ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Washington University in St. Louis football team beat visiting Millikin on Saturday afternoon at Francis Olympic Field, 70-21. The Bears are now 6-2 on the season and 5-2 in the CCIW.
The Big Blue won the coin toss and deferred to the second half with the Bears making the most of choosing to receive. The Bears used a six-play, 56 yard opening drive, capped by a short pass from sophomore Levi Moore to senior Taidhgin Trost for a 37 reception with the kick from sophomore Ross Muchnick good for the 7-0 lead at 13:18.
Junior Joseph Norris intercepted the pass on second down of the Big Blue's first drive which led to a junior Fred Ware 1-yard touchdown run with 9:12 on the clock. WashU led 14-0 after Muchnick's extra point was once again good.
Millikin drove 82 yards on their next drive but were stopped on the WashU 2-yard line on fourth down. On the first play of the Bears' drive, Moore threw a 96-yard touchdown pass to senior Collin Goldberg that extended the WashU lead to 21-0 after the Muchnick kick.
The Bears nearly got on the board in the second quarter nearly as fast as they did in the first when War rushed to the right and broke a few missed tackled for a 20-yard touchdown at 14:10 left in the first half.
The Big Blue was stopped once again by the Bears' defense with a second-straight punt on their first drive of the second quarter on just four plays. After their own four-and-out, the WashU defense once again forced the third-straight punt.
Millikin's Omarion Ammons collected the fumble by senior Kenneth Hamilton on the next WashU drive. The Big Blue took advantage of the Bears' misplay with a 36-yard touchdown pass to get on the scoreboard with 11:01 on the clock.
For the second drive in a row, Ammons was able to use a WashU miscommunication and intercept the Moore pass, this time returning it 40 yards for a touchdown. The extra-point brought the Big Blue within 25-14 with 9:49 remaining in the half.
This time the Bears used a combination of a 36 yard pass from Moore to graduate Collin Hoyhtya and an earlier kick off penalty by the Big Blue to set up first-and-goal at the Millikin nine yard line. Two plays later Hamilton ran in from the four, scoring his second touchdown of the contest with senior Bernie Cueto's kick good for the 42-14 lead.
A third, four-and-out by the Big Blue saw WashU start their next drive from their own 23 before running over five minutes off the clock, scoring a 12-play, 77-yard touchdown when Hamilton tallied his third TD of the half with another good extra-point by Cueto.
The Bears led 49-14 at the break.
Millikin received the opening kick of the second half and used five-play, 75 yard drive that took just 1:32 off the game clock to score what would be their final points of the game, with a touchdown, cutting into the WashU lead 49-21.
The Bears went on to score 21 unanswered points the rest of the second half, including a touchdown on a six-play, 77-yard touchdown drive that saw senior Kenvorris Campbell score on a seven-yard run to make it 56-21.
After the Bears forced a turnover on downs on the next Big Blue drive, it was Millikin's defense that would force a WashU punt on fourth and seven. However, Cortavious Bonner called for the fair catch on junior Andrew Grisack's punt that was recovered by sophomore Colin Donahue at the six-yard line of the Big Blue. Sophomore Cal Newell needed just one play to rush in the ball for the touchdown with the extra point good.
WashU led 63-21 after the third quarter.
A deep punt on the Big Blue's next drive saw the Bears start their first possession of the fourth quarter on their own two-yard line. WashU saw a pair of quarterbacks get the Bears down field with first-year Alexander Singh pushing through with classmate Jack Atkinson finishing off the drive with a quarterback sneak in from the left side from the two-yard line. Muchnick hit his seventh extra point of the game to make it 70-21.
The 70 points was the most scored by the Bears since a 70-32 win over Millsaps back during the 2015 season.
The Bears had 769 total yards of offense (519 rushing, 250 passing) while Millikin had 329 yards (103 rushing, 221 passing).
Moore was 11-for-17 for 221 yards and two touchdowns. Hamilton led the rushing game with 155 yards on 13 attempts and three touchdowns. Newell had 117 yards on 13 attempts and a touchdown and Ware finished with 81 total yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Goldberg led the receivers with 102 yards on two catches, including his 96-yard touchdown. That touchdown was the second-longest receiving touchdown in Bears' history.
17 different WashU players recorded a tackle, led by junior Brady Willmer and his six total tackles, including one sack. Both first-year Quinten Bennett and classmate Conner Durkin each finished with four. Senior Riley Merrigan tallied the second of the two sacks for the Bears' defense.
WashU is back on the road for the final time in the regular season next week when they travel to North Park in another CCIW match up. Kickoff with the Vikings is scheduled for 12 p.m. at the Holmgren Athletic Complex in Chicago.
