Special teams Player of the Week” in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin for his play vs. Olivet. Berry made field goals of 43 and 34 yards and also had an extra point in the 21-6 win. The 43-yard field goal is tied for the 7th longest in Illinois Wesleyan history.

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: Four from IWU earned honorable mention notice on the preseason All-America squads chosen by Don Hansen's Football Gazette — senior DE Mike Stephens (Orland Park, Providence Catholic HS), senior KR Eric Esch (Bloomington HS), junior RB Marcus Dunlop (Maywood, Proviso East HS) and sophomore WR Martin Ceisel (Deerfield HS).

CCIW PRESEASON POLL: IWU was picked to finish seventh in the 2006 CCIW preseason coaches’ poll. Augustana was No. 1 with 46 points, including four first place votes, followed by North Central (38 points, two first place votes), Wheaton (36 points, one first place vote). Millikin (one first place vote) and Elmhurst tied for fourth with 27 points, followed by Carthage (26 points), the Titans (17) and North Park (7).

SEASON OPENERS: IWU is 10-10 in opening-day games under Norm Eash.

EARLY START: In a check of records since 1965, this is the earliest home football game played in the modern era at Illinois Wesleyan. . . Last year the Titans hosted Simpson on Sept. 3, the earliest season start ever prior to this year, and in 2004 IWU played at Simpson on Sept. 4. Other early season openers have been on Sept. 7, 1985 (DePauw at IWU); Sept. 8, 2001 (IWU at Washington U.) and Sept. 8, 1984 (IWU at DePauw) and Sept. 9, 2000 (Washington U. at IWU). What a difference 40 years makes - the IWU season in 1965 started on Sept. 25 with a home game against Illinois State.