Wheaton can't derail defending national champion

Against a national Division III football power like Wisconsin-Whitewater, even Wheaton College's best wasn't good enough Saturday.

The Thunder ended its season with a 31-17 loss in the second round of the NCAA playoffs at McCully Stadium in Wheaton.

"It's the best senior class ever in the history of Wheaton College when you add up the wins and losses, by far," longtime Thunder coach Mike Swider said, noting his team's 22-2 record the past two seasons and three CCIW championships the past four years.

But Whitewater's win was no fluke. The fifth-ranked Warhawks (11-1) have won six national championships since 2007, five in the last six seasons. The sixth-ranked Thunder (11-1) professed respect, but Swider insisted his team was not in awe, and cornerback Alex Mendez wasn't worried about experience giving the Warhawks an edge either.

"For us, honestly, it didn't really matter," the senior from Glenbard North said. "We knew what we were up against."

If Thunder players were in awe, it didn't show at the very start of the game. After forcing a Whitewater punt, Wheaton took a 7-0 lead on Andrew Lindquist's 15-yard touchdown reception from Andrew Bowers.

"We came out and just drove right down that first possession," said Thunder receiver Luke Thorson, a senior from Wheaton North. "We had everything clicking, going well."

Then Whitewater got everything clicking. The Warhawks rattled off three straight Jordan Ratliffe rushing touchdowns to take a 21-7 second-quarter lead.

"We knew it was going to be a really tough game," said first-year Warhawks coach Kevin Bullis. "Wheaton, one, has an amazing tradition, but this season they came through a really tough CCIW conference, so we knew it was going to be just a heck of a fight physically."

The Thunder struck back with a 32-yard TD catch and run from running back Sola Olateju. But the Warhawks responded with quarterback Chris Nelson's 21-yard TD pass to Marcus Hudson. Wheaton North graduate Lake Bachar added a 46-yard field goal on the final play of the second quarter to give Whitewater a 31-14 lead.

The good news for Wheaton was it held Whitewater scoreless the entire second half. The bad news was the Thunder managed only a 22-yard Daniel Gray field goal. The end zone proved elusive.

"We'd get down there and then the biggest thing we did was just shot ourselves in the foot," Thorson said. "We'd have a 5-yard penalty. We'd have a blown block. They'd come up and press us different than we thought they would and some of the plays just weren't coming out like we thought they would."

Ironically, Wheaton won many of the key stats. The Thunder outgained the Warhawks 475 yards to 407. It forced 4 Whitewater fumbles but only recovered 1, not including the one linebacker Adam Dansdill tried to keep inbounds, only to draw a penalty for batting the ball.

"That's a tough pill to swallow," said Swider, visibly dejected. "We came into the game really believing we could win the football game, and that's not any disrespect to Whitewater, but we felt we were good enough to beat them."

Added Mendez: "They had a good game plan, we had a good game plan. It just came down to a couple of plays. Unfortunately, we didn't make them."

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