Titan Football Fighting Tough Battles, Even In-Conference

Image courtesy of  Jimmy Naprstek and Kodiak Creative

NORMAL, Ill – Halfway into Illinois Wesleyan University’s football season they sit at a record of 3-2, with their most recent game being a loss to Washington University of St. Louis. Both of their losses are blowouts on the road against conference opponents, but they remain undefeated at home. Two of their wins were against College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin teams.

Sophomore quarterback Ryan Saxe has been at the helm of the offense for the first five games of the season but has had trouble with turning the ball over. He averages 230 passing yards per game and has a touchdown to interception ratio of nine to six. He was able to get some offense going with his legs against Ohio Wesleyan University but has not been able to eclipse more than eight rushing yards in a game since.

Saxe’s favorite target has been sophomore wide receiver Myles Kee. Kee has averaged over 100 hundred yards receiving and has scored a touchdown in all but one game. Opposite of Saxe is senior wide receiver Charlie Hamilton, who has been Saxe’s second favorite target. He averages over 80 yards a game and is second on the team with 3 touchdowns.

Wesleyan has had less success by way of the ground attack. They average only two yards per carry as a team, their most efficient running back is Seth Albin who averages 3.2 yards a carry. He has eclipsed 100 yards rushing once this season with a 125-yard game against Carroll University coming on 25 carries. The next leading rusher is his starting quarterback, so if Wesleyan wants to sustain success in their conference they’ll need to try and find Albin some holes to run through in their opponents’ defensive lines.

Speaking of defense, the Titans have not been very effective for the first half of the season. They average 33 points allowed per game. Taking out their two blowout losses on the road, they still average 22 points per game allowed. They also have not held a team to less than 21 points in a game this season. That doesn’t tell the whole story though, as their pass rush has been good at getting to the quarterback. Zach McNees and Josh Hlavacek are two defensive lineman that have accounted for over half with team’s sacks with seven. Wesleyan only has two picks this year, both coming from defensive backs Anthony Wachal Jr. and Artist Benjamin. Both are top four in the team in solo tackles.

The second half the Illinois Wesleyan Titans season comes this Saturday as they look to get back into the win column in Tucci Stadium against North Park with Kickoff coming at 1 p.m.