St. Louis, Mo. – For the second game in a row, the Washington University in St. Louis football team broke 50 points, defeating Millikin 54-7 in the CCIW opener at Francis Olympic Field.
 
It is just the third time in program history that the Bears have scored 50+ points in back-to-back games, as it happened for the first time in 1914 and again in 1954.
 
After forcing a four-and-out for Millikin on the first drive of the game the Bears brought the ball down to the 22 and set up for a field goal, which was missed. However, on the following Millikin drive, Sam Mattecheck intercepted an Aidan Lombardo pass and ran it in for a 30-yard touchdown to put the Bears up 6-0.
 
On Millikin's next possession, Lombardo was sacked by Josh Hartman, recording a safety for the Bears to put them up 8-0 over the Big Blue.
 
With the ball in hand, WashU started a 10-play, 61 yard touchdown drive.
 
First-year Fred Ware ran for a yard and the Bears moved up another 15 on a Millikin foul. Senior quarterback Matt Rush his Collin Goldberg for a three-yard pass before Ware ran for back-to-back five-yard gains. Rush carried the ball himself for three yards and then hit Goldberg for a seven-yard pass and Gabriel Sirek for a six-year pass. Rush moved the ball up himself another two yards and then found Golberg for a 14-yard touchdown carry. Senior Chris Vartanian's kick was good, putting the Bears up 15-0.
 
On another short possession for Millikin, the Bears defense blocked David Navarra's punt attempt and the Big Blue recovered it at the four yard line, putting WashU in a good spot.
 
The Bears took over possession and sophomore Kenneth Hamilton quickly ran it in for a four-yard touchdown play. Vartanian capped off the nine-second possession with the extra point for a 22-0 lead with 2:58 left in the first quarter.
 
The Bears forced Millikin to punt at the start of the second quarter and capitalized again on the next possession with a touchdown.
 
Hamilton began the drive with a 21-yard run and Rush found Collin Hoyhtya for a 23-yard pass to put the Bears at the Millikin 35. Hamilton picked up 12 yards on two rushes to move WashU up to the 23. Rush was sacked for a loss of 10 yards but made up for it with an 18-yard pass for Hoyhtya. It was the same duo of Rush and Hoyhtya that scored, as Hoyhtya caught a 15-yard throw from Rush in the endzone. Vartanian's kick was good, pushing WashU's advantage to 29-0.
 
The Bears continued to dominate, forcing another punt from the Big Blue on the following possession. Rush hit Goldberg for a 40-yard touchdown on the opening play of the drive and Vartanian's kick was good, extending the Bears' lead to 36-0.
 
Millikin scored its lone touchdown of the game on the following drive, starting with back-to-back-to-back runs from Matthew Salazar to pick up 13 total yards. Lombard hit Leigh Nutall for a 40-yard throw and then ran for 10 yards himself for another first down. Salazar ran for two three-yard rushes and Lombardo went the final yard to score. David Ramirez's kick was good, making the Score WashU 36, Millikin 7.
 
The Bears added two more points on another safety with 1:48 left in the first half as Lombardo was sacked for a loss of two yards by Jamel Streater. WashU now has four safeties in two games.
 
WashU scored another touchdown on its second possession of the third quarter. Following a Bears' punt, Millikin was at their own six and fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Matthew Schmal at the one. Then, Hamilton ran the remaining yard in for a touchdown to extend the Bears' lead to 44-7.
 
The Bears scored their final touchdown of the game with 7:32 remaining in the game, starting with a Clark Stephens pass to Joshua Asante for eight yards. Stephens then hit Zachary Ginsburg for a 27-yard touchdown pass and Andrew Grisack's kick was good, bumping the WashU lead to 51-7.
 
Two drives later, after getting down to the 19, Grisack hit a 37-yard field goal to put the Bears ahead 54-7 which held until the end.
 
Offensively, Rush went 18-for-26 with 209 yards passing, three touchdowns and one interception. Hamilton led the Bears on the ground, picking up 45 yards on 10 carries with two touchdowns. Ware gained 33 yards on seven carries.
 
Goldberg led the WashU receivers with 64 yards on four catches and two touchdowns. Hoyhtya had 56 yards on three catches with one touchdown and Ginsburg had 48 yards on four catches with one touchdown.
 
Schmal led the Bears with four solo tackles and three assists for seven total, as well as 1.5 tackles-for-loss and a fumble recovery. Josh Hartman had four total tackles including three sacks. In total, the WashU defense had nine sacks.
 
The Bears hit the road for the next two weeks with a game at Carthage next Saturday at 1 p.m. and at North Park on Oct. 1 at 1 p.m.