
By Blake Haas
Rock Island, Ill. – An early second quarter lead helped the Titans of Illinois Wesleyan push past the Augies of Augustana. IWU football coach Norm Eash said even though the Titans jumped out to an early lead, there is still room for improvement.
“It was a really weird game, I though that we had things under control at halftime,” Eash said. “We were always backed up on our field so we couldn’t get anything generated. Every time we got something generated offensively we got it called back for a penalty. We made some mistakes that really hurt us today.”
IWU’s defense was stunned in the First Quarter as the Augies (1-5, 1-3 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) scored on a 1-yard touchdown run by Austin Chausse. IWU coach Eash said the Titans defense was not prepared for the Augies offense.
“They weren’t quite ready for the quarterback, and that inside zone,” added Eash. “After that first series I think (coach) Mcdonald got their attention.”
The Titans bounced back by scoring on a Dennis Bresignham 1-yard pass from Titans quarterback Brandon Baur. Coach Eash added that once the Titans got the ball rolling in the first half they never looked behind them.
“I thought we did some really good things in the first half,” Eash said. “I was excited to get the second half started.”
With the 28-10 Titan victory over Augustana, coach Eash explained he’s excited for back-to-back home game’s coming up at Tucci Stadium.
“It will be nice to get off the road. We have to take care of Carroll (University),” Eash said. “That’s our main focus right now is the next game. That’s all we do, we dont look foward to anything else, we have four games left and we have to foucs on Carroll.”
The 12th-ranked Titans (5-1, 3-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) will host Carroll University (1-4, 1-2 in the CCIW) on Saturday for Homecoming.
WJBC and WJBC.com will have live coverage of IWU Homecoming festivities on Friday from 1-3 p.m. WJBC.com will have the play-by-play on Saturday at 12:45 p.m.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].