DOVER, Del. – Bryce Shade caught a pair of touchdown passes and ran for another as fourth-ranked Wesley College blanked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 59-0, in the Second Round of the NCAA Division III Football Playoffs Saturday afternoon at Scott D. Miller Stadium. The Wolverines improve to 11-1 on the season and will take on No. 7 Hobart in the Quarterfinals on Saturday, December 6 while the Engineers' historic season comes to an end at 10-1.
Wesley will make its sixth-straight trip to the Elite Eight when they take on the Statesmen, who it faced just once, in the First Round of the 2011 Playoffs. The Wolverines were victorious in the matchup, 35-28.
In a game that was very similar to last week's first round matchup, Wesley got out to a 35-0 lead after the first quarter. Shade, a sophomore from Erial, N.J., got the rout started with a 16-yard touchdown run with 9:58 left in the opening period, capping off an 11 play, 70 yard drive. The Wolverines scored again on MIT's first play from scrimmage on the ensuing possession when free safety Leroy Cheatham picked off quarterback Peter Williams and returned it 42 yards for a score.
After Wesley forced a four-and-out on the Engineers' next drive, sophomore Roderick Caine, who also finished with seven tackles and 3.5 sacks, blocked a punt which was recovered by Andre Connally and he ran it back 35 yards for a touchdown, increasing the lead to 21-0 with 8:30 left in the quarter.
Julian Jones gave the ball back to the Navy & White just two players later with another interception, one of Williams' four on the afternoon. Wesley went right after MIT again, this time with a 41-yard touchdown strike from Joe Callahan to Steve Koudossou the Wolverines first play of the drive.
MIT was able to manage a first down on its next drive to get beyond midfield but back-to-back sacks by Dan Laguerre and Caine pushed them back to its own 37-yardline and forced a punt.
Callahan, the junior quarterback who is a semifinalist for the Gagliardi Trophy, then did some engineering of his own, orchestrating a 10 play, 64 yard drive that ate up nearly five minutes. A junior from Absecon, N.J., Callahan completed 7-of-8 passes on the drive for 66 yards during the possession, resulting in a 16-yard pass to Shade with 19 seconds left to give Wesley a 35-0 lead.
Extending his own single season record with five more touchdowns on the day, Callahan completed 21-of-26 passes for 268 yards on the day while also running for 24 yards. Callahan now has 43 touchdown strikes on the year while completing 67 percent of his passes for 3,435 yards.
Andrew Monaghan and Shade also caught touchdown passes from Callahan in the second quarter to give Wesley a 49-0 lead at the half. Ben Martin was able to break loose for a 69-yard touchdown run in the third and Eric Speidel drilled a 24 yard field goal later in the quarter to round out the scoring on the day.
Shade and Koudssou both hauled in six passes on the day with Shade going for a team-high 104 yards while Koudossou went for 70 yards. Martin finished with 106 yards on just nine carries with the bulk coming on his long touchdown run.
Sosthene Kapepula led the Wolverines with eight tackles while Caine, Aamir Petrose and Derrick Bender all finished with seven stops. Petrose also recorded 1.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss. Aside from his touchdown on a blocked punt, Connally also recorded six tackles, forced a fumble and picked off a pass late in the game to help preserve the shutout.
Also forcing turnovers for Wesley was Payton Rose (six tackles) with a forced fumble and Leon Jones who picked off his 15th career pass.
Now with 623 points on the season, Wesley has broken its single-season record for points, eclipsing the 581 scored in the 2005 season. The Wolverines also went over the 10,000 total points scored during its Division III era which started in 1986. Wesley now has a single-season record 47 takeaways with a single-season record 26 interceptions, matching the number of pickoffs they recorded in 2012.
For MIT, Cameron Wagar was all over the field defensively, making 24 tackles. Williams completed 13-of-30 passes for 138 yards but fell victim to eight Wolverines sacks.