Wilkes Football's Offense Explodes in 49-20 Rout at Western Connecticut State to End Landmark Play
DANBURY, CT – The Wilkes University football team notched a season-best seven touchdowns including four threw the air on way to a 49-20 rout of Western Connecticut State on Saturday afternoon in each team's Landmark Conference season finale.
Wilkes improved to 5-4 overall and finished conference play at 4-2, good for third place overall. Western Connecticut dropped to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in league games. Wilkes has earned its fourth straight appearance in the Chesapeake Bay Challenge Bowl Series following the win.
The Colonel offense wasted little time getting into the end zone and once they did, they never looked back.
William Dougherty (Perkasie, PA/Pennridge), making his second appearance at running back this season, capped off a five-play, 68-yard drive with a 33-yard pass from quarterback
Trey Dogmanits (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) to give Wilkes a 7-0 lead with 10:49 left in the first quarter. Five minutes later, Dogmanits caught a pass from two yards on from
Josh D'Ambrosio (Manville, NJ/Manville) to push the advantage to 14-0 after one quarter of play.
The second and third quarters was the Dogmanits to
Juju Fears (Easton, PA/Easton Area) show as the duo connected three times in that span to put the game out of reach. With 12:08 left in the second quarter, Fears hauled in a 40-yard pass from Dogmanits and scampered into the endzone. Fears then caught a six yard score right before the end of the half to give Wilkes a commanding 28-0 lead at the break. The pair finished off their three scores in the third stanza when Dogmanits found Fears from seven yards out as the Colonels led 35-0 mid way through the third.
Dougherty and
Nigel Linton (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) added two more rushing scores for Wilkes, including a 45-yard run from Linton to finish off the scoring tear.
Dogmanits enjoyed a stellar game through the air throwing for 214 yards and four scores on 14-for-26 passing. Fears posted his sixth game with 100+ yards and notched a career-best three scores on the day on seven receptions. Dougherty led the way on the ground, a rushing attack that totaled 211 yards, with a team-best 92 yards and one touchdown.
The Wilkes defense was equally as impressive on the day limiting Western Connecticut State to just 40 total yards on the ground.
Kevin Hegarty (Plymouth Meeting, PA/Plymouth Whitemarsh) led the unit with 10 tackles and one forced fumble.
Cohen Creswell (Winchester, VA/Millbrook) added seven tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks spending most of his time in the Wolves backfield. The two sacks gave Creswell 11 total sacks on the season, most in the internet area at Wilkes.
The Colonels will travel to Washington and Lee University, the second place finisher in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) next Saturday, November 21 at a time to be determined.
